Exterior cleaning in Corfe Castle

Stone walls, and knowing when to stop. Where a wall is local stone bedded in lime mortar, force is the enemy. A lance takes the joint out before it takes the algae off, and repointing a raked out wall costs many times what the cleaning did.

So it is a wide nozzle, low pressure, a biocide left to work, and patience. Lichen on old stone is a different question again. It is slow growing, it is doing the wall no harm, and on plenty of buildings in Corfe Castle the honest advice is to clear the green and leave the lichen where it is.

Roofs. Stone slate and clay tile on the older buildings, concrete tile on the newer ones round the edge of the village. Moss comes off dry, by hand and by scrape, working down the slope so nothing is driven up under the laps, and the ridge and the valleys are cleared out properly because that is where the weight of it collects. Then a biocide, so the spores die back and regrowth is slow. A stone slate roof is never pressure washed: the slates are held on pegs or nails at the head, the mortar bedding at ridge and verge is old, and water forced up the roof finds all of it.

A lot of the rainwater goods on the older buildings are cast iron, and a cast iron gutter left full for a season rots from the inside, so have the gutters in Corfe Castle cleared before any stone or render below them is washed. Painted render and limewashed walls come up well on a soft wash and come to pieces under a lance, especially where the paint is already flaking. Stone flags and steps go green and slippery on a slope, so they are done first. Planting is wetted and sheeted, every drain and gully in the run of the water is covered, and what comes off leaves with us instead of washing into the nearest ditch heading for Poole Harbour.

We don't measure up and multiply. The growth on each surface, and how much handling that surface can bear, is what decides the hours.

The surface. Stone laid in lime needs a gentle hand and very little water pressure, and old cast iron gutters get none. Stone slates are cleared with a hand scraper and then treated, because a jet lifts them and scours the face. Concrete paving laid in recent years copes with more.

What is growing. Lichen and green algae on stone are treated with a biocide and left to die back and weather away over several weeks. Thick moss is lifted by hand first. What may be used is controlled by the biocides regime the HSE administers.

Reaching it. A cottage whose front wall is the pavement edge, a bungalow on a close at the edge of Corfe Castle and a barn up a farm track each need a different set-up. Under the work at height rules we decide between a pole system, a tower or scaffolding.

Before you pick a firm, ask how each surface will be cleaned, whether the biocide and a return visit are priced in, and where the dirty water goes. A price based only on area and a pressure washer means nobody has looked at the stone.

We cover Corfe Castle and the BH20 postcodes across Purbeck, from Kingston and Church Knowle over to Ridge, Langton Matravers and Swanage, roughly eleven and a half miles from Boscombe, all of it under Dorset Council.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and comes to see the building and price it himself. It is a limited company, Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales with company number 15471719. A verified Checkatrade reviewer marked the firm 10 out of 10. Seeing the building and writing up the quote, surface by surface, costs you nothing. Before you book a visit in Corfe Castle, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Corfe Castle 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.