Exterior cleaning in Sandleheath
Soft washing, roof cleaning, gutters and outlets cleared and paving brought back across Sandleheath and the lanes west of Fordingbridge.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The first thing we work out here is where your property actually stops. Over half the homes in Sandleheath share a wall, a gutter run or a boundary with somebody else, and that changes how the job is done as much as the surface does.
Most calls from Sandleheath are one of three. A roof slope has gone green and the moss is now in the gutter and over the outlet. Render or old brickwork on the shaded elevation has darkened and streaked, and it is the side you see from the road. Or the paving and the path are slippery from the first wet spell to the spring.
We come out and survey it surface by surface, because a painted render wall, a concrete tiled roof and a block paved drive want three different methods and two of them want almost no pressure at all. You are told what will come up, what needs a treatment and then time to work, and what we would leave alone. The site visit is free and the written price puts every surface on its own line.
What the work involves
Two kinds of house here, and what each one takes
The modern half: concrete tile, render and block paving. Around six homes in ten here were built after the war, a good number of those since the eighties, so most of what we are cleaning is concrete interlocking tile, thin coat or sand and cement render, and block paved drives. Moss sits in the laps. The growth is scraped off dry, the tile soft washed at low pressure and then treated with a biocide so the spores left in the surface do not bring the regrowth back inside a year. Nothing is forced up under the lap, because that lands water on the felt instead of in the gutter.
The older fifth: soft brick, lime joints and painted render. A fifth of the housing here predates the First World War, and those walls were built to let water out through the joints rather than keep it out at the face. They are soft washed with a weak solution and rinsed at low pressure, with a test patch out of sight first. If the pointing has already opened, get the mortar done before the wall is cleaned rather than after. A lance on soft brickwork strips the fired face and the wall then takes up water for good.
The oaks along the lanes and the older gardens fill the gutters every autumn. Clearing is by vacuum or by hand, outlets are rodded, joints are checked and the valleys between roof planes are done first, because a blocked valley puts water inside the building rather than down the wall. You get a photograph looking into the gutter before and after, which on a shared run matters more than usual.
Drives, paths and patios are block paving, concrete, slab and brick. Block paving is re-sanded after washing, since the jetting lifts the jointing sand out along with the weed and the algae. Black spot lichen will not shift at any pressure and wants a treatment and patience. Sealing is only worth doing on paving that is genuinely dry.
Planting is soaked and sheeted before anything is mixed, drains and gullies near the work are covered, cars come off the drive and windows go shut on the side we are working. Everything we spray is a biocide approved for the job and used to its label, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers requires, and the run off is planned to pollution prevention guidance rather than worked out halfway through.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from the first visit to the last, one person to ring, and Thomas Hannen prices it himself. The quote is itemised by surface, with protection, access and where the water and residue go on their own lines. There is no conservation area over Sandleheath and only a couple of listed entries in the parish, so a wash here involves no application to anybody. The check is what you do afterwards: painting, coating or sealing a surface that has never been treated that way is a change rather than maintenance, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets out where that line falls. On a rendered wall in particular, decide it before the clean, because the preparation is different.
Cost
What decides the price of a clean
Nothing is priced by the square metre, because the same metre can be a minute or twenty depending what has taken hold. On these lanes the difference is usually access: a detached house with room to park the van by the door, a semi where the only way through is a shared path, and a terrace with no side access at all are three different set ups before a hose is unrolled. work at height rules settle what is reach pole work and what wants a tower. The rest is the surface, since render, old brick and block paving each take a different pressure.
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 has a date on it. Give us that date on the call, not after we have quoted: on an attached house we may need a word with next door before we can get set up, and fifteen miles out we plan Sandleheath into a day with the villages round it. Outside Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, by arrangement.
The one local thing
Half of this job happens over the boundary
Over half the homes in Sandleheath are semis, terraces or flats, and that changes the work in ways people do not expect. The gutter along a terrace is usually one continuous run with a downpipe at each end, so a blockage two doors along backs water up into your length of it and nothing you do to your own stretch will fix that.
A roof slope carries on over the ceiling next door, and moss on their half reseeds yours in a season. Fences, shared paths and paired drives mean spray, rinse water and residue do not stop where the deeds say they do. None of that is a reason to leave the work alone, but it is a reason to plan it rather than turn up with a hose.
What we do about it is straightforward. We look at the whole run rather than your section of it, and tell you honestly if the blockage is not on your property, so you are not paying to clear something that will fill again next month. We work from your side, sheet and protect planting, cars and windows on both sides of the boundary, and catch water at the line rather than letting it run onto somebody else's paving.
Where access genuinely has to cross next door's ground we ask you to square it with them first and we give you a date to give them. And if you want half a roof slope cleaned we will do it, but we will say plainly that the other half decides how long it stays clean.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
Sandleheath, Fordingbridge, Alderholt, Damerham, Breamore and the SP6 villages west of the Avon, 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
Sandleheath questions we get asked
Only two buildings here are listed. Does anything else restrict us?
Very little. Sandleheath has no conservation area of its own and two listed entries in total, so a wash of the walls, the roof or the drive is straightforward maintenance and needs no consent. The New Forest authority would only come into it if you changed the look of the building afterwards, by rendering over brick or coating a tiled roof. Cleaning something back to what it already was is not a change.
The ground stays boggy behind the house. Does that matter?
It matters for where the water ends up. Sandleheath sits on ground with impeded drainage, so anything tipped on a lawn or a border sits there rather than soaking away. We run the wash onto a hard surface and into a foul gully, bund the soft edges, and keep treatment off the planting. On drives we also allow a longer drying window before re-sanding, because that sub base does not shed water quickly.
Our detached house has a tall gable at the back. Can you reach it?
Usually from the ground. Detached houses are 28.0% of Sandleheath and most of them have a gable no ladder wants to lean against, so we work it with a pole system from a level standing on the lawn or the drive. Where a gable rises past the reach of the pole we price a tower for that elevation alone rather than for the whole building. Nobody stands on a wet tiled slope to save a line on a quote.
Why is the front wall clean and the porch corner black?
Because the sun does not get into it. The village faces south overall, so the open elevations dry quickly and only the shaded pockets hold growth, which is why the porch return, the gap behind a downpipe and the strip under a deep eaves stay black while everything round them looks fine. Those spots want the treatment left on them longer. Scrubbing harder does not work, it shifts the surface layer and leaves the roots.
Is autumn a bad time to book this out here?
It is the busiest time and it is also when the job earns its keep. The woodland and heath around Sandleheath drop their load into the gutters through October and November, so clearing before the winter rain is the whole point of doing it. We do avoid frost, because a wet render face that freezes overnight can spall, and we will not treat a wall with heavy rain due in a few hours to wash it straight off.
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Find out what will come up, and what will not
A free site visit in Sandleheath, then a written itemised price with every surface on its own line. Tell us if there is a date to work to.