Exterior cleaning in Ridge
Soft washing, roof cleaning, gutters and valleys cleared and paving brought back at Ridge, on the lane between Wareham and Arne.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Out here the wash is the easy half. The half worth asking about is where the dirty water goes, because everything at Ridge drains towards Poole Harbour and it has almost no distance to travel. Both belong on the quote before a hose is switched on.
Most calls off this lane are one of three. A roof slope that faces away from the sun has gone green and the moss is now sitting in the gutter. Render or painted masonry on the sheltered side of the house has darkened and streaked while the sunny side looks fine. Or the paving and the path by the door are slippery from October to April. There is usually a shed, a garage or a run of outbuildings on the list as well.
We come and survey it surface by surface, because a rendered wall, a tiled roof and a block paved drive want three different methods and two of them want hardly any pressure. You are told what will come up, what needs treating and then leaving alone to work, and what we would not touch at all. The visit is free and the written price puts each surface on its own line.
The work
What gets cleaned on the lane out to Arne
The roof, and the slope that never dries. Clay and concrete tile, and the slope facing north or east is always the one that has gone. Damp air off the harbour and the shelter of the trees mean it barely dries between one week's rain and the next, and moss holds on where the tiles overlap. We scrape the growth off dry, soft wash the tile at low pressure and treat it with a biocide so the spores in the surface do not bring the regrowth straight back. No water goes up under the lap, because that lands it on the felt rather than in the gutter, and the ridge gets checked while we are up there. On render it is green film and black streaking under sills and gutter joints: soft washed with a weak solution and rinsed at low pressure, never lanced, and where a wall greens back fast we look for the reason rather than book you in again. Old brickwork with soft lime joints gets a test patch on a hidden elevation first.
Outbuildings, gutters and paving. A fair share of the work out here is not the house at all: garages, stables, workshops and long single storey ranges, some of them roofed in cement fibre sheet rather than tile. That never sees a pressure washer from us. The sheets go brittle with age, older ones can hold material nobody wants turned into dust, and the honest answer is a gentle soft wash from a distance or leaving it alone. Pine needles and heath litter blow in constantly here and they mat rather than rot down, so clearing is by vacuum or by hand, outlets are rodded and the valleys are done first, because a blocked valley puts water inside the building instead of down the wall. Block paving is re-sanded after washing, and the gravel that half the drives out here are finished in is raked and treated rather than washed.
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 that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on. There is no conservation area at Ridge, and the listed entries the maps throw up nearby are in Wareham rather than out here, around Lady St Mary and the streets by the quay. Cleaning a building is maintenance either way and needs no application. Dorset Council is where listed building consent is dealt with if the building is listed.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
No rate per square metre: the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two. A house set well back behind a hedge, a bungalow with a conservatory across the whole back and a run of outbuildings you can only reach by barrow across grass are three different jobs before a hose is unrolled. 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, and say if the date is tied to a sale, a survey or a letting changeover. The front elevation and the paving decide the photographs, and they can usually be brought forward on their own. Ridge is about twenty 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.
The one local thing
Where the dirty water is allowed to end up
There is no surface water sewer out here to send anything down. What leaves your roof and your paving goes into a gully, a soakaway or a ditch, and the ditches around Ridge run to Poole Harbour within a field or two. That is the single fact that changes how the work is planned. Planting gets soaked and sheeted before anything is mixed, so nothing lands on dry leaves. Gullies and drains near the work are covered or bunded.
Residue is contained and taken away rather than chased into the nearest grid, and on the surfaces closest to open water we work drier and slower, with less product and more dwell time, which sometimes means a second visit instead of a stronger mix. Pollution prevention guidance is what we follow on that, and Approved Document H is the reason surface water and foul drainage are kept apart in the first place.
What it should change for you is the question you put to everyone quoting. Ask where the water is going. Anybody who has not thought about it on a plot this close to the harbour has not walked the site properly, and a price that looks low is often low because containment and disposal are simply not in it.
It matters on your own account too. A patio soaked in a strong mix that drains straight into a ditch takes the pond life with it, and the neighbour whose ditch it is will know. We would rather tell you a job needs an extra visit than promise it in one and put the difference into the water.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Ridge, Stoborough, Wareham, Sandford, Organford and the BH20 villages around the harbour, worked from our base near Bournemouth. 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
Ridge questions we get asked
We back onto the heath at Arne. Does that make it worse?
For the gutters it does. Heath and woodland on the boundary drop needles, birch seed and leaf into the gutters and valleys through the autumn, and that litter holds water and feeds the moss on the tiles below it. The covering itself is no more at risk than anywhere else. Its drainage is. We clear gutters and valleys first and treat the tiles after, because the other way round wastes the clean.
The old parts of Wareham are listed. Are we affected?
Only if the building itself is on the list. Twelve entries around here are listed, the Parish Church of Lady St Mary and the Priory beside it among them, and each covers its own building and curtilage rather than the road it stands on. There is no conservation area at Ridge. On listed fabric we work by hand at low pressure and leave sealers and coatings alone unless the council has agreed them.
Can you clean the garage roof as well?
We can, and on an outbuilding the covering decides the method. A cement sheet or an old bitumen felt garage roof will not take a lance and cannot be walked on, so it is treated and left rather than scrubbed. Where a garage sits under trees it is usually the worst surface on the whole plot. It goes on the quote as its own line so you can leave it if you would rather.
Is there anything special about working in the Dorset National Landscape?
For a clean, nothing you would notice. The designation puts scrutiny on how things look from outside, which is a planning question about materials and colour rather than about washing a building. Where it comes up is afterwards. A roof coating or a strong paint colour on a prominent elevation at Ridge is the sort of change that draws attention, and we would rather you asked Dorset Council than found out later.
The water off the roof runs toward the harbour. Is that acceptable?
It is, provided nothing goes into it that should not. Ridge drains freely and sits in the Poole Harbour catchment, so a soakaway here is not a dead end, it is the start of a route. Treatment is mixed to the label, planting is covered before we start, and the moss taken off the tiles is collected and carried off site. The nutrient rules apply to new bedrooms, not to a wash down.
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Exterior cleaning near Ridge
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Free quote
Find out what will come up, and what will not
A free site visit at Ridge, then a written itemised price with every surface on its own line. Tell us if there is a date to work to.