Exterior cleaning in Wool

Concrete tile, and the ridge under it. Over half the village was built between 1945 and 1982, with the peak in the 1970s and early 1980s, so the standard covering is concrete interlocking tile, with clay plain tile and slate on the older houses down by the river and a little thatch. Moss beds into the channel and then packs the lap, and a packed lap makes water run sideways under the tile instead of down to the gutter. We work from the ridge down: the bulk comes away dry with a scrape and a stiff brush, and only then does anything wet go on, a soft wash and a biocide. On housing of this age the ridge tiles and the verges are usually still bedded in mortar, and mortar that has been up for forty odd years is often soft, cracked or already washed thin. A lance on a ridge finishes it off, which is how a clean turns into a roofing bill, so we check the bedding before anything is turned on and photograph what has already gone. Slate takes no jet wash at all.

Dry dash is the surface people ruin. Dry dash is pebbledash by another name: spar or gravel thrown onto a wet coat and left proud. There is a great deal of it here and it is the single most damaged surface in this trade, because it looks tough and is not. Pressure knocks the stone off in bare patches, and once a patch is bare no amount of touching up hides it. It gets a soft wash nozzle at low pressure and a biocide, and painted masonry and smooth render get the same. The older brickwork by the bridge has lime in the joints and is treated the same way as any old wall: brushed dry, then treated, never forced.

Block paving is everywhere here and it cleans up well, but it has to be re-sanded afterwards, because the wash pulls the kiln dried sand out of the joints along with the weed and blocks without full joints start to creep under the wheels. We use a rotary surface cleaner rather than a bare lance so the pressure is spread and the block faces stay on.

There is heath and pine on the edge of the village as well as trees through it, and pine needles are worse than leaves because they knit into a mat water runs straight over. Clearing is by hand or by vacuum, then every outlet and downpipe is flushed until it can be seen taking water, and any valley is cleared at the same time. Painted timber fascia and soffit get a soft wash and a brush, because pressure on old paint strips it. Drains and any gully near the work get covered, planting sheeted and watered down, and anything approved for the surface goes on at the strength printed on the label, which is what the biocides regime the HSE administers requires. Run off goes onto ground that will take it rather than across the drive into a road drain, and pollution prevention guidance applies to a house on an estate just as it does to a yard.

No rate per square metre, because the same square metre can be twenty minutes or two. Access decides most of it: a semi or a terrace where the only way to the back is a side gate means everything is carried through, a two storey house on the estate is comfortable pole work, and a detached place with a drive you can pull onto is the quickest of the three. work at height rules decide when a tower replaces a pole. Ask each quote what method goes on each surface and where the run off is going.

We cover Wool, Bovington, East Burton, Coombe Keynes and Winfrith Newburgh on BH20 and out to Wareham and the Lulworths, with Dorset Council as the local planning authority. 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.