Exterior cleaning in West Lulworth

Slate, stone slate and thatch. The older cottages carry natural slate and stone slate, the later houses clay or concrete tile. On slate the moss sits in the laps and works its way under; on stone slate it lifts the peg and the whole slab moves, so the bulk comes off dry with a scrape from the gutter line up rather than with water. The slope is then soft washed at low pressure and left with a biocide on it to kill the spores in the laps. Ridge mortar on the old roofs here is lime and already tired, which is why nobody should point a jet wash at one. There is thatch in the village and it is not a cleaning job: moss on a thatch is a sign about the coat and the ridge, and that is a thatcher's work, not ours. What we can do is the wall underneath it.

Salt, and what it does here. At about 700 metres from the coast the walls never get long enough between showers to dry, so growth comes back faster and the biocide matters more than the wash. Limestone rubble, lime pointing and limewashed or painted render make up most of what you see from the lane, and all of it is soft: force strips paint in bands and washes mortar out of an open joint. Low pressure nozzle, a treatment allowed to dwell, then a rinse. Salt works on metal fixings from the edges inwards too, so while we are at the gutter we will tell you if a bracket has gone rather than leave you to find out in a gale.

Clearing gutters here turns up less leaf litter than inland and more grit and washed down moss, and every outlet and downpipe is flushed to prove it runs, with any valley checked because they silt up out of sight. Stone flags get modest pressure and more chemistry, because black spot lichen bonds into the stone and pressure enough to shift it takes the surface with it. Block paving is re-sanded with kiln dried sand after washing or the blocks start to rock. Planting is soaked and sheeted, every gully covered, and the discharge point agreed first. Products go on at the rate on the label and only where approved for that surface, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers requires, and pollution prevention guidance is why nothing here goes near a stream or the beach.

No rate per square metre, because the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two. Access decides most of it: a stone cottage on a lane with nowhere to put a van, a holiday let where the whole job has to fall between one changeover and the next, and a modern house with its own drive are three different jobs. Poles do a lot, some of it wants a tower, and work at height rules decide which. Ask each quote what method goes on each surface, whether a second visit is part of it, and where the water goes.

We cover West Lulworth, Lulworth Cove and the BH20 villages along this stretch of coast, out to Winfrith Newburgh, Wool and East Lulworth, and Dorset Council is the planning and building control authority for this address. 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.