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.
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At Merritown the growth starts at the bottom and works up, and exterior cleaning here has to follow it. 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, not left to soak into ground that is already full.
Cleaning out in Merritown falls 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 in Merritown, 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
Paving, yards and hardstanding. This is the surface that never dries, so it needs the most attention. 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.
Walls. Brickwork, pebbledash and painted masonry in Merritown 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.
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 in Merritown 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 gutter clearing is worth keeping on top of, and every gully in the yard is covered before a hose is uncoiled.
How it runs
Soft washing and treating, surface by surface
Thomas comes out, looks at each surface and what is growing on it, and prices it himself. The quote is itemised: the method for each surface, protection, access, the biocide treatment, and where the water and residue go.
Render and painted masonry get a low-pressure soft wash with a biocide, not a jet wash that strips the finish. Paths and patios take a rotary cleaner. Roofs are treated from a ladder or a tower, and not walked on if they will not take weight. The ground here drains slowly and the Moors River is not far off, so we collect the run off where we can and keep wash water out of drains and ditches. Nothing is left half done overnight. If cleaning shows up open joints or cracked render, you get pictures and a separate price.
Washing a house is maintenance and needs no application. There is no conservation area at Merritown. Listed buildings are the exception worth knowing about: the clean itself is fine, but any repointing it shows up counts as alteration, and the council keeps the list. BCP Council is the authority.
Cost
Surface, growth and run off in a cleaning price
We do not price per square metre. The same area can be quick or slow depending on what it is and what is on it.
The surface. Painted masonry, render, brick, block paving and roof tiles each need a different method. The wrong one takes the finish off with the dirt, and painted masonry is the least forgiving.
What is growing. Light algae rinses off after a biocide. Thick moss, lichen and black spot need a longer dwell time and sometimes a second treatment.
Reaching it. A single storey wall is ground level work. A two storey gable or a roof needs a ladder, a pole or a tower, and the work at height rules decide which.
Where the water goes. On slow-draining ground this close to the river, run off has to be controlled, which can mean collecting it instead of letting it soak away.
Which side. North and west faces that stay damp grow more algae, and a wall shaded by trees or a tall hedge takes longer again, because the growth there is thicker and better rooted.
Ask anyone quoting: what method for each surface? Is a biocide treatment included, or just a rinse? Where does the run off go?
If there is a date
A clean needed before a set date
Exterior cleaning is rarely an emergency, but it often has a deadline, so ring us first: a sale, a letting inspection, or scaffold coming down. Tell us the date and we will say honestly whether it can be done properly by then, bearing in mind biocide needs dry weather to work.
If a path has turned slippery with algae, say so, as that is a safety issue and moves up the list. Cleaning is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If we miss your call, we will phone you back as soon as we can.
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 shifts the attention to ground level. 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, which is the real reason to deal with it.
The useful bit is timing and drainage. Book the ground level work for a settled dry spell, not 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
Who you deal with for the clean
BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown, which sits in Hurn parish, BH23, 3.6 miles out from our Boscombe base. We also clean houses in Parley, Christchurch and Bournemouth. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at the surfaces and prices the clean himself. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. The visit is free, and the written quote with each item listed is free too.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Merritown?
Most repairs in Merritown 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.
| Question | In Merritown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Merritown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Merritown. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Merritown. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Merritown
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 biocide needs the surface to stay dry for a while after it goes on, so we pick a day with no rain due, because rain rinses the treatment 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.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Merritown
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Get a price for cleaning in Merritown
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.