Exterior cleaning in Hangersley

Three different roof coverings. The older cottages around Hangersley carry plain clay tile or slate, the post-war detached houses carry concrete interlocking tile, and they do not clean the same way. Slate and clay are dense and shed growth reasonably well once lichen is lifted. Concrete tile is porous and holds moss into the surface itself. Either way a roof clean is a controlled scrape and clear, then a biocide treatment, never a pressure washer. On a slate roof the force lifts the slate off the nail. On a concrete tile it strips the face away, and on any roof it pushes water back up the lap and past the ridge into the loft.

A lot of the housing here is detached with mature trees over it, so gutters fill with leaf and needle litter and the valley between two roof slopes silts up quietly for years. The local aspect is north west, and a slope that gets no direct sun stays damp most of the year, so moss and algae establish far faster than on an open south elevation. We clear by hand and by vacuum, flush the outlet, and watch the downpipe run before calling it done. A valley that has stopped draining is the one that shows up later as a damp bedroom ceiling.

Walls are old handmade brickwork on the pre-war houses and painted render or masonry paint on most of what came after. Older soft brick with lime joints is hand washed and treated, because a lance takes the face off the brick and the mortar out of the joint. Render and painted masonry are a soft wash at low pressure, with the treatment doing the work and the water only rinsing. Black spot algae on render is the one people scrub at hardest and the one that only ever comes off chemically.

Out here the drives and paths are more often gravel, tarmac and slabs than block paving, and each wants a different setting. Tarmac goes if you hit it too hard with a narrow nozzle, so it takes a wide fan and a light touch. Slab patios come up well and then need the joints looking at. Where there is block paving it gets a re-sand afterwards, and we will give you a straight answer about whether sealing it is worth the money on your drive rather than selling you the seal as standard.

Conservatories, porches and the glass. Small flat and pitched glazed roofs collect everything the trees drop and green over faster than anything else on the house. They are also the surface most easily damaged, so they are washed from a pole rather than knelt on, and the frames and the gutter above them get done at the same time while the access is already there.

No rate per square metre: the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two, depending what is growing on it. A detached house with a long roof slope, a garage block and a boundary wall are three different reaches, and mature trees close to a gable decide whether a pole will do. Ground level off a lance is one thing, a roof slope another, and work at height rules decide which.

Comparing quotes. Ask what method each surface gets, whether treatment is included or only a rinse, whether a second visit is part of it, and where the run off goes.

We work across Hangersley, Ringwood, Ellingham and the BH24 villages along the western edge of the Forest. The visit is a survey of every elevation and every roof slope, because on a house like this they are rarely all in the same condition.

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.