Exterior cleaning in Boscombe

Painted render and stucco. A lot of Boscombe was built as seaside villas in the Victorian and Edwardian years, and many carry painted render or stucco with mouldings round the windows. The paint is the surface you are cleaning.

It is soft washed from the top down at low pressure, the biocide is left to kill the algae and its spores, and then it is rinsed. A lance or a turbo nozzle on old stucco strips the paint, opens the hairline cracks and drives water into the wall behind. The black streak under a sill or a gutter joint shows where water escapes, so we point that out rather than wash it and let it come back. A villa elevation is usually a day; a big corner house can be two.

Brick and pebbledash. Red brick villas in Boscombe and the inter-war houses towards King's Park take more pressure than render, but soft Victorian brick and its lime mortar do not take much. We test a panel out of sight first and keep the lance back so the face and the joints stay put. Pebbledash is washed gently, because any loose stone comes off with the lichen, and we mark those patches before we start so nobody is surprised.

Blocks of flats. More than four in five homes in Boscombe are flats, in purpose-built blocks and in villas split up long ago. On a block the job is the walls, the balconies, the glass, the communal paths, the car park and the bin store, priced elevation by elevation so an agent can split it fairly. Balcony floors want low pressure and full containment, because what comes off a third floor balcony lands on the one below.

Paving, steps and yards. Block paving and slabs come up under controlled pressure, then the joints are re-sanded, because the wash takes the jointing sand out with the moss and black spot. Steps down to a Boscombe basement flat are the ones that turn slippery first. We will tell you straight whether a seal on a patio is worth paying for or would just trap damp under it.

Roofs and gutters. We do not pressure wash a roof. Moss is scraped out of the laps and off the ridge by hand and the slope treated, which is set out on the roof cleaning page. Blocked gutters and valleys are a separate job at gutter cleaning in Boscombe, and on a tall villa it makes sense to clear them before the render below is washed, or the next storm stains it again.

When we would talk you out of it. Render that sounds hollow when tapped, or paint already lifting, will not survive a wash. That wants render repair in Boscombe first, and we will say so.

One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the method for each surface, protection, access, and where the water and residue go on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.

Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.

A wash is maintenance and needs no permission. Boscombe has five conservation areas of its own, including Boscombe Spa and Boscombe Manor, and on a listed building a harsh or abrasive clean can alter its character, which is a different matter from a gentle wash. For the boundaries, the council keeps the list. Biocides are used to the label under the HSE biocide rules.

Ring rather than use the form. This is not emergency work, but it is often work with a date on it: a property going on the market, a letting inspection, a visit, or scaffolding coming down.

Tell us the date when you ring and we will tell you honestly whether it can be done properly by then, rather than book it and rush it. If the steps down to a basement flat or a communal path have gone green and slippery, put grit or salt on them and keep people off until we can treat them properly. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.

Call now: 07435 839745

Boscombe has thirteen listed entries, and several of them are shops and flats you walk past every day: the Royal Arcade, a run of the Christchurch Road frontages, and the former Hippodrome among them. On a listed building the question is not whether it can be cleaned, it is how.

A gentle wash with water and a treatment is maintenance. Grit blasting, a strong acid cleaner, or a hot pressure lance that takes the surface off the stone or brick changes the building, and works that affect a listed building's character need listed building consent under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

What that means for you: tell us at the visit if the building is listed, or let us check it on the council's listed building pages before we price it. We will specify the gentlest method that works, test it on a small patch out of sight, and write the method on the quote so the freeholder, the agent or the council can see exactly what is being done. Painting or coating a listed front after it has been cleaned is a separate question again, and one for the council first. If you own a flat above one of these shops, the front usually belongs to the freeholder, so the instruction has to come from them.

Nearby places we also cover for exterior cleaning, with straight-line distances from Boscombe, and the other trades we offer in Boscombe itself.

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