Exterior cleaning in East Boldre
Gutters cleared, roofs and render soft washed, paving and outbuildings brought back, along the Forest edge at East Boldre. We look at it properly before we price it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On the Forest edge the problem is nearly always the same one: the trees put more on your East Boldre roof and in your gutters than the weather ever takes off. Clearing and a low pressure soft wash with a biocide behind it will hold it, and it wants doing on a rhythm rather than once every ten years when it has beaten you.
Three calls come out of East Boldre more than any others. A gutter has stopped taking water and it is coming over the front in every shower. The shaded half of a roof has gone properly green and somebody has told you the tiles are on their way out. Or a wall, a conservatory or a stretch of paving has grown a film that gets slippery every autumn.
We come out, survey each surface, and say plainly which of them will come up with a wash, which need treating and then time to work, and which we would leave alone. The site visit costs nothing and the written price itemises each surface separately, so you can do the gutters now and the rest in the spring.
The work
Cleaning work along the Forest edge
Gutters, downpipes and valleys, first and most often. This is the job the Forest creates. Oak leaf by the barrow-load once autumn sets in, holly and birch all year, pine needles that pack down into a mat no rain will shift, and moss that has travelled down off the roof. Clearing is by hand or by vacuum from the ground, outlets rodded through and joints checked, and we photograph the inside of the gutter before and after because you cannot see it from the ground. A valley running behind a chimney fills before anything else does, and that is the one that puts water into the building rather than over the front.
A slope under the canopy never gets the sun that would dry it, so moss, algae and lichen establish far faster than they do on an open site. The growth comes off dry with a scrape first, then the tile is soft washed at low pressure and treated so what remains does not bring the regrowth straight back. We do not drive water up under the lap, and we do not walk a roof holding wet moss when a reach pole will do. If a ridge is rocking or the verge bedding has gone, that gets sorted before anything wet goes near it.
Stables, garaging, workshops and field shelters come with a Forest plot, and the fragile cement sheet roofs on a lot of them get no pressure at all: a solution and a rinse, from a ladder or a pole, never by walking on them. Block paving is washed and re-sanded, because the wash takes the jointing sand out with the weed. Gravel we leave, and say so, rather than charge you for stirring it about. Everything we spray is sold for the surface and used to its label, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers requires of anybody applying it.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised: method for each surface, protection, access and disposal on separate lines. Thomas Hannen comes out to price it and the visit is free. Cleaning is maintenance and needs no application, inside the National Park as much as outside. The step to think about is a coating, a sealant or paint on something that never had one, because part of East Boldre sits in the Forest South East conservation area, with eight designated entries around it. National Park heritage and conservation guidance sets out how the Authority looks at that. There is no surface water sewer out here, so residue goes to a ditch or a soakaway, which Approved Document H keeps apart from foul drainage.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
Nothing here is priced by the metre. Years of growth is a different job from a light film on the same surface. A long low frontage you can walk a reach pole along, a two storey house set back behind planting, and a stable block with a fragile cement sheet roof are three different jobs, and work at height rules settle which we will take on. Old tile and painted masonry each want their own pressure; cement sheet wants none. Comparing quotes, ask what method each surface gets, whether treatment is included or only a rinse, and where the run off goes.
If there is a date
A viewing, a visit or a deadline
Use the phone rather than the form. If it is a letting inspection or a sale, say so when you ring: a gutter clear can be done the week you ask, but a biocide needs weeks of weather to finish the job, and we would rather tell you that now than after you have paid. Outside Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm is by arrangement.
One local thing
What the trees put back on, and how often
East Boldre sits on the open Forest, and that is not scenery when it comes to the outside of a building, it is a workload. Oak, holly, birch and Scots pine all shed on a different timetable, so there is no single week in the year when everything has come down and you can clear up once.
Add heather and gorse litter blowing off the heath, ponies and stock kicking dust onto low elevations, and canopy that keeps whole roof slopes and wall faces damp between showers. Growth here is not a sign that something has failed. It is what happens to any surface that never dries.
So the advice is about rhythm rather than product. Get the gutters and valleys cleared in late autumn once the oak has finished, and have them looked at again in the spring for what the wind brought in over the winter. Treat roofs and render rather than just washing them, because on a shaded Forest plot a rinse on its own is undone within a season and you end up paying for the same clean twice.
And when you compare quotes, ask whether the price includes taking what is scraped off the roof out of the gutter afterwards. On a property with this much overhead, a roof clean that leaves the debris in the guttering has simply moved the problem down a storey.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
East Boldre, Boldre, Norleywood and the SO42 lanes between Beaulieu and Lymington, worked from our base the Bournemouth side of the 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.
Questions
East Boldre questions we get asked
We are in the Forest South East conservation area. What applies?
To a wash, nothing. That conservation area covers this stretch and the New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority, so appearance is scrutinised, but cleaning is not a change of appearance. Coating a roof or painting render is, and that has to be asked about beforehand. Eight listed entries sit in the settlement, and on those we keep to hand work with nothing left on the surface.
Does salt reach us this far in from the water?
Yes it does. East Boldre is 4.2km from the coast and salt travels a long way on a south westerly, settling on render and paving and holding damp on them once the rain stops. Damp surfaces grow algae faster, so the film returns sooner here than it would well inland. It is why we care more about the biocide left behind than about how hard the water hits a wall.
The heath comes to the fence. What ends up in the gutters?
Fine litter mostly, and it is worse than leaf because it packs down. Open heath and scrub on the boundary means a steady drift of small material that settles into the bottom of the gutter and turns into a wet mat holding the outlet shut. Add the granules washing off ageing tiles and a gutter can look perfectly clear from the ground while the downpipe below is completely blocked.
The ground is sandy and drains fast. Does that help?
It does, which is unusual on our patch. Water put down at East Boldre soaks away instead of standing, so hard surfaces can be worked without turning the garden into a bog, and paving dries in time to be re-sanded on the same visit. We still keep treated water off planting and away from any ditch heading down towards the Solent, because fast drainage carries it further.
Is winter a bad time for this out on the forest?
Wind stops us more often than rain does. Working off a pole in an exposed spot stops being sensible above a certain strength, and the most exposed face here looks south west straight into it. Cold on its own is fine, and growth is soft after a wet spell, which makes it easier to shift. We book the treatment for settled days and fit the rest around them.
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Get the gutters and the shaded side looked at
A free site visit at East Boldre, then a written itemised price with every surface on its own line. Tell us if there is a date to work to.