Exterior cleaning in Lymington

Painted render and masonry. A great deal of older Lymington is rendered and painted, and paint is the reason force is the wrong tool. A soft wash at low pressure with a treatment lifts the algae and the salt film without taking the paint with it, which is what a lance does in about four seconds.

Brickwork, stone plinths, pebbledash on the post-war houses and the render on the eighties estates all take the same low pressure approach. Where the surface is chalky to the touch, that is the paint itself breaking down and a clean will not fix it, so we will say so instead of washing it and handing you a bill.

Concrete interlocking and plain tile cover most of the housing, with slate on some of the older roofs. The moss comes out of the laps and off the ridge by hand, the valley and the gutter get cleared, and a biocide goes on afterwards to deal with the algae and lichen that a scrape cannot reach. No pressure washing on a roof, because it drives water under the laps and takes the surface off the tile. Close to a quarter of Lymington is terraced, and on a terrace we clean the full width of your roof rather than stopping at an invisible line, which is not always what a quote assumes.

Block paving, brick paving, concrete and stone patios, and the shared parking courts behind a lot of the flats. Block paving is jet washed and then re-sanded, because leaving the joints empty is how the blocks start to move. Paths and steps near a front door are the ones to do first: green film on a wet flag is the most likely thing on the property to put somebody down.

Where the rainwater goods are cast iron, a slow leak behind a downpipe stains render for years before anybody notices, so have the gutters and hoppers checked before the render is washed.

Before any water runs. Planting is watered and sheeted, the gully and every open drain is covered, and vents, lights and alarm boxes are protected. Biocides are used at the dilution on the label and only on surfaces they are approved for, and nothing goes into a drain. That is what the biocides regime the HSE administers and pollution prevention guidance require, and it matters in Lymington because the surface water does not have far to travel. We would talk you out of washing painted render that has already failed, out of sealing a parking court you do not own, and out of cleaning half a shared elevation, which always looks worse than leaving all of it alone.

No rate per square metre, because the same square metre can take minutes or hours depending on what is growing on it.

What is growing. Light algae on painted render washes off quickly, though the paint underneath may need checking. Thick moss on concrete tiles has to be scraped and bagged before any biocide goes on, and lichen on paving takes longer still. Biocides are regulated, and HSE's biocides guidance sets the rules on what can be used.

Where it is. A High Street frontage where the pavement is the only place to stand, a terraced cottage reached through a neighbour's garden, and a detached house on a Pennington estate with room all round are very different mornings. Ground level from a lance is one job, a roof slope is another, and the work at height rules decide which.

What happens afterwards. A rinse alone looks good for a while, then the green comes back within a season or two on a shaded north slope. A biocide treatment keeps growth back far longer, and a sealant on block paving is a further step.

When comparing, ask how each surface will be cleaned, whether a biocide goes on afterwards or it is only rinsed, and what happens to the run off.

We travel 12.5 miles from our Boscombe base to reach Lymington. We cover Lymington and Pennington, out through Boldre and Walhampton and Portmore, across the SO41 postcodes, where New Forest District Council is the authority. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Lymington, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen, who owns the firm, looks at each surface and prices the clean himself. One verified Checkatrade customer rated the work 10 out of 10. The site visit and the itemised written quote are both free.

Most repairs in Lymington 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.