Exterior cleaning in Redlynch

Old brick, lime joints and colourwashed render. The cottages along the older lanes are soft brick with lime mortar, painted render and the occasional later pebbledash. None of that belongs anywhere near a jet wash. It is soft washed with a weak solution, given time to work, then rinsed at low pressure.

Where the joints have already opened we tell you to get the mortar sorted before the wall is cleaned, because an open joint on a solid wall takes water inside whether it arrives off a hose or off the weather. On the postwar and seventies houses the covering is concrete interlocking tile gone porous enough to hold moss like a sponge: scraped off dry, soft washed at low pressure, then treated so the spores left in the surface do not bring the regrowth back within a season. Nothing is forced up under the lap, and the ridge and verge get looked at while we are there.

Bungalows, paving and what goes in the water. Plenty of the homes in Redlynch are bungalows, with a lot of roof and wall at hardly any height, most of it reachable from the ground on a pole. On this side of the Forest the oak and beech leaf fall is heavy, and gutter clearing is worth doing before the roof or walls are washed. Block paving is re-sanded after washing, though black spot lichen wants treating and time instead. Planting is soaked and sheeted and the drains near the work are covered. Everything we spray is approved for the job and used to its label, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers requires, and we work to pollution prevention guidance on where the residue goes.

Square metres are a poor guide to a clean, since the same area can take a few minutes or most of a morning.

Where we can stand. A cottage tight to the lane with no side path, a post-war detached house with a drive down one flank, and a long bungalow with a conservatory across the back are different set ups before any water is turned on. The work at height rules settle whether it is ladder, pole or tower.

How delicate it is. Soft old brick and flint, lime render and handmade clay tiles get a gentle wash and a biocide left to do the work. Concrete tiles and block paving stand more. The wrong method strips the surface along with the dirt.

What has grown on it. A green film of algae rinses away. A thick mat of moss on the roof is scraped off by hand first, and lichen only fades once a biocide has had weeks of weather.

Where the water ends up. Beside ponds, ditches and beds, waste water and residue are collected, and products are used the way the HSE guidance on biocides sets out.

With other quotes, find out how each surface will be cleaned, whether a biocide is actually applied or the job is only a rinse, and what happens to the run-off.

From our base in Boscombe, on the edge of Bournemouth, it is 18.2 miles to Redlynch. We cover the village, Woodfalls, Morgan's Vale, Lover, Downton and the SP5 villages along the western edge of the forest. Wiltshire Council is the council, but Lover and the east of the parish are in the New Forest National Park, where the Park Authority handles planning.

Thomas Hannen, the owner, walks round each surface himself and prices the clean. The firm trades as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. A verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit costs nothing, and nor does the written, itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Redlynch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Redlynch 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.