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.
Last updated
Exterior cleaning in Sandleheath starts with where your property actually stops. Over half the homes here 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.
On houses in Sandleheath the roof slope, the shaded wall and the paths are what tend to go. 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 in Sandleheath were built after the war, a good number of those since the eighties, so most of what needs 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, not 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, and on a shared run that makes gutter clearing a job to plan with the neighbours.
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 before anything starts, not halfway through.
How it runs
Soft washing render, brick and roofs in Sandleheath
Thomas prices this himself, surface by surface: the roof covering, the render or brick, the paving, and whatever is growing on each. Soft old brick and lime pointing need a gentler touch than a modern block drive. Each surface has its own line on the quote, and so do protection, the access equipment and what happens to the dirty water. One company is accountable for the lot.
Before we start, windows, air bricks and flower beds are covered. Roof moss comes off with a scraper, not a jet wash, which can crack old tiles and force water under them, then a biocide is sprayed at low pressure under the HSE biocides regime. Render gets a soft wash. Sandleheath drains to the River Avon, so run-off is kept out of surface water drains, in line with pollution prevention guidance. We rinse and sweep before leaving. If cleaning shows cracked tiles or blown render, you get told, with a photo and a price, and the choice stays yours.
There is no conservation area over Sandleheath and the parish has only two listed entries, so a wash needs no application to anybody. The check is what happens afterwards: painting, coating or sealing a surface that has never been treated is a change rather than maintenance, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls is where that line is drawn. On render in particular, decide before the clean, because the preparation differs.
Cost
What decides the price of cleaning a house in SP6
We quote by the surface, not by the square metre. How long a surface takes depends on what is growing on it and how delicate it is.
Access. A detached house with room to park by the door, a semi with a shared path and a terrace with no side access are three different set ups. The work at height rules decide what is pole work from the ground and what needs a tower.
The surface. Render, old soft brick, a concrete tile roof and block paving each take a different pressure and a different treatment. Getting it wrong takes the finish off with the dirt, and on old brick it can take the face off.
Shade and trees. A roof slope or wall that never sees the sun grows moss and algae faster. A biocide wash that keeps it back for longer is priced separately from a plain rinse, so it is worth knowing which you are being offered.
Paving. Cleaned block paving has its joints topped back up with kiln dried sand, and that is its own line.
Ask any quote what method each surface gets, whether a biocide treatment is included, and where the run-off goes.
If there is a date
A sale, a viewing or a tenancy with a date on it
Ring and tell us the date when you call, before the quote, because on a semi or terrace we may need to speak to the neighbours about access, and at 14 miles out we arrange a date that suits the route.
The front elevation, the drive and the path decide first impressions, and those can be done ahead of the rest. If moss has come off the roof into the gutters, say so, because they may need clearing before the next heavy rain. Booked work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If nobody picks up, we return the call as soon as possible.
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, not turn up with a hose.
What we do about it is straightforward. We look at the whole run of roofs and walls, not just your section, and tell you honestly if the growth reseeding yours starts next door. We work from your side, sheet and protect planting, cars and windows on both sides of the boundary, and catch water at the line so it does not 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
Who cleans houses in Sandleheath
We cover Sandleheath, Fordingbridge, Alderholt, Damerham, Breamore and the SP6 villages west of the Avon. Our base is on Wolverton Road in Boscombe, on the Bournemouth side, 14 miles away. New Forest District Council covers planning in Sandleheath, while Alderholt is in Dorset Council's area.
The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. Thomas Hannen, the owner, looks at every surface before writing a price. One verified Checkatrade customer gave a 10 out of 10. Both the visit and the written, itemised quote are free. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sandleheath?
Most repairs in Sandleheath 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 Sandleheath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Sandleheath. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Sandleheath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, Sandleheath has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Sandleheath. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Sandleheath
Only two buildings here are listed. Does anything else restrict us?
Very little restricts you. 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. New Forest District Council 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?
Autumn works for a wash, with care. The woodland and heath around Sandleheath drop their load through October and November, so the gutters are best cleared once it is down. We 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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Exterior cleaning near Sandleheath
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Free quote
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.