Exterior cleaning in Crossways

Block paving and tarmac drives. The biggest single job in this village. Most of the drives in Crossways are block paving, and once the kiln dried sand has washed out of the joints, weed gets in, the surface holds water and lichen black spot spreads across it.

The work is a controlled wash with a rotary head so the finish comes out even, not striped, the weed out of the joints, then a re-sand to lock the blocks back together. Skipping the re-sand is why a freshly cleaned drive starts to move under a car. On tarmac it is a lower pressure job again, because a lance will pick the loose stone straight out.

Crossways is a modern village, most of it built from the 1970s onward, so it is concrete interlocking tile on nearly every roof, which holds moss well and dislikes pressure. It comes off dry with a scrape and a brush, worked down the slope so nothing is forced up under the laps, with the ridge and the valleys cleared out, and then a biocide so the spores die off and regrowth is slow. Jet washing a concrete tile roughens the surface and the moss comes back faster than before, which is why we do not do it.

Plastic rainwater goods on most houses pack at the outlet with moss and needles, and a gutter clear in Crossways ahead of the wall wash stops the stain coming straight back. Fascias and soffits get washed down while the kit is out, because that is where the black streaking sits.

Brick with render panels on most of the estate, painted masonry and pebbledash on the older houses, and all of it soft wash work. Conservatory roofs, glass and frames go the same way, and a conservatory roof is worth doing at the same time as the gutters because the debris off it lands in them. Slabs are cleared of green, the path by a door done first because that is where somebody slips, and fence panels and decking washed down. Planting is wetted and sheeted before we start, and every drain and gully the water will run to is covered and checked.

On a Crossways house the price is set by how much has grown on each surface, and the square footage comes a long way second.

Getting the van close. Most homes in Crossways have an open drive we can pull onto, which keeps set up quick. A bungalow reached only through a garden gate, or a mid terrace where the hoses run from the road, takes longer. For the roof, the work at height rules decide whether a pole from the ground is enough or a tower has to go up.

Seventies surfaces. A concrete tile roof, block paved drives, tarmac and painted render all turn up on the same estate plot, and each gets its own pressure and method. Block paving is re-sanded once it is clean, and that sand is in the quote.

How much has grown. A green film on render lifts in one visit. Deep moss on a north facing slope, or black spots set into paving, may need a second biocide treatment a few weeks later.

What goes on it. Products are controlled by the biocides regime the HSE administers. How long the clean lasts depends on shade and the trees round your plot.

With another firm's price in hand, check how they will clean each surface, whether a return treatment is included, and where the dirty water will go.

We cover Crossways and the DT2 postcodes across to Moreton, Warmwell, Owermoigne, Wool and Winfrith Newburgh, from our base in Boscombe. Dorset Council is the local authority. We are Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Crossways, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The business belongs to Thomas Hannen, who looks at each surface himself and puts a figure on the clean. You will find a verified customer's 10 out of 10 for us on Checkatrade. Visiting costs nothing, and the written quote, surface by surface, is free.

Most repairs in Crossways 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.