Exterior cleaning in Walhampton and Portmore
Roof moss, green render, packed gutters and slippery paving, cleaned by the method each surface will take. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Exterior cleaning around Walhampton and Portmore is almost never about dirt. It is moss, algae and lichen growing on surfaces that never dry out under the trees, and it comes off with a low pressure soft wash and a biocide, not force. The pressure washer stays on the ground, and even there it does not go on everything.
Houses in Walhampton and Portmore usually go wrong at the roof, on one elevation or on the paving. A roof that has gone dark and started dropping moss into the gutters and down the path. One elevation that looks green and streaked while the wall facing the other way still looks fine. Or paving that has turned slippery enough that somebody has nearly gone over on it.
What we do about it is set by the surface, and that is the whole job. We survey the whole building first, work out what is growing and what it is growing on, then pick the method for the weakest thing on the building rather than the toughest.
Plain clay tile, painted render and soft old brickwork get treated, rinsed gently and left to die back over the following weeks. Block paving and concrete will take real pressure and are quicker for it. You get an itemised written price before anything is switched on, and a straight answer about how much of it comes back next winter.
The work
The work, under all those trees
Roofs under a canopy. Over a quarter of the housing in Walhampton and Portmore predates 1919 and the largest single band is pre-1900, so the older cottages around Walhampton and the lanes down towards Portmore carry plain clay tile and natural slate, with concrete interlocking tile on the newer houses.
All three go the same way under oak and beech: moss establishes in the laps, holds water against the tile and slowly lifts it. The bulk comes off dry, scraped from the gutter line upwards so the laps clear instead of packing, then a soft wash at low pressure and a biocide left on to finish the spores. What we will not do is put a lance on clay or slate. It takes the fired face off and washes the mortar out from under the ridge, and then you are paying for roof repairs to save a day on a clean.
Leaf fall is the standing problem. A gutter or valley under mature trees packs with mulch and spills into the fascia, so gutter clearing is worth doing on its own routine. Where a home here is a flat, the roof and the gutters usually belong to the freeholder and come out of the service charge, so it is worth settling who can instruct the work before anyone quotes.
There is painted render and limewashed brick on the estate cottages in Walhampton and Portmore, pebbledash on some of the post-war houses, and bare brickwork of an age that will not take pressure. All of it greens on the shaded side and all of it gets a soft wash: the treatment through a low pressure nozzle, time to work, then a gentle rinse. Force strips paint in stripes you can see from the road and takes mortar straight out of an old joint, so on anything lime bedded we test a patch round the back first.
More gravel and shingle in Walhampton and Portmore than anything else, with block paving on the newer closes and brick paviours at the older properties. Block paving gets controlled pressure with a rotary head and then re-sanding with kiln dried sand, because paving left with empty joints goes loose and weedy inside a season. Stone and old flags get less pressure and more chemistry, and black spot lichen honestly takes two goes. Beds are watered down and sheeted, drains and gullies covered, and where the run off goes is agreed before we start. Products are used at the rate on the label and only where they are approved for that surface, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers expects, and pollution prevention guidance is the reason nothing finds its way into a watercourse.
How it runs
Washing roofs, walls and paths under the Forest trees
Thomas comes out, looks at each surface and what is growing on it, and prices the job himself. The written quote sets out the method for each surface, access, protection for plants and windows, and where the run off goes. The quote and the clean are both one company's responsibility.
Under the oaks and pines in Walhampton and Portmore, roofs, walls and paths grow moss, algae and lichen quickly. On roofs and render we use a soft wash with a biocide. A blaster can strip the face off old clay tiles and soft brick. Low cottage eaves are reached with a pole; a three storey block needs a tower. Plants and ponds are covered, moss is bagged and taken away, and the gutters are cleared of what washes off. Spot a slipped tile or cracked render while we clean, and we point it out with a photograph and a price, and nothing is fixed unasked.
Washing a roof or a wall is maintenance, so there is nothing to apply for. Walhampton and Portmore is inside the New Forest National Park, where appearance is controlled: cleaning is fine, but painting brick that has never been painted is a change. More than ninety listed entries stand in the area, Walhampton House among them, and abrasive cleaning of a listed building can need consent, so we ask the Authority first. The Park’s heritage and conservation guidance shows where the line falls.
Cost
Moss, height and run off: what a clean costs
The same square metre can take a few minutes or most of a morning, so there is no rate. Reach. An estate cottage with eaves you can reach off a pole, a converted block three storeys up with shared gutters, and a house tucked behind mature planting need three different ways of getting up there. Some of it needs a tower, and the work at height rules decide which.
What is growing. Light green algae on render lifts after one biocide treatment. Thick moss on an old roof has to be scraped off by hand first, then treated.
The surface. Old clay tiles, soft brick and lime render need a gentle soft wash. Concrete paths and newer block paving can take more pressure.
Shade. A north facing roof under trees stays damp and grows back faster, so it may need treating again sooner than an open one.
Where the water goes. Near ponds, streams and the river, run off and chemicals have to be contained, which takes more setting up.
A second visit. Biocide keeps working for weeks after it goes on, so some roofs need a return rinse once the growth has died back.
Ask other quotes what method they use on each surface, whether a follow-up treatment is included, and where the run off goes.
If there is a date
A sale, a viewing or a slippery path
Cleaning is rarely an emergency, but it often has a deadline: a sale, a viewing or a family event. A path green with algae under the trees is a slip risk, so keep off it or grit it until it is treated.
On a house going on the market, treating early and coming back to rinse gives a better result than blasting the day before the photographs, so give us as much notice as you can. Our cleaning is done Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. With a date looming, call, and if we are mid-job we will call back as soon as we are off the roof.
Worth knowing
If you live in a flat, the outside is not yours to book
If your home around Walhampton and Portmore is a flat or a maisonette, in a block or in a converted house, the outside of it almost never belongs to the person living in it. The roof, the gutters, the render and usually the paths and the parking are the freeholder's, and they are maintained out of the service charge.
So if your bedroom ceiling sits under a mossy slope, or the communal downpipe is running down the front of the building, the first call is to the managing agent rather than to us. We are happy to be the quote they put in front of the leaseholders, and we will write it in the form an agent needs, surface by surface.
The reason to start that conversation early is the consultation. Where a freeholder intends to charge leaseholders more than a threshold set in law for one piece of work, section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 makes them consult formally first: notices go out, there is a period for observations, and estimates have to be obtained.
That is weeks rather than days, and all of it happens before a date is booked. If you want the block looking right by the summer, the conversation belongs in the winter. Where you own the freehold outright, or your flat is one of two in a converted house and the pair of you own it between you, none of that applies and you can simply ask us to come and look.
Who you are dealing with
Cleaning homes on both sides of the Lymington River
We clean in Walhampton, Portmore and the SO41 villages on either bank of the Lymington River, out to Boldre, Pilley and East End. The drive from our base in Boscombe is 13.7 miles, and planning for these addresses belongs to the New Forest National Park Authority.
We trade as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719, and Thomas Hannen owns it; he sees the surfaces and prices each clean himself. A 10 out of 10 from a verified customer sits on Checkatrade. The visit is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Walhampton and Portmore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Walhampton and Portmore?
Most repairs in Walhampton and Portmore 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 Walhampton and Portmore |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Walhampton and Portmore. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest South East Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Walhampton and Portmore. 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 Walhampton and Portmore
We rent a flat here. Can I book the outside cleaned?
A tenant usually needs the freeholder to book it. Wherever a flat sits, in a block or in a converted house near Walhampton and Portmore, the outside, roof and walls alike, belongs to the freeholder and is paid for out of the service charge. Ask the managing agent first. We are glad to price it for them and send the written quote to whoever holds the freehold, so nobody in the building is guessing at what is being done.
Does the National Park have a say in washing a house?
Cleaning is maintenance, so no consent is needed for the wash itself. What the New Forest National Park controls is appearance, and this village sits in the Forest South East conservation area, so like for like stays maintenance while a change of covering or material does not. If a wash leaves you wanting to paint the render or swap a slate, that is the point to ask them before anything goes on the wall.
The cottage walls are old and soft. Will washing harm them?
It can, if it is jetted. More than a quarter of the stock here predates 1919, at 26.9%, which means solid walls in lime that have to breathe and a face that comes away under pressure. Those we wash by hand at low pressure with a biocide, then let the treatment do the work over the following weeks. Cement patching and modern paint on a lime wall are the other things we look for while we are up there.
Which elevation gets done first on a house facing the water?
The south west one, because that is the face the weather comes at around Walhampton and Portmore. Rain carried on the wind gets into the openings and the corners long before it touches the middle of a wall, so staining starts under the sills and around the frames. We begin there while the day is still dry, since that side needs the longest dwell for the treatment. The sheltered elevations are usually a rinse afterwards.
Where do you park a van on the lanes down there?
On the verge where there is one, and off the lane entirely where there is not. The approach to Portmore is narrow and these are not verges to leave a van sitting on, so we bring the smaller vehicle and run hose from a tank rather than block the road. Where a drive is gravel we lay boards. Tell us at the visit if a gate or a cattle grid limits what will get in.
Nearby, and next door
Exterior cleaning near Walhampton and Portmore
Nearby places we also cover for exterior cleaning, with straight-line distances from Walhampton and Portmore, and the other trades we offer in Walhampton and Portmore itself.
Exterior cleaning nearby
Our other trades in Walhampton and Portmore
Exterior cleaning guides
Soft washing vs pressure washing: safe for a roof? How to clean a patio without damaging it Moss on a roof: does it need removing?Everything we do in Lymington Exterior cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for exterior cleaning in Walhampton
Tell us the address and what has gone green. We come out, look at every surface and put an itemised price in writing. No charge for either.