Exterior cleaning in Sopley

Roofs, nearly all of one age. Three quarters of the housing here went up between the war and the early eighties and the peak of that was the seventies, so most of what we clean is concrete interlocking tile laid within a few years of itself. Moss sits in the channel of that tile and packs into the lap where one course covers the next, and once the lap is full the water goes sideways rather than down. It is a dry scrape and a brush, then a soft wash at low pressure through a wide nozzle with a biocide behind it. The older cottages towards the church and the mill are clay plain tile and slate, and those get less pressure again, because the force gets under a lap, works at nail heads you cannot see and washes out the mortar bedding under the ridge, which is usually the oldest thing on the building.

One continuous gutter, not your ten metres of it. Getting on for half the houses here are terraced, so a run of them shares a single gutter and a single roof slope. Clearing your length and leaving the rest is a short lived result. There are big mature trees through the village and along the river, so the gutters take leaf litter as well as roof moss: clearing is by hand or by vacuum, every outlet and downpipe is flushed through with water to prove it takes it, and the valley between two pitches is done at the same visit. On a terrace we would rather look at the whole run, and speak to the neighbours, than quote your section blind.

Render, pebbledash and painted masonry green on the sheltered and the north facing sides first, while the south west elevation takes the driven rain. We test the paint before we touch it, because masonry paint that has gone chalky comes off in sheets under a lance and hands you a redecoration, so that is a soft wash and a rinse in clean water. Algae is a film and goes quickly. Black spot and lichen are rooted into the surface and need a biocide and several weeks, not a bigger machine.

Drives, paths and patios are tarmac, slabs and block paving, with a few shared parking areas. A driveway in block paving comes up with a rotary surface cleaner and is then re-sanded, because the wash lifts the kiln dried sand out of the joints along with the weed. A patio or a path in the shade of a hedge is a safety job, not a cosmetic one. White fascia, soffit and gutter that has gone grey and streaked, and conservatory and porch glass, clean up off the same reach pole set up while we are there.

Planting below is sheeted and watered down before anything is mixed, every gully and drain in the fall of the work is covered, and anything we spray goes on at the strength on the label, which is the plain version of what the biocides regime the HSE administers asks of whoever is holding the lance.

No rate by the area, because what is on the surface decides the hours. Access is the first line: a terrace where the van pulls onto the front is one job, a cottage down a lane with a narrow gate and a hose run through the garden is another, and a farmhouse with outbuildings on three sides is half a day before a surface is touched. work at height rules decide what comes off a pole and what needs a tower. Getting the method wrong takes the surface off with the dirt, which is the expensive kind of clean.

We cover Sopley, Ripley and Bransgore on BH23, out through Burley, Thorney Hill and into Christchurch, and planning for this address is New Forest rather than Dorset, which catches people out on the Christchurch side of the river.

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.