Exterior cleaning in Langton Matravers

Roof cleaning. Where a roof here is laid in Purbeck stone slate the rules are different from a tiled one. The slates are heavy, laid in diminishing courses and often bedded in lime, so nobody walks them and nothing goes near them at pressure. Moss packs into the joints and the laps and it comes out by hand, worked off dry, then treated. Clay tile and concrete interlocking roofs on the newer houses get the same order of work: scrape the bulk off, clear the ridge, the valley and the gutter, then a biocide. A roof clean done at pressure drives water under the laps and strips the face off the tile, which is how a cleaning job turns into a roofing one.

Purbeck limestone has an open face and lichen roots into it rather than sitting on it, so it comes up with a soft wash and patience rather than force. The same goes for anything with lime mortar in the joints. Rendered and painted masonry, pebbledash and the brickwork on later houses take a low pressure wash and a treatment. Two and a half kilometres from the coast, salt keeps a wall damp between showers and the growth comes back faster, so the treatment matters more here than the wash does.

Stone flags, steps, block paving and concrete all come up differently. Steps and thresholds are the ones worth doing first, because a green film on stone is more slippery than anything else on the property. Block paving is jet washed and then re-sanded, and we would rather re-sand it properly than seal over a joint that is half empty. Old stone paving gets a wider nozzle and less pressure, because the mortar between flags is usually softer than the stone. Wind puts as much in a gutter here as trees do, and a blocked outlet is the usual reason a wall has a dark stripe down it.

Before the water runs. Planting is watered and sheeted, the gully and any open drain gets covered, and vents and light fittings are protected. A biocide is a regulated product and we treat it as one: the dilution on the label, only on surfaces it is approved for, and nothing into the drains. That is the short version of the biocides regime the HSE administers and pollution prevention guidance. We would talk you out of sealing stone paving that still has damp under it, and out of any abrasive cleaning on limestone.

No rate per square metre: the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two, depending what is growing on it. A cottage tight to the road with no side gate, a detached house with a stone terrace wrapping round it, and a converted barn with a tall gable end are three different jobs. 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 cover Langton Matravers and the villages along the Purbeck ridge, over to Swanage and Corfe Castle and across the BH19 postcodes. 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.