Exterior cleaning in Hyde
Mossy roofs, blocked gutters, green walls and slippery paths around Hyde and SP6. Cleaned at the pressure the building can take, priced in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Exterior cleaning at Hyde starts with whether a surface should be cleaned at all. Old fabric here would be ruined in an afternoon by a pressure washer, and the honest answer is sometimes a soft wash treatment, a brush and leaving well alone.
On Hyde properties, problems show on the shaded slope, in the gutters and on the paths. The roof has gone thick with moss and lichen on the shaded slope and lumps of it are ending up in the gutter. The gutters have overflowed in a downpour and left a dark stripe down a wall that will not dry out.
Or the paths, the yard and the patio have gone green and are slippery enough to be a worry. We come out, walk round the whole place with you, get up and look inside the guttering instead of guessing, and then write down what needs doing, what it will take and what we would leave alone.
The work
What we clean on a Hyde property
Roofs, and mostly lichen, not dirt. Out in Hyde, on this side of the Forest, the shaded pitches carry heavy moss and the sunnier ones carry lichen, the flat grey and yellow crusts that will not brush off. Clay tile and slate hold growth on the surface.
Concrete tile lets it root into the face. The method is the same either way: lift the bulk off dry, clear what has washed into the laps and the valley, then a biocide treatment that keeps working after we have gone. No pressure washer goes near any of it. On slate the force lifts a slate off its nail, on tile it drives water back under the lap, and on any mortar bedded ridge it takes the bedding out and turns a clean into a roof repair.
Leaf and needle litter is the normal load in the gutters in Hyde, and it packs the top of the downpipe, so clearing them is worth doing before any wall below is washed. Where the rainwater goods are metal, not plastic, a clean is also the moment to see what condition the paint is in.
Render and painted masonry get a soft wash at low pressure with an approved product doing the work and the water only rinsing. Green algae sits heaviest on the shaded elevation and in the splash zone at the bottom of a wall. Black spot is the one that resists scrubbing and only ever comes off chemically. Where a wall has been painted with something modern and it is already flaking, cleaning will lift more of it, and that is better said before we start.
Paths, yards and paving. Stone and concrete slabs, brick paths, block paving and concrete yards. The winter film that makes a path treacherous lifts with a wide fan nozzle and much less force than people expect, followed by a treatment so it does not return by spring. Block paving is re-sanded with kiln dried sand once it has dried. Old brick paving and worn stone get the gentlest setting we have, because the arris on an old brick only comes off once.
How it runs
Cleaning walls, roofs and paths under the trees
Thomas walks all the way round the outside with you, outbuildings and boundary walls included. Near Hyde, trees bring shade and damp, and with them green algae on render, moss on roofs and paths that turn slippery. The quote gives each surface its own line with its method, then protection, access, and where the water and residue end up.
One visit and one quote cover it. Before any biocide goes on, plants, windows and vents are covered. Render and old brick get a low pressure soft wash, never a blast, because a pressure washer will take the face off soft brick and old mortar. Treatments for moss and algae are regulated, and the biocides regime the HSE administers governs what can be used. Where possible, run off is kept out of ditches; Huckles Brook is the nearest watercourse. If cleaning uncovers cracked render or a slipped tile, you see a photo and a price before anything extra is done.
Washing is maintenance and needs no consent. Painting, sealing or re-coating can need consent inside the National Park, and a house in the Western Escarpment conservation area, if yours turns out to be one, or a listed building will face more questions. Before you commit, the Park's interactive property map shows what designations apply.
Cost
Shade, moss and reach: pricing an outside clean
Cleaning is not priced by the square metre. What is growing, and how hard it is to reach, sets the time.
Reach. A cottage in the trees, an outbuilding at the end of a yard, and a two storey house behind a wall all need a different reach, and often the equipment is carried in. From the ground a lance does the work; a roof slope is another matter, decided by the work at height rules.
Growth in shade. Out of the sun, lichen and moss root deeper. They need a biocide and time to act, and on occasion a return visit to finish them off.
The surface underneath. Soft brick, lime render and old stone need a gentle method and low pressure. Newer render and block paving will take more, and paving generally needs re-sanding once it is clean.
Water on site. Where there is no outside tap near an outbuilding, we bring water with us. If run off could get into a ditch, we collect it rather than letting it drain.
Ask other cleaners what method each surface will get, whether treatment is included or it is only a rinse, whether a return visit is included, and what happens to the run off.
If there is a date
A viewing, a survey or a date you cannot move
Exterior cleaning is not an emergency, though it often has a deadline: a sale, a survey, or scaffold due to be struck. Give us a ring, say what the date is, and you will get an honest answer on whether that leaves enough time to do it properly.
Hyde is a longer run for us than most, so a fixed date needs as much notice as you can give. A biocide needs dry weather to work, and we plan round the forecast. The first visit settles which surfaces are done first. Booked jobs run Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. We return missed calls when we can.
The one local thing
Old walls, and the cleaning that does more harm than good
Hyde has a lot of old fabric and it sits in a conservation area within the National Park, where appearance is controlled and like for like maintenance is treated very differently from a change of material. That matters for cleaning, and the first point is technical. Soft handmade brick, lime mortar, limewash and old render are all softer than the water pressure a domestic machine puts out.
Blast them and you take the fired face off the brick, the mortar out of the joint and the limewash off the wall, and what you are left with holds water where it used to shed it. The damage is permanent and it is the sort of thing that shows up in a survey years later.
The second is what you do instead. On old fabric the sensible job is patience: a gentle treatment, soft brushes, hand work at the joints and repeat visits rather than more force. Some growth, particularly lichen on old stone and tile, is better left where it is. And be careful about what goes on afterwards.
A modern sealer or a plastic paint over a wall built to breathe traps moisture inside it, and on a listed building or in a conservation area it can also be a change of appearance that needs consent. The National Park sets out what it expects in its heritage and conservation guidance, and we would rather point you at it than quote you for something you should not have done.
Who you are dealing with
Exterior cleaning for the western Forest villages
Our base in Boscombe is a 12.7 mile drive from Hyde, and we clean in Fordingbridge, Godshill and the SP6 villages along the western side of the Forest. The National Park Authority handles planning.
Thomas looks at outbuildings and boundary walls as well as the house, and each surface is priced on its own. The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Every job is priced by the owner, Thomas Hannen, in person. Checkatrade carries a verified customer's 10 out of 10. Coming out and quoting in writing cost you nothing. Before you book a visit in Hyde, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Hyde?
Most repairs in Hyde 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.
| Question | In Hyde |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Hyde. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Western Escarpment Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Hyde. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Hyde
Would a change of colour on the render need permission?
In the Western Escarpment area it can. Appearance is controlled, so like for like is maintenance while a different colour or a different material counts as a change, and the National Park takes an interest in anything visible from the lanes. Washing render back to the colour it already is falls on the safe side of that line. If you want a different shade afterwards, ask them before we start.
The yard floods after heavy rain. Does that affect the work?
It affects where the washings go. Surface water risk around Hyde is high and Huckles Brook is only a few hundred metres off, so anything running off hard standing reaches a watercourse quickly instead of soaking in. We work up from the lowest point, keep the flow away from gullies and ditches, and bag the solids. On a day when the ground is already saturated we would rather move the paving work than push on with it.
Is lichen on the tiles worth removing?
Not always. The flat grey and yellow crusts on the sunnier pitches around Hyde grow slowly and do the roof little harm, and scraping them off an old clay tile takes the weathered face with them. Moss on the shaded side is different, because it holds water at the laps. We treat that, leave the lichen unless you want it gone, and say which on the quote.
Ours is one of the listed cottages. What changes?
The method, and the order things happen in. There are 21 listed entries around Hyde, and on those the finish is usually soft and porous, so a lance takes the surface with it and a strong biocide can stain what is left. We wash at the lowest pressure that shifts the growth, try it out of sight first, and keep water off timber and glazing bars. Consent covers altering a building, not cleaning one.
What can I check myself before you drive out here?
Stand back at the gate and look along the gutter line for a sag or a green streak running down the wall under a joint, then look at the walls that face away from the sun, which stay damp longest around Hyde. Photograph anything you cannot see properly. It does not replace the visit, since Thomas Hannen comes and looks before pricing, but it tells us whether to bring a tower.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Hyde
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Exterior cleaning guides
Soft washing vs pressure washing: safe for a roof? How to clean a patio without damaging it Moss on a roof: does it need removing?Everything we do in Ringwood Exterior cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
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Have the outside looked at by someone who will say no
A free site visit, the whole property surveyed and an itemised written quote. Hyde, Fordingbridge and the SP6 villages.