Exterior cleaning in Merley
Roofs, render, gutters, drives and patios across Merley and BH21. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
If your roof in Merley has gone green and so has every roof in the road, nothing has gone wrong. Almost the whole of Merley was built in one push, so the tiles are the same age, they have worn the same way, and they are greening over on the same timetable.
The fix is a scrape and a low pressure soft wash with a biocide treatment behind it, not a pressure wash. A lance on a concrete tile of this age does real damage, and the mortar bedded ridge on top of it is already brittle.
Four things bring people to the phone here. The shaded pitch of the roof has gone dark and the moss is now visible in the gutter. The block paved drive has weeds through the joints and a black band where the cars sit. A rendered or painted gable has greened on one side of the house and not the other. Or the gutters are running over and there is a stain down the wall below the joint.
We deal with all four, and we deal with them in an order that saves you money. The roof comes first, the gutters get cleared and proved afterwards, and the drive and patio go last, because everything that comes off the roof lands on the ground. The free site visit is a proper survey of each surface rather than a glance from the pavement, and every surface is priced as its own line on a written itemised quote, so you can drop one if you would rather do it next year.
The work
What a Merley house usually needs doing
The main roof. The great bulk of Merley is detached houses and bungalows carrying concrete interlocking tile, with the ridge and often the verge bedded in mortar. Three quarters of the housing went up between 1945 and 1982, half of it in the 1970s and early 1980s, so these roofs are all much the same age. The surface slurry has weathered off and the tile underneath is open and porous, which is what moss wants: it fills the channel and packs into the lap, and a packed lap pushes water sideways under the covering. We scrape and brush the bulk off dry, then soft wash at low pressure through a wide nozzle and treat with a biocide so the spores in the surface die rather than only the green on top. On a bungalow, and nearly a third of the houses here are bungalows, that is a big roof area for a small footprint and most of it is reachable from the ground.
Mortar of that age crumbles, so before any water goes on we look along the ridge and down the verge for bedding that has cracked or gone hollow. Cleaning around loose mortar is one thing and washing it out is another. If a ridge is rocking we stop and tell you, because that is a roofing repair on a separate quote. On the rendered and pebbledashed gables, porches and garage walls, green film is algae and washes off, black spot is lichen rooted in and wants a treatment and a few weeks, and chalky masonry paint strips off in sheets under a lance, so a test patch goes out of sight first.
Drives, gutters and what sits underneath. Most of the original drives here have been block paved. A rotary surface cleaner lifts the growth evenly, but the wash takes the kiln dried sand out of every joint with the weed, so it is re-sanded before anyone drives on it, or the blocks rock, spread and sink at the edges. A roof clean sends water, moss and treatment down onto whatever sits below, so borders against the wall are sheeted and watered down, and the gully at the bottom of the drive is covered. Half of what people here think is a roof leak is a gutter running over: clearing is by hand or vacuum, then every outlet, downpipe and valley is run through with water to prove it takes it. The white plastic fascia and soffit comes back up with a soft wash, and conservatory roofs and solar panels are done while the poles are up.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One team from the first visit to the last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting. The quote is itemised: method for each surface, protection, access and where the water and residue go, each on its own line. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on. Cleaning is maintenance and there is nothing to apply for. Merley itself is not in a conservation area, and the listed entries near here are concentrated on the Canford School estate rather than in the Merley housing. If your address sits close to one of those boundaries, the council keeps the list. BCP Council is the authority.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
No rate per square metre: the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two. A bungalow with a wide drive is reach pole work, a two storey detached with a conservatory across the back needs another route to the same gutter, and a garage off a shared drive means carrying everything by hand. The work at height rules decide which. The surface sets the method, and getting it wrong takes the finish off with the dirt. Comparing quotes, ask what method each surface gets, whether a treatment is included or just a rinse, and where the run off goes.
If there is a date
A viewing, a visit or a deadline
Ring rather than use the form. This is not emergency work, but it usually has a date on it: a sale, a letting inspection, scaffolding coming down. Tell us the date and we will say honestly whether it can be done properly by then. Merley is about fifteen minutes from us, so a straight yes or no is quick. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
One estate, one age, one set of problems
Roughly three quarters of the housing in Merley went up between the war and the early eighties, and nearly half of the whole place in the seventies and early eighties alone. That is unusual even around here, and it changes what to expect from your own house. Those roofs were tiled within a few years of each other with the same generation of concrete interlocking tile, bedded at the ridge and verge in the same sand and cement.
Concrete tiles of that era were made with a coloured slurry on the face, and after five decades of weather that slurry has largely gone. What is left is an open surface that holds water, which is why moss establishes so readily on one Merley roof and so readily on the one next door. The bedding mortar has aged on the same clock. It is brittle, often cracked along its length, and it will not survive a pressure lance being run along it.
Two useful things come out of that. The first is that you can see your own future from the pavement: whatever the roofs three doors down are doing, yours is on the same schedule, so it is worth booking the clean and any edge repair together while the access is already paid for rather than paying twice. The second is to be sceptical of anyone offering to spray a coating or a paint onto the tiles after cleaning. It is sold as a seal and it is common on estates of exactly this age.
On a porous fifty year old tile it traps moisture in the tile, it does nothing at all for the mortar that is actually failing, and it makes any future repair harder because a matched replacement tile no longer matches. We do not offer it. We clean the roof, treat it under the HSE guidance on biocides, tell you plainly what the edges need, and leave the tile as a tile.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merley, Canford Magna and Bearwood on BH21, out to Wimborne Minster, Broadstone and Corfe Mullen, and BCP Council is the planning authority for this address. 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.
Questions
Merley questions we get asked
Every roof in the road looks the same. Is mine worse?
Probably not, and that is the point. 77.0% of Merley went up between 1945 and 1982, and 49.8% of it in the 1970s and early 1980s, so the whole road carries the same age of tile and the same bedding. The back slopes face north east together and they green over together. When we quote we say plainly whether yours is ahead of the street or level with it.
Half the houses here are detached. Does that make access easier?
Usually. Detached houses are 49.0% of Merley and bungalows another 29.6%, so there is normally a side gate wide enough to take a tower through and hard standing to stand it on. That keeps us off the borders and off the neighbour's land, which matters because the gaps between plots on these estates are tight. Where the gate is too narrow we work the far elevation off poles from the front.
Canford School is round the corner. Does that restrict anything?
Not for an ordinary house. The twenty six listed entries in this parish are concentrated on the Canford School estate, John of Gaunt's Kitchen among them, and a listing controls its own building rather than the properties nearby. There is no conservation area over the housing either. Work on something inside the school grounds is a different conversation and one that starts with the council.
Will washing the roof loosen ridge tiles that old?
It can, and on a covering of this age it mostly shows up what was already loose. Mortar bedded ridges from the 1970s go hollow underneath, and a lance held close will lift one clean off. We keep the pressure down and work across the ridge rather than driving water up under it. If a ridge rocks when we touch it we stop and say so, because that is a repair and not a clean.
Can you clean the block paving and put the sand back?
We can. Merley sits on freely draining ground and the paving is laid on a sand bed over it, so the joints wash out easily and the blocks start to rock once they are empty. After the clean we let the surface dry properly, then brush kiln dried sand back into every joint. On a sloping drive that goes in over two passes so the sand beds down instead of running off.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Merley
Exterior cleaning nearby
Our other trades in Merley
Everything we do in Broadstone Exterior cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for cleaning in Merley
Tell us the address and which surface has gone green. We come out, look at it and put an itemised price in writing. No charge for either.