Exterior cleaning in Barton on Sea
Green render, mossy roofs, blocked gutters and slippery paving, for houses and blocks alike across Barton on Sea. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Exterior cleaning in Barton on Sea is worth buying by elevation, not by building. Within a mile of the cliff the side facing the sea gets dirty faster than the one behind it and stays dirty longer, and the soft wash treatment matters more than the pressure does.
In Barton on Sea, growth shows first on seaward walls, on blocks of flats and in the gutters. A painted render or pebbledash wall that has gone dull and green on the seaward side while the back of the same house still looks presentable. A block of flats where the walkways, the balcony soffits and the render have all gone at once and somebody has to get a price in front of the leaseholders. And gutters that are overflowing, which on this stretch means a mix of moss, windblown grit and salt residue, with hardly a leaf in it.
What we do about it starts with a free site visit, which on a building of this sort is a survey of each elevation in turn, not a glance from the pavement, since here they genuinely differ. Doubtful surfaces get a test area before anything else happens.
Then you get a written itemised quote with the method named against each surface and each elevation, so a managing agent or an owner can see exactly what is being washed, what is being treated, what is being rinsed down with clean water and what we are leaving alone.
The work
Cleaning a clifftop block, and cleaning the bungalow behind it
Flats, blocks and communal elevations. Barton on Sea carries 17.6% flats, far more than the villages inland, and communal work is a different job from a house.
Render elevations, walkway soffits, balcony undersides, stair cores, bin stores and the paving between blocks have to be done in an order that keeps residents getting in and out, which means one elevation at a time with wet surfaces off the routes people walk. Quotes go in per elevation and per surface so the cost can be apportioned, and where a leaseholder's share goes over the statutory threshold the landlord has to consult first under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. An itemised quote and a written method make that consultation easier than a single figure.
Painted render 1.2km from the water. The postwar stock behind the cliff at Barton on Sea is largely rendered, much of it pebbledash and a good deal of it painted, and paint plus salt air is the combination that greens first. It gets a soft wash: low pressure, a wide nozzle and a treatment doing the work. A lance on painted masonry strips paint off in sheets and on pebbledash the force takes the stone off, and that damage is not something a second visit puts right. Where the paint is already failing we will tell you, because a clean shows that up and does not hide it.
Roofs. Most roofs along this stretch are concrete tile, with the moss heaviest on whichever pitch sits out of the sun and the wind. It comes off dry by hand and by scrape, then an approved biocide goes on, and the ridge is checked, not scrubbed, because the bedding has had a hard life in this air. There is a second reason for keeping pressure off a coastal roof: the clips and nails holding tile and ridge down are already working in salt, and driving water up under the lap at the verge is the last thing they need. Railings and balustrades get a clean water rinse and no blasting, because salt in a scratched finish is what starts the corrosion. Gutters here take grit and salt as well as moss, so pair a gutter clear in Barton on Sea with the roof visit. With 42.0% of the housing single storey, much of the roof and wall work is reachable without a platform. Communal paths and steps come first on paving day, because that is where somebody actually falls.
How it runs
Cleaning roofs, walls and paving by the sea
Thomas comes out and walks round with you to look at each surface: roof tiles, render, brick, paving and gutters. He notes what is growing, what the surface is and how we will reach it.
In Barton on Sea, salt and wind leave a grey film on glass and render, and green algae takes hold on the north and shaded sides. The quote is split by elevation and surface, with a separate line for where the water and residue go, which we treat as the pollution question it is under pollution prevention guidance. Cleaning and treatment sit on the same quote.
A bungalow in Barton on Sea can usually be cleaned from the ground with a water fed pole. A two storey wall or roof on an exposed corner may need a tower, and the wind decides whether it is safe to use that day. On a block of flats, the freeholder or managing agent controls work on communal elevations. We cover plants, stop run-off reaching the drains, and leave the site clean. If we find cracked render or a loose tile, we point it out with a photograph and a price, and leave the decision to you.
Cleaning a house is maintenance, so there is nothing to apply for. The council for Barton on Sea is New Forest District Council, and there is no conservation area over this part of the coast. If a building is one of the couple of listed entries nearby, altering a surface, as opposed to cleaning it, falls under the other permissions you may require. We ask both questions before we quote.
Cost
Surface, growth and access: the cleaning price
Access, surface and how far the growth has gone decide the price, in that order. None of them is measured in square metres.
Access. A clifftop flat where everything comes over a communal walkway, a bungalow you can pole from your own lawn, and a two storey house on an exposed corner where the wind decides whether a tower can go up are different jobs before any water moves. The work at height rules settle what the access has to be.
Surface. Concrete roof tiles, painted render, brick and block paving each need a different method. A soft wash with a biocide suits render and roofs, because high pressure strips paint and damages tiles. Paving can take more pressure, followed by re-sanding the joints.
Growth. Light algae comes off with a wash and treatment. Thick moss on a north slope, or lichen on a shaded wall, needs time for the biocide to work. The salt film on the seaward side needs a rinse too.
Communal jobs. On a block, agree who is paying for what before anyone starts, because it slows everything down if it is settled halfway through.
Ask competing quotes whether a biocide is included or only a rinse, how the render will be cleaned, and where the waste water goes.
If there is a date
A clean needed before a sale, a let or a visit
Exterior cleaning is rarely an emergency, but it often has a deadline: a sale, a letting inspection or a managing agent's visit. On a block, that date usually comes with a notice period for residents. Ring us and tell us the day.
We will say honestly what can be done properly by then, and whether a biocide will have time to work. If algae has made a path or step slippery, sweep it and put grit down until we come. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if your call is not answered we will return it as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Salt is why it goes green again so quickly
Being a mile from the sea changes the maintenance, not just the view. Salt carried in on the wind settles on render, paint, paving and glass and then does something dirt does not: it holds on to moisture. A salted surface stays damp between showers and through the night when an inland wall would have dried out by mid morning, and damp is exactly what algae and lichen need.
That is the real reason the seaward elevation greens over again while the sheltered side of the same building still looks clean, and it is why turning the pressure up here changes nothing at all. The growth is not sitting on top of the surface, it is being fed by it.
For anyone buying a clean in Barton on Sea, on this side of New Milton, the salt changes what is worth paying for. First, the treatment is the part worth paying for, and a clean water rinse down afterwards is worth asking for by name, because rinsing the salt off is what slows the regrowth.
Ask whether a biocide is included or whether you are paying for a wash, and expect the seaward elevation to want doing more often than the rest of the building rather than the whole lot on one cycle. Second, go easy on metal. Salt and a scratched or blasted finish is how railings, balustrades, rainwater goods and roof fixings start to corrode, so a rinse with fresh water beats a hard wash on anything metallic, every time.
Who you are dealing with
Cleaning in Barton, from a firm you can check
Our base is in Boscombe, seven and a half miles back along the coast. We clean roofs, walls and paving in Naish and on the Barton clifftop, and as far as Milford on Sea and Everton, with New Forest District Council as the council here.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the firm, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who walks round your property and prices the work himself. Checkatrade shows a verified customer's 10 out of 10 for us. Coming out is free, and so is the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Barton on Sea, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Barton on Sea?
Most repairs in Barton on Sea need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Barton on Sea |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Barton on Sea. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Barton on Sea, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Barton on Sea. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Barton on Sea. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Barton on Sea
Does sea air really make the render go green faster?
Sea air keeps render damp, which amounts to the same thing. Barton on Sea sits 1.2km from the water, and salt held in render draws moisture between showers so the wall never gets the dry spell that kills algae off. The wash itself is the easy part. What decides how long it stays clean is the biocide behind it, because that is what slows the regrowth down.
Why are there rust marks running down my tiles?
Salt reaches the metal long before it reaches anything else. Nails, clips and the steel in a valley or a soaker corrode from the edge inwards along the Barton front, and the stain washes down onto the tile below. A clean lifts the staining but does nothing about the cause, so we note which fixings look spent and say whether that is a repair, a re-fix or something to watch.
Who signs off cleaning on a seafront block?
The freeholder or the managing agent, never the individual flat. Flats are 17.6% of the dwellings in Barton on Sea, and the outside walls, the balconies and the roof all belong to the building rather than to any one lease. We are glad to price a job for a residents' group and set it out clearly, but the instruction itself has to come from whoever actually holds the block.
Does the wind off the water stop you working?
A strong onshore day stops the treatment rather than the wash. Spray drifts, and on an exposed cliff top plot in Barton on Sea it lands on a neighbour's car and glazing instead of on the roof. We will still rinse and clear gutter runs in that weather and come back for the chemical part. Moving a date is no trouble and it is the difference between a clean finish and a streaked one.
Will the block paving out front go green again quickly?
Faster here than it would inland. Salt sits in the joint sand and keeps it damp, so growth comes back on a seaward drive sooner than on one up towards New Milton. We wash, treat, then re-sand the joints, and that sand is doing as much to keep the blocks locked together as it is to keep weed out. Kiln dried sand needs a dry day to go in properly.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Barton on Sea
Nearby places we also cover for exterior cleaning, with straight-line distances from Barton on Sea, and the other trades we offer in Barton on Sea itself.
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Houses, bungalows and blocks of flats. Free site visit, free written itemised quote, and the method named for every surface we touch.