Exterior cleaning in Winterborne Kingston

Thomas comes out and looks at what needs cleaning: roof tiles, render, brick, paths or a drive. He checks each surface first, because soft old brick, lime pointing and some render cannot take a pressure washer.

The quote itemises the method for each surface, access, protection of plants and windows, any biocide treatment, and where the run off goes. On a house near the North Winterbourne, the run off cannot go straight into the stream, so it is collected or let soak into open ground. All of it is covered by one written quote from one company.

Low walls and paths are done from the ground. Two storey walls use reach poles or a tower, and roofs need proper access. Plants are covered, windows protected, and the ground is rinsed and swept at the end. If the cleaning shows open joints, cracked render or slipped tiles, we photograph them and price the repair before anything else is done.

Cleaning is maintenance, and with no conservation area over Winterborne Kingston there is nothing to apply for before we start. The exception is a listed building, and the parish has seven, including the church of St Nicholas. If a wash uncovers open joints or loose render on one of those, the repointing or render repair needs listed building consent from Dorset Council before it is done, not after. Any biocide we use falls under the biocides regime the HSE administers.

Most exterior cleaning has a date on it: a house going on the market, a letting inspection, or a scaffold about to come down. Some of it is a hazard, like a path or step gone green and slippery.

For that, spread grit or sand on it and keep people off until we come. Tell us the date or the problem when you ring, and we will give you an honest answer on when we can do it. The first visit looks at the surface and agrees the method. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If it matters now, call, and if nobody picks up we phone you back as soon as we can.

Call now: 07435 839745

The village sits in an open shallow valley with arable ground on every side and very little to break the weather. That has a direct effect on cleaning, and it is the reason two elevations of the same house often need two different jobs. The south west face takes the driven rain.

It gets soaked repeatedly, so what you see there is usually a thin algae film, blackened render and paint that has started to blister and lift, and cleaning it will make it look better without touching why it keeps happening. The north and north east face never gets enough sun to dry out between showers, so it holds damp for days and grows the thick stuff: deep moss on the lower courses, lichen and black spot on the render, and green right up the downpipe.

What to do with that is straightforward once you know it. On the sheltered side, treat rather than force, and expect the improvement to keep coming for a month. On the exposed side, get the pointing, the render and the rainwater goods looked at while somebody is up there, because a wall that stays wet nearly always has help from a joint or an overflowing gutter. There is a second practical point on a site this open: there is nothing to shelter a spray.

If the wind is up we brush product on rather than spray it, or we move you to another day, because drift carries much further across flat arable than people expect and it is not going onto a neighbour's garden or a grazing paddock on our account. If you are comparing prices, ask each firm which elevation they would start on and why. The ones who have thought about it will have an answer.

Nearby places we also cover for exterior cleaning, with straight-line distances from Winterborne Kingston, and the other trades we offer in Winterborne Kingston itself.

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