Fascias, soffits and guttering in Alderholt

The boards. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard are one system and they tend to fail together. A timber fascia goes at the ends and behind the gutter first, where it stays wet longest, so we test it with a screwdriver rather than by eye: if the point sinks in, the board has gone whatever the paint looks like. Soffits rot from the back, and the giveaway is one that has dropped away from the wall or a section a bird has worked open. Bargeboards and the capping to a gable take the weather sideways and usually go last.

Capping, and when it is fair. Capping means screwing plastic over the old timber and calling it new. Over a sound, dry, well fixed board that is a perfectly reasonable job and we will quote it. Over rot it is a cover, not a repair, and the timber carries on softening underneath with the fixings holding into nothing. We strip the old boards off as standard so the rafter feet, the wall plate and the tilt fillet can be seen, and we make good the felt at the eaves with a support tray so the underlay drips into the gutter instead of behind it.

The gutter. Half round is what most of the older runs here are. Ogee is the square fronted profile that sits flat against the fascia, and deepflow carries more water than half round of the same width, which matters where a long or steep slope sheds into one short run. Outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are renewed or refixed one at a time. Materials run from uPVC to aluminium on a long straight elevation, and cast iron on the few older properties that still have it, which we would rather re-bed and paint than rip off.

Hanging it properly. A gutter set dead level looks right from the ground and holds water in every dip all year, which is what silts an outlet and rots a bracket fixing. We set a line and re-hang to a fall towards the outlet, with the brackets close enough together that the run cannot sag between them and each one screwed into sound timber. Then water goes in at the far end and we watch it come out at the shoe, and the downpipe is clipped back with its shoe aimed into the gully rather than at the path beside it.

Ventilation and nuisance. With the soffit off, this is the cheap moment to put eaves ventilation right. Soffit vents or an over fascia vent hold an air gap above the loft insulation, and a roof space that cannot breathe is where condensation and damp timber start. Birds and wasps get in behind a rotten soffit and through a gap at the verge, so mesh and closures go on as the new boards go up, and the outlet is picked clear of the moss and debris that had it blocked.

No rate per square metre, because a metre of fascia over a bay is not the same metre as one on a straight gable.

Getting to it. A bungalow on one of the newer closes, a two storey detached with a bay window under the front gutter, and an older cottage with a low eaves over a border are three different ways in. A bungalow run comes off a tower, a two or three storey gable wants a scaffold, and a run over a conservatory or a bay window means building the platform around it. The work at height rules are why the access is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.

What is behind the boards. Rotten fascia is a symptom. The question is whether the rafter feet and the wall plate behind it are still sound, and nobody knows until the old board comes off. Capping over with plastic hides that instead of fixing it, which is why we take the old boards off rather than clad them.

The run, not the metre. A straight gable is quick. Bay windows, a conservatory in the way, a corner return, a run that has to be worked around a satellite dish or a service cable, and every outlet, hopper and downpipe are priced one at a time. So is putting the fall back: a gutter hung level looks fine and holds water all year.

Comparing quotes? Ask whether the old boards are coming off or being capped over, what happens if the rafter feet or the wall plate turn out to be rotten, whether the gutter, outlets and downpipes are all being renewed or only the fascia, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.

We cover Alderholt, Cranborne, Verwood, Fordingbridge and the villages either side of the county line, broadly SP6, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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.