Exterior cleaning in Brockenhurst
Moss, algae and lichen taken off roofs, walls and paving without damaging what is under them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Before method, exterior cleaning in Brockenhurst turns on what the roof or wall is made of and where the water is allowed to go when it comes off. With the river running through the middle of the village, the water question is not a formality.
The usual trouble here is green, not dirt. A slate or clay slope that faces the trees is dark and furred over. A painted render cottage front is streaked under the gutter. A gravel or paved area by the back door has turned slippery and is staying that way all winter.
The survey looks at the fabric and at the drainage in the same visit, because they decide each other, and then you get a written price with the roof, each elevation and each hard area listed on its own line. If a surface is better left alone, that is on the quote too, with the reason.
The work
What we clean in the village, and how
Old clay tile and slate need the gentlest handling. A good part of Brockenhurst is older than the concrete tile: a good share of it predates 1919, much of that from before 1900. The covering is plain clay tile, some slate, and a mix of the two where roofs have been patched over the years.
Both hold lichen on the face and moss in the laps, and the two want different treatment. Moss is lifted out of the laps by hand, because that is what dams the water and pushes it sideways under the tile. Lichen on a soft old face is treated, not scraped, because taking it off takes the weathered surface with it. The ridge gets looked at first: bedding mortar on a roof this old is usually cracked already, and a jet wash aimed at it finishes the job. Nothing is walked on and nothing is pressure washed.
Painted render, pebbledash and brickwork. The village street is largely render and painted masonry, with pebbledash on the later houses and brickwork on the Victorian ones, some of it solid wall that has to breathe. Black spot on a shaded elevation is the usual complaint, and the south west is the exposed face here, so driven rain works at the edges and openings rather than the middle of a wall. A soft wash is the only method for that: an approved biocide at label strength, dwell time, and a rinse at a pressure that will not drive water into the wall or take the paint film off in sheets. Where a coat of masonry paint is already failing, cleaning it finds every loose patch, and we say so beforehand, so you are not handed a patchy wall afterwards.
The detached houses on the wooded plots off the main roads collect more than their share: needles and leaf in the valleys, growth on the north pitch, and gutters that have not been dry in months. A scrape and a treatment on the roof is worth pairing with a gutter clear, because the access is the expensive part and there is no sense paying for it twice.
Stone paving, brick paths, block paving and concrete all green over in Brockenhurst because the ground rarely dries out. The Lymington River runs within yards of some of these gardens and parts of the village sit in flood zone 2 and 3, so a hard standing can stay wet for weeks. Paving is cleaned at a pressure that suits it, joints are raked of weed, and block paving is re-sanded afterwards. Steps and any path on a slope get done first, because that is where somebody actually falls. Anything above single storey is work at height and the HSE rules, not our preference, decide whether that is a pole, a tower or a job we will not take on.
How it runs
Cleaning roofs, walls and paving under the trees
Under Brockenhurst's trees, roofs, walls and paths go green quickly. Thomas Hannen comes and looks at each surface before pricing: slate or clay tiles, soft old brick, render, stone or block paving, and what is growing on each.
The quote gives the method for each surface, the protection, the access and the disposal. Roof, walls and paving all come under that quote. Moss is scraped off roofs by hand, not blasted, because pressure lifts old slates and clay tiles. Walls and paving get a low pressure soft wash with a biocide used under the HSE rules on biocides, and near the river the run off is controlled, never left to drain away. Plants are covered and debris leaves with us. A broken slate spotted on the roof is photographed and priced, never just replaced.
Washing needs nobody's permission. Changing the look of a building is different: painting, coating or sealing a wall that was not painted before can need consent in a National Park village, particularly if a conservation area applies, and the National Park Authority sets out what that covers. There are 23 listed entries in and around Brockenhurst, and if yours is one we will tell you to check before we book.
Cost
Moss, lichen and soft old brick all need different handling
Exterior cleaning in Brockenhurst has no square metre rate. What is growing on a surface decides the time, not its size. The growth. Green algae on render lifts with a soft wash. Thick moss on an old roof is scraped by hand and bagged. Lichen takes a biocide and time to die back, sometimes with a second visit.
The surface. Old clay, soft lime-jointed brick and stone paving each need a different, low pressure. Too much pressure strips the face and opens the joints.
Getting to it. A cottage on the street with nowhere to stand a tower, a detached house under mature oak on a gravel drive, and a riverside property where run off cannot simply drain away each need their own access plan. The work at height rules settle whether a pole will reach.
Timing. Under trees, a clean after the leaves have fallen lasts longer than one done before.
Gutters and drains. Moss scraped off a roof ends up in the gutters, so they are cleared at the end of a roof clean, and that clearing is on the quote as its own line.
Ask any quote about the method for each surface, the treatment used, whether a second visit is included, and where the run off goes.
If there is a date
A changeover, a sale or a deadline
Exterior cleaning is seldom an emergency, but it often has a date: a holiday let changeover, a sale, or scaffolding due to come down after roof work. Tell us the date when you ring.
Thomas will say honestly whether it can be done properly in time, including whether a biocide will have had long enough to work. A wet spell can move things too. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If the date is close, give us a ring instead of using the form, and if you get no answer we will phone back as soon as we can manage.
The one local thing
The river, and where the water goes when it comes off
The Lymington River runs right through Brockenhurst, and a lot of properties are either on it or on a ditch that reaches it in a few metres. That changes how a clean is planned.
Everything we wash off a roof or a wall has to end up somewhere, and here somewhere is often surface water that reaches the river faster than anywhere else we work. So the run-off gets decided before the method does. Planting and beds are wetted and sheeted, the gully is checked and covered where it discharges to a ditch, and biocide goes on at the strength on the label and never near a bank.
On the closest properties we work drier: hand scraping, a treatment applied rather than sprayed, and the minimum water needed to rinse. The pollution prevention guidance and the HSE biocide guidance both sit behind that, and it is the part of the job a cheap quote quietly leaves out.
The same water table is why things go green here in the first place. Ground that stays wet keeps walls and paving damp, so growth establishes faster and comes back sooner than it does on a dry site a few miles inland. In practice that means care with sealers and with silt. Do not seal a patio that sits wet for weeks at a time, because you are trapping moisture under a film and it will lift.
And if your property has taken water before, silt on paving is a different job from organic growth, with different products and a different price, so tell us which you have. It is worth taking a minute to check the flood risk for your address before you plan any outside work at all.
Who you are dealing with
Cleaning for Brockenhurst homes and holiday lets
We clean roofs, walls and paving in Brockenhurst, Boldre, Sway and the SO42 lanes, 12.7 miles from our base in Boscombe, and we plan each job round forest gates, gravel drives and cars parked tight on the village street.
Planning there is a matter for the National Park Authority. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The man who comes to look at the surfaces and price them is the owner, Thomas Hannen. One verified customer rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the itemised quote are free. Before you book a visit in Brockenhurst, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Brockenhurst?
Most repairs in Brockenhurst 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 Brockenhurst |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Brockenhurst. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Brockenhurst Conservation Area and The Weirs Conservation Area. They cover parts of Brockenhurst, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Brockenhurst. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Brockenhurst
The Lymington River runs past us. What about the wash water?
The river changes where we put the wash water. The Lymington River runs within metres of properties in Brockenhurst, and treated water reaching a live channel is not something to be casual about. We work back from the bank, contain whatever comes off hard surfaces and let it soak into soil rather than run to the water. With the river up after a wet week we would rather come back another day than push our luck.
Does the Brockenhurst conservation area cover washing a roof?
Washing is maintenance, so no. What the conservation area controls is appearance, which means a coating, a colour or a change of covering becomes a conversation with the New Forest National Park Authority instead. There are 23 listed entries in Brockenhurst, the Church of St Nicholas among them, and on a listed building we will not put anything on the fabric that alters how it reads from the street.
What do you do differently on a pre-1900 cottage wall?
Drop the pressure to almost nothing and work by hand wherever the mortar is soft. Much of old Brockenhurst predates 1919, so plenty of these walls are solid, lime bedded and built to breathe. Jetting drives water through them and washes the joints out. A gentle rinse with a biocide left to work does the same job over some weeks without opening the wall up.
When is the right time to wash a wall under the forest?
Late spring into summer, when the wall has a chance to dry and the biocide is not rinsed straight off. Woodland presses tight against the gardens in Brockenhurst, so a shaded wall can stay damp for most of the winter. Leaf in the valleys and flat roof outlets is a separate gutter clearing job, best done in late November once the leaf is off.
Does the exposed face of the cottage get washed first?
The south west one: that is the exposed face in this village, so it takes the driven rain, and the wind holds wet against the render around openings and at the corners instead of across the middle of a wall. Whatever is growing is thickest at the verge and the sill line on that side. Starting there also shows us how the surface behaves before we work round to the sheltered walls.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Brockenhurst
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Ask us to come and look
Tell us what has gone green and we will tell you what it needs. The site visit and the itemised written quote are free.