Exterior cleaning in Burley
Moss, algae and lichen off roofs, walls, gutters and paving, starting with the side that never dries.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Exterior cleaning in Burley is mostly about the shaded side. The front of the house is rarely the problem: the wall and the roof slope facing away from the sun go green first, and that is where most of the money in a clean should be spent.
On Burley houses under trees, the signs are visible from the lane, at the gutter and underfoot. You come back from a walk, look at your own roof from the lane and see how dark one pitch has gone. A gutter is running over and there is a green stripe down the wall beneath it. Or the patio and the parking area have gone slippery and a guest has mentioned it.
We come out and look properly, at the roof from both sides, at the gutters and at the ground, and then you get a written price with the roof, each elevation and each hard area on its own line. If half of it can wait a year, we will say which half.
The work
What a clean here actually covers
Roof clean on tile and slate. The local aspect is north west, and a slope that gets no direct sun stays damp most of the year, so growth here is thick, not patchy, and it packs into the laps and the bottom courses where the water runs slowest.
That gets lifted out by hand and scraped off the tile face from a pole or a tower, then treated with an approved biocide at the strength on the label so what is left in the surface dies and does not spring back. The ridge is checked before anything else, because bedding mortar that is already cracked will not survive water aimed at it. Nobody walks on an old covering, and we do not jet wash one.
The village runs to painted masonry, render, some pebbledash and plain brickwork, and the sheltered elevations pick up algae, black spot and lichen quickly. None of that comes off properly with a pressure wash. A soft wash does it: treatment, dwell time, then a rinse at low pressure through a wide nozzle. A lance held close strips paint, opens a joint and drives water into the wall. Under this much oak and holly, gutter clearing is the job that pays for itself, and it is best done in the same visit.
Working where the animals are. The stock wander into gardens in Burley, so nothing is left standing about. Containers stay shut and on the van, no bucket of solution is left down, hoses are coiled when we stop, and gates are shut behind us every single time. Planting is wetted and sheeted before we start, gullies and drains are covered so nothing backs up, and residue is kept away from ditches heading out to the heath, which is what pollution prevention guidance and HSE biocide guidance sit behind. Gravel, block paving, slabs and concrete go green here rather than merely dirty, and green is what makes them slippery, so block paving is re-sanded once the weed and the old joint sand are out. Anything above single storey is work at height.
How it runs
Cleaning roofs, walls and paving under the trees
The written quote breaks it down surface by surface, with the method, protection, access and disposal priced separately so you can compare it properly. Thomas Hannen looks at every surface and prices it himself, the visit and the quote are free, and one written quote covers the clean.
Under oaks and pines, roofs, walls and paving pick up moss, algae and lichen fast because they never dry out fully. We use a soft wash and a biocide left to work. High pressure strips joints and lifts render. Planting is covered or wetted, drains are guarded, and run-off is kept out of ditches and streams. On a narrow lane or behind a forest gate we set up where the way stays clear. Whatever we wash off is swept up and removed at the end of each day. A cracked tile or open joints uncovered by the wash come to you as photos with a price, as a separate job.
Cleaning needs no permission from anyone. Painting, coating or sealing a wall afterwards can, and Burley sits inside the National Park, so a change of colour or finish is not the same as maintenance. If you are not sure whether a conservation area takes in your address, the National Park property map shows where the boundary runs. Listed buildings in and around the village want checking even for like for like external work.
Cost
Why a north facing roof takes longer to clean
We do not price a clean by the metre. What is growing, and on what, decides how long a surface takes.
The growth. A green film of algae rinses off. Thick moss on a north west slope under trees that never dries out needs a biocide treatment, time for it to work and a second visit, not more pressure.
The surface. Clay tiles, render, soft brick, timber cladding and block paving each take a different method. Old brick with lime joints gets the gentlest treatment of all, because pressure washes the joints out.
Getting to it. A cottage with nowhere to stand a tower, a chalet on a gravel drive under mature oaks and a stable block out on a paddock each need their own set-up, and the work at height rules settle whether a pole will do or a tower is needed.
Run-off. With streams and forest ditches close by, keeping wash water and biocide out of them under pollution prevention guidance takes extra setup: drains covered, and run-off collected where needed.
For each quote, find out the method per surface, whether a treatment is included or only a rinse, and where the run-off ends up.
If there is a date
A changeover or a viewing coming up
Cleaning is rarely an emergency, but there is often a date: a holiday let changeover, a booking or a sale. Ring and give us the date. Our cleaning diary runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; a missed call is returned once we are free.
We will tell you honestly whether a biocide treatment has time to work before your guests arrive, and we will not book it in and rush it. A slippery path or patio can be done first if that is the pressing part.
The one local thing
The side that never dries out
Burley sits low, under trees, with the ground sloping the way it does, and the practical result is that a north or north-west facing surface here gets almost no direct sun from October to March. It never properly dries. Moss and algae do not need much more than that: shade, moisture and something slightly rough to hold on to.
It is why the same roof can look almost clean from the road and be an inch deep in moss on the back pitch, and why two identical houses a hundred yards apart can be years apart in how they look. When we quote, we quote the pitches and the elevations separately for exactly this reason. On plenty of properties the sensible spend is the shaded half of the roof and the shaded wall, and leaving the sunny side alone until it actually needs something.
It also changes what you should expect afterwards. On an open, sunny site a scrape and a treatment can hold for years. On a shaded slope under oak the spores land constantly and the surface stays damp, so regrowth starts sooner no matter who does the work or what they charge. Anyone promising you a permanently clean roof in this village is selling something.
The honest approach is a proper clean once, a treatment that does the slow work, and a look at the gutters on a routine, with a top up treatment on the shaded side rather than a full clean every few years. Cutting back what overhangs the roof does more for the interval than any product does.
Who you are dealing with
Exterior cleaning across the BH24 lanes
We clean in Burley, Bransgore, Thorney Hill, Hangersley and the BH24 lanes around them, where narrow access, forest gates and nowhere to park are part of the job. The village is 8.8 miles from our Boscombe base, and the New Forest National Park Authority takes planning applications.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Each clean is priced by Thomas Hannen, the owner, after he has looked at every surface. A verified customer's rating on Checkatrade stands at 10 out of 10. The visit costs nothing, and the written quote, surface by surface, is free. Before you book a visit in Burley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Burley?
Most repairs in Burley 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 Burley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Burley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Burley Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Burley. 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 Burley
Why is one slope of our roof green and the other clear?
Shade is the reason. The local aspect at Burley is north west, so one slope sits out of direct sun for most of the year and never properly dries between showers. Moss and algae want damp more than they want anything else, so they establish on that face long before the open side shows a mark. It is also why cleaning that slope on its own is often the sensible job.
Do the National Park rules apply to cleaning a house here?
The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Burley, and the village carries its own conservation area, so anything visible does get looked at. Cleaning is not a change of appearance, so it needs nothing at all. Painting, coating or recolouring afterwards is, and that has to be asked about first. Seven listed entries sit in the settlement, and those we work by hand rather than with anything powered.
Will the wash leave our garden waterlogged?
It should not, though the ground round Burley holds water rather than taking it away, so we keep the volume low. Soft washing uses a fraction of what a jet washer throws at a surface, and we run the water off onto grass in several places instead of one soaked patch. If the beds are already standing wet on the day we sheet them over and work from the hard ground.
Is a dry spell worth waiting for out here?
For the treatment, yes. The wash itself does not much care, but a biocide needs a few dry hours on the surface to do anything, and on the shaded side of a roof at Burley it is the treatment doing the real work, not the water. We watch the forecast and book that part into a settled window. Gutters and hard surfaces we will clear in almost any weather.
How soon can you come out and look?
Burley is about nine miles from base, so it is a normal run for us and not a special trip. Thomas Hannen comes himself to look and to price it. He gets a ladder on the eaves to see what is under the growth, because a covering that has already worked loose needs saying out loud before anybody wets it. The visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Burley
Nearby places we also cover for exterior cleaning, with straight-line distances from Burley, and the other trades we offer in Burley itself.
Exterior cleaning nearby
Our other trades in Burley
Exterior cleaning guides
Soft washing vs pressure washing: safe for a roof? How to clean a patio without damaging it Moss on a roof: does it need removing?Everything we do in Ringwood Exterior cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Ask what your shaded side needs
We will look at both pitches, price them separately and put it in writing. The visit and the quote cost nothing.