Exterior cleaning in Downton

Roof cleaning on the post-war half of the village. Nearly half of Downton went up between the 1950s and the early 1980s, and those estates carry concrete interlocking tile that holds moss thickly on the shaded slopes. The growth is scraped off dry first, then the tile is soft washed at low pressure and treated so the spores left behind do not simply regrow over the winter. Nothing is forced up under the lap, because water driven backwards under a tile lands on the felt rather than in the gutter. All of the scrapings end up in the guttering, so clearing the gutters and checking the outlets is part of a roof clean here, not an extra line at the end.

Old brickwork and lime pointing around the Borough. A quarter of the village predates 1919 and the largest single group of it went up before 1900. That is soft handmade brick bedded in lime mortar, and it is exactly the masonry a pressure wash ruins. It is soft washed with a weak solution, given time, and rinsed at about the pressure you would use on a car. Where the pointing has already gone we say so and tell you to get the mortar seen to first, not afterwards, because a joint that is open takes water straight into the wall whether it arrives from a hose or from the weather.

Black spot lichen and algae take the north and east elevations of painted render and pebbledash first, and they sit in the surface rather than on top of it, so a wall goes patchy long before it goes dirty. Soft washing with a biocide clears it over a few weeks without stripping the paint. A jet wash at close range takes the paint off with the growth and turns a clean into a decorating job. Gutters are cleared by hand or by vacuum from the ground, outlets rodded through, and the joints looked at while we are up there, because the stain running down a wall is more often a split joint than a blockage.

Block paving, brick paths and slabs all lose their jointing sand when they are washed, so block paving is re-sanded afterwards or the blocks start to move. Sealing is a separate decision and only worth doing once the paving is properly dry, which in the Avon valley is not the week you asked. What we would talk you out of: cleaning a roof that has a rocking ridge or loose verge bedding before that is put right, sealing an old solid wall at all, and paying twice for a drive that was washed in the spring and never treated. Every product we use is sold for the job and used to its label, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers expects.

Area alone tells you nothing here. The same wall can take an afternoon or twenty minutes depending what has grown on it. A terraced cottage on the High Street with no side access, a post-war semi with a drive down one flank, and a bungalow with a conservatory across the back are three different jobs before a hose is unrolled, and work at height rules settle whether a pole reaches. Soft old brick, painted render and a concrete tile roof each want their own pressure. Two quotes for the same address are usually two different jobs, so ask about method, treatment and run off before you pick one.

Downton, Redlynch, Lover and the SP5 villages down the Avon valley, worked from our base the other side of the New Forest. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.