Exterior cleaning in Lilliput

Render and painted walls. Render, pebbledash and painted masonry are soft washed at low pressure. A biocide goes on, is left to work on the algae, lichen and black spot, and is rinsed off gently. A jet wash at full force strips paint, blows out weak render and drives water behind it. The treatment keeps killing spores for weeks after, so the wall keeps improving and regrowth is slower.

Roofs. Moss is scraped out of the laps and off the ridge by hand, then a biocide treatment goes on to kill what is left. We do not jet wash tiles: it strips the surface of a concrete tile, pushes water up under the laps and blasts mortar out of the ridge. The gutters and downpipe outlets are cleared at the end, because that is where the moss lands.

Drives and paving. Block paving and slab paving can take a pressure wash with a rotary cleaner, because the surface is hard. Block paving then needs a re-sand of the joints, and a seal if you want to hold the colour and slow the weeds. Natural stone patios are washed at lower pressure, because sandstone marks easily.

Brickwork. Soft brick and old mortar lose their face under high pressure. A low pressure wash with the right nozzle and a biocide cleans without damage.

Protecting what is around it. Planting is sheeted and wetted before a biocide goes on, gullies are covered, and windows and doors are rinsed as we go.

When cleaning is not the answer. A wall that goes green again within months is staying wet, often from a blocked gutter or failed render, and we tell you so instead of selling you a clean every year.

No rate per square metre, because the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two, depending what is growing on it.

Getting to it. A rendered house with a drive off Lilliput Road, a tall rear wall above a stepped garden on the slope to the harbour, and a first floor flat where only one elevation is yours to clean take three different kinds of kit to reach. Ground level off a lance is one thing, a second storey or a roof slope is another. Reach poles do a lot of it, some of it wants a tower, and the work at height rules decide which.

The surface decides the method. Render, painted masonry, old brick, block paving and a tiled roof all want different pressure, and some want no pressure at all. Getting that wrong takes the surface off with the dirt, which is the expensive kind of clean.

How bad it has actually got. A light film comes off quickly. Years of organic growth needs treating, and often needs a second visit rather than more pressure.

Comparing quotes? Ask what method is being used on each surface, whether any treatment is included or just a rinse, whether a second visit is part of it, and where the run off is going. Similar totals can hide a rinse on one side and a full clean on the other.

We clean homes across Lilliput and the rest of BH14, along Sandbanks Road and Lilliput Road to Evening Hill and Salterns, and on to Whitecliff, Canford Cliffs and Penn Hill, from our base in Boscombe, about five miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Lilliput, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lilliput 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.