Exterior cleaning in Merritown
Paving, yards, walls, roofs, gutters and outbuildings around Merritown and BH23. 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.
At Merritown the growth starts at the bottom and works up. The ground here is flat, low and naturally wet, so paving, paths and the first metre of every wall stay damp long after the roof has dried out. That means the paving and the base of the walls need doing more often than the roof does, it means a rinse on its own is a waste of money, and it means the wash water has to be steered somewhere sensible rather than left to soak into ground that is already full.
The calls out here fall into a few types. A drive or a yard has gone green and slippery and somebody has nearly gone over on it. The bottom of a rendered or brick wall has gone black and keeps coming back. A roof has mossed up on the shaded pitch and it is now in the gutter. Gutters and valleys have stopped taking water. Or an outbuilding, a stable block or a barn is looking tired before a letting, a viewing or an inspection.
We take each surface on its own terms. Some of it is twenty minutes with a rotary surface cleaner. Some of it is a soft wash and a biocide treatment and then leaving it alone for a few weeks. And some of it, on the older farm buildings here, is a job we will tell you not to have done at all. The free site visit is a survey of each surface, and what comes back is a written itemised price with the method on it as well as the number.
The work
What gets cleaned on a place like this
WORK Paving, yards and hardstanding. This is the bulk of the work here, because it is the surface that never dries. The ground is flat and slow to take water, this is flood zone 2 with a high surface water rating and the Moors under a kilometre away, so a yard stays wet long after the rain stops. Block paving comes up with a rotary surface cleaner and is re-sanded before anything drives on it, because the wash lifts the kiln dried sand out with the weed. Concrete and old slab paths take a lance at a sensible distance, and tarmac wants a wide fan or it goes patchy. Brickwork, pebbledash and painted masonry here go dark at the base and stay that way: splash off a hard surface, low sun and wet ground under it, so the algae and lichen sit in the first metre and nowhere else. That comes off with a soft wash and a treatment at low pressure, because forcing water into the foot of a wall on ground like this is the last thing anyone needs. On the roofs, moss packs into the channel of the tile and into the lap between courses: scraped off dry, then soft washed at low pressure with an approved biocide behind it that kills the spore in the lap and keeps the regrowth slow. Never on slate, where the force gets under the lap and lifts the nail heads. Barns, and the one we turn down. Barns, stables and workshops out here are often roofed in old cement sheet. If that sheet went on before the turn of the century it may well contain asbestos, and pressure washing it releases fibres, so we will not do it at any price and we say so on the visit. Sound profiled and coated sheet gets a low pressure wash. A gutter that overflows here empties onto ground that cannot take it, so clearing is by hand or vacuum, every outlet is proved with water, and every gully in the yard is covered before a hose is uncoiled.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
RUNS One team from first visit to 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, because on ground that drains this slowly keeping wash water out of the ditches is a pollution question rather than a courtesy. Nothing is left open overnight, and what comes out leaves with us at the end of each day. Cleaning is maintenance and there is nothing to apply for. Merritown is not in a conservation area, and there are three listed entries here, the farmhouse and its barn among them. On a listed building the wash is still maintenance, but any repointing it reveals is not, and for that the council keeps the list. BCP Council is the authority.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
COST No rate per square metre: the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two. A single storey cottage with a yard round it is all ground level work, a house set back behind a long soft verge means everything comes down by hand, and a farm roof that will not take weight is not walked on at all. The work at height rules decide which. The surface sets the method, and getting it wrong takes the surface off with the dirt, painted masonry least forgiving of the lot. 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 often 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. Merritown is about ten minutes from us, so a look before you fix a date is easy. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Low, flat ground and what it does to the timing
Merritown sits low and almost dead level, on sandy ground that is naturally wet, with the Moors River not far off and surface water that has nowhere much to run to. You can check the flood position for an address on the Environment Agency service if you want the detail, but you already know the practical version: puddles here stand rather than drain, and the ground under your paving holds water for weeks after rain.
For exterior cleaning that changes three things. Growth at ground level is faster and more stubborn than it is on higher ground a couple of miles away, so paving and the foot of the walls come round for attention sooner than the roof does. Weed and moss in block paving joints regrow quickly because the joint never dries, which is why re-sanding properly matters more here than almost anywhere. And a surface that stays wet gets genuinely slippery through winter rather than just looking tired, which is the real reason people ring.
The useful bit is timing and drainage. Book the ground level work for a settled dry spell rather than midwinter, because a biocide needs the surface to stay dry for a while after it goes on to do its job, and on wet ground that window is shorter. If you want paving sealed, it has to be genuinely dry all the way through first, not dry on top, so on this ground that is a summer job or it will bloom white on you.
While we are there it is worth checking where your downpipes actually discharge: a fair number here run into a gully or a soakaway that stopped soaking years ago and now just wets the drive you are paying to clean. And ask any cleaner where the run off is going, because on ground already at capacity it has to be steered to a foul drain or contained rather than left to find its own way. Doing that properly is what the HSE guidance on biocides is about.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merritown, Hurn and Parley on BH23, out to Christchurch, West Parley and Bournemouth, 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
Merritown questions we get asked
The bottom metre of the wall goes green every winter. Why?
Because the ground at Merritown is naturally wet and the surface water risk here is high, so the foot of the wall stays damp long after the rest has dried out. Algae wants nothing more than moisture and a rough surface. Washing it off works for a season, but where a wall is picking water up from below it will return, so we look at ground levels and the path against the brickwork too.
The barn roof is old corrugated sheet. Can you jet wash it?
Not at pressure. Old sheet is thin around the fixing holes and a lance drives water straight through the laps and into the building. On a farm roof around Hurn we soft wash, let the treatment kill the growth, and let the weather carry the dead material off over the months after. Walking the sheets is out as well, so the work is done off a tower rather than by climbing.
Is it safe to wash next to the ditches out here?
It is if the run off is controlled. Merritown sits in flood zone two with the Moors watercourse under a kilometre away, and whatever reaches a ditch here reaches that. We sheet the low side, sweep the wash toward soakaway ground rather than the field drain, and lift the scraped growth into a bag instead of hosing it across the grass. Product goes on diluted and nothing is emptied out on site.
Which side of the house needs doing first out here?
South west, nearly always. That is the most exposed wall at Merritown and it takes the driven rain, so the render greens and the gutter joints start weeping on that side years before the back of the house shows anything. If you only want one elevation done we do that one, put it on its own line, and leave the sheltered walls until they actually need it.
Do you have to wait for a dry spell to work?
Not a long one. A soft wash needs the surface to stay wet with the treatment, so light drizzle does no harm at all and heavy rain does, because it rinses everything off before it has worked. Wind is the bigger problem on open ground like this, since a gust carries spray onto the car or the hedge. We move onto the sheltered elevations and come back for the exposed wall.
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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.