Exterior cleaning in Thorney Hill
Roof moss, blocked gutters, green render and slippery paving cleaned on the Forest lanes, with the method matched to the age of the house.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Exterior cleaning in Thorney Hill depends on which sort of house you have: brick cottages that were up before the First World War, or post war houses with concrete tile roofs and render. They want opposite treatment, a gentle soft wash on one and a scrape and a treatment on the other, so settle that first. Get that right and the rest is a day on poles from the ground.
The trouble out in Thorney Hill usually starts in the autumn, when the gutters stop taking water and it comes over the front edge in a sheet every time it rains. Next comes a roof slope that has gone green and is now dropping moss into those same gutters. Third is the drive or the turning area, gravel or block paving, which has gone slippery and weedy at the edges where nobody drives on it.
They are the same problem at three heights, and the order to do them in is usually top down. There is no point washing a wall that a blocked outlet is going to stripe again in November. The site visit is free, the written quote prices each surface on its own line, and if the sensible answer is gutters this year and the rest next, we will say so rather than sell you the lot.
The work
Cottage brick, seventies tile and oak overhead
Oak and pine overhead add leaf to the gutters. Oak and pine come over a lot of the gardens, so the gutters take leaf as well as roof moss, and a blocked outlet puts the black streak on the render underneath. That is a gutter clearing job, best done before the wall is washed.
On the roof itself it is concrete interlocking tile on the post war houses, clay tile and a little slate on the older ones. The moss comes off dry, scraped and brushed down the slope so nothing is forced up under the laps, then the ridge and any valley is cleared and a biocide goes on to slow the regrowth. No jet wash touches a roof here: on concrete tile it takes the surface off and the roof greens quicker afterwards than it did before.
Over a fifth of the housing predates the First World War, and on anything that old the joints are softer than the brick, which means a treatment, low pressure and a rinse, with no lance at any distance. Where the pointing has already gone we stop and tell you. The later houses are mostly render or pebbledash over block, and pebbledash is the one to be careful with, since the stones sit in a thin bed of mortar and pressure takes them off in patches you then look at for years.
More roof in the paddock than on the house. Four in ten homes in Thorney Hill are detached and a fair share have stables, field shelters and outbuildings behind them: corrugated sheet, felt and old tile, timber post and rail gone green on the north side. It is ordinary work, but it needs planning around animals and around where the run off goes, which is not the same plan as a house on a street. Planting against the wall is wetted and sheeted, every drain and gully the run off can reach is covered, and anything we put on a surface is used at the rate on the label and for its approved use, under the biocides regime the HSE administers. Nothing is allowed to run to a ditch, a pond or out onto the open Forest, which is what pollution prevention guidance asks for.
How it runs
Cleaning moss and algae off roofs under trees
Tell us what needs cleaning: a concrete tile roof thick with moss, render streaked green on the shaded side, a patio or a gravel edged drive gone slippery. Houses set among trees stay damp and grow moss faster than open sites. Thomas visits, checks every surface, chooses how each will be cleaned, and sets the price himself. From the first cover to the final rinse, the clean stays with one company.
Each surface gets its own line on the quote with its method, along with protecting plants, ponds and cars, access, the biocide, and how the run-off and residue are dealt with. Roofs are cleaned by hand and brush, not blasted, so tiles are not damaged, and the gutters are cleared of the moss afterwards. Render and brick get a low pressure wash and a biocide used within HSE biocide rules. There is usually space to park on the drive. If the clean exposes a cracked tile or loose render, you see a photo and a figure before anything is repaired.
Cleaning needs no consent. What matters afterwards is who decides on changes: at Thorney Hill that is the National Park Authority rather than the district council, and a coating, a new colour or a change of render gets a close look. The National Park Authority's interactive property map tells you what applies to your address, and we check it before quoting.
Cost
What decides the cost of cleaning a house here
Cleaning a house in Thorney Hill has no rate per square metre. The starting point differs before any kit comes out of the van. The building. A brick cottage tight against the lane, a detached house behind a gravel turning circle, and a bungalow with a long low roof are priced as three separate jobs. Work at height rules decide what is reach pole work and what needs a tower.
How bad it has got. A thin green film washes off easily. Years of moss under trees wants a biocide and time rather than more pressure, and heavy growth on a roof is scraped off by hand first.
The surface. Concrete tiles, clay tiles, painted render and brick each take a different method, and the wrong one strips the surface or bleaches the colour.
Keeping it clean. Under trees, growth comes back sooner. A biocide wash after the clean slows regrowth, and cutting back overhanging branches helps more than anything we can apply.
Run-off. Near ponds, ditches and forest streams, the run-off is controlled so the biocide does not reach them.
When comparing, ask about the pressure used, the biocide chosen, and whether moss washed into the gutters gets cleared.
If there is a date
A date to meet, or a path gone slippery
Ring us if there is a date, a sale, a survey or a letting inspection, or if a path or step has turned slippery. We are 6.8 miles away, so coming out to look before you commit to a date is straightforward.
On that first visit we can treat a slimy step so it is safe. When you ring, say what the deadline is. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; for something urgent, phone, and if we miss it we get back in touch as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Two ages of house here, and they want opposite treatment
About a fifth of the housing around Thorney Hill was built before 1919 and a little over two fifths went up between 1945 and 1982. That is not two shades of the same job. The older houses have soft lime mortar, brick that has weathered soft on the face, and paint or limewash that is doing a job rather than decorating.
They take a treatment and the gentlest wash we can get away with. The post war houses have concrete tile, render over block and hard cement pointing, and they will take a proper soft wash and a biocide and look transformed for it.
The practical use of that is what you ask a quote to tell you. If somebody prices your whole property at one method and one rate, they have either not looked at it or they intend to treat a cottage wall like an estate wall, and it is the cottage that pays for that. Ask which method is going on which elevation and why. The other half of it is your maintenance timetable.
On old, rougher, more porous surfaces the growth comes back sooner, and the right plan is a light touch more often, not a heavy one every decade. On the newer houses the moss is in the tile laps and the gutter, and once it is out and treated properly you can leave it alone for years and just keep the rainwater running.
Who you are dealing with
Roof and wall cleaning across the forest villages
From Boscombe, where our base is, Thorney Hill is 6.8 miles. We take on roof, wall and paving cleaning across Thorney Hill, Bransgore and the BH23 lanes across to Burley, Sopley, Ringwood and Christchurch. At Thorney Hill itself, anything that changes how a building looks goes to the National Park Authority.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It belongs to Thomas Hannen, who looks at the building and prices the clean in person. You can see a verified customer's rating of 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and so is the quote, which is written and itemised. Before you book a visit in Thorney Hill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Thorney Hill?
Most repairs in Thorney Hill 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 Thorney Hill |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Thorney Hill. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Thorney Hill, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Thorney Hill. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about exterior cleaning in Thorney Hill
Does the National Park control cleaning as well as building?
The National Park does not control cleaning. Thorney Hill falls under the New Forest National Park authority, and their interest is in what a building looks like, so a wash that returns brick, render or tile to its own colour needs nothing from them at all. Where they do come in is a change of covering or finish, including coating a roof once it has been cleaned. Three entries here are listed, the Church of All Saints among them.
Which parts of the house give out first in this exposure?
The edges, every time. The most exposed elevation at Thorney Hill faces south west, and wind driven rain works at the openings, not the middle of a wall, so window reveals, the verge, bargeboard ends and the top of a render bell cast break down before anything else. A clean shows you precisely where that has happened, because failed areas do not come up the same as sound ones. We photograph those and list them apart.
Can a gravel drive be cleaned or is that pointless?
Gravel cannot be washed, but the gravel is rarely the problem. Detached houses on their own plots are 39.7% of Thorney Hill, and on those the drive greens over because the sub base holds water on ground that is naturally wet here. Raking it through and topping it up beats any machine. Where there is an edging, a path or a hard standing beside it, those wash and treat properly and are usually what you were looking at.
Where does the wash water go on a plot with no mains drain?
Into a container on the van. Plenty of properties around Thorney Hill run on a septic system with no foul drain to use, and biocide has no business going into a septic tank or out onto open heath. We contain the run off at the low side, collect it, and take it away for disposal. On the ones that do have a foul gully we use it, and we still keep treatment off the borders and away from standing water.
When is the best time to book a clean up here?
Late spring or early summer for walls and roofs, when a biocide gets the dry days it needs. Thorney Hill has woodland and open forest on three sides, so leaf and needle litter comes down right through the autumn and sits wet against everything through the winter. The gutters are best cleared in early December, once the oaks have finished, before the fascia timber starts to rot.
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Exterior cleaning near Thorney Hill
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Get a written price for your Thorney Hill clean
Send the postcode and tell us what needs doing. We come out, look at the roof, the gutters, the walls and the paving, and put the price in writing.