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.
Thorney Hill has two sorts of house standing on the same lanes: brick cottages that were up before the First World War, and post war houses with concrete tile roofs and render. They want opposite treatment, so the first thing worth settling is which one you have got. Get that right and the rest is a day on poles from the ground.
Most calls out here start in the autumn, when the gutters stop taking water and it comes over the front edge in a sheet every time it rains. The second most common is 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 a long run of gutter
Gutters first, on these lanes. Oak and pine come over a lot of the gardens, so the gutters take leaf as well as roof moss, and the point that packs solid is the outlet where the downpipe starts. Once that is blocked, water goes over the front edge and down the wall, and the black streak on the render underneath is the thing you eventually ring about. The valley where a rear extension meets the main roof fills the same way and is easier to miss. We clear, flush, check the fall and take the debris away.
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 here 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
From your call to a written price
One team from first visit to last, no sub-contracting, and an itemised quote: method by surface, protection, access, and where the water and residue go. Cleaning needs no consent anywhere. What is different about this address is who decides afterwards. Thorney Hill sits inside the New Forest National Park, so the planning authority for anything that changes how the building looks is the National Park Authority rather than the district council, and a coating, a new colour or a change of render gets looked at more closely here than it would a few miles up the road. 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 price of a clean
There is no rate per square metre. On these lanes the starting point differs before any kit comes out of the van: a brick cottage tight against the road, a seventies detached behind a gravel turning circle, and a bungalow with a long low roof are three different days. work at height rules decide what is reach pole work and what wants a tower. Then it is how bad it has got, since a light film comes off quickly and years of growth wants treating and time rather than more pressure.
If there is a date
A viewing, a visit or a deadline
Ring rather than use the form. We are under nine miles away, so coming out to look at it before you commit to a date is straightforward, and worth doing if the date is a sale, a survey or a letting inspection. Tell us on the call what it is for. Outside Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, by arrangement.
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 rather than 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
A local firm you can check
We cover Thorney Hill, Bransgore and the BH23 lanes across to Burley, Sopley, Ringwood and Christchurch. 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
Thorney Hill questions we get asked
Does the National Park control cleaning as well as building?
Not 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 rather than 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 are the gutters at their worst up here?
Late November, once the oaks have finished dropping. Thorney Hill has woodland and open forest on three sides, so gutters fill with leaf and needle litter through the autumn and then sit full through the wet months, which is when the fascia timber rots out. Clearing in early December catches nearly all of it in one visit. Doing it in October means doing it twice, and we would sooner say so than book two.
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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.