Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Ashley

What the roofline is. The fascia is the board on edge along the eaves that carries the gutter brackets. The soffit closes the gap underneath it. The bargeboard does the same job up a gable, sometimes under a capping. Then the rainwater side: the gutter, its outlets, any hopper, the unions, the brackets, the downpipes and the shoes. We renew all of it or any part of it, listed separately on the quote.

How we work out what has gone. A screwdriver tells you most of it. If the point pushes into the fascia behind the gutter, the board has rotted and painting it again is money wasted. Paint peeling in sheets means water has been behind it for years. A run sagging between brackets, a joint dripping once water moves, a gutter pulled off the wall, a downpipe apart at a bend: all fixable on their own. Overflow at the back of the gutter quietly soaks the brickwork.

What sits behind the boards. The fascia is nailed to the rafter feet, which sit on the wall plate. Above it sit a tilt fillet and a felt support tray, carrying the underlay over the edge so water drips into the gutter, then the bottom course of tiles. So the old boards come off, the bottom course is eased up, the tray and fillet are put right, and the new fascia goes onto sound timber. Where only the paint is tired, capping is a fair cheaper answer and we say so.

Materials, and the size of the gutter. uPVC on most houses, timber where a painted board suits the building, cast iron where it is already there and worth keeping, aluminium where a long run needs the strength. Profile matters more than people expect. Half round is the standard, ogee sits flat to the fascia and holds more, square is common on newer estates, and deepflow is for a roof that sheds more water than an ordinary run can carry. A big roof on a small half round gutter overflows every downpour however clean it is.

Air, water and wildlife. The eaves have to breathe. Soffit vents or over fascia vents keep an air gap through to the loft, and closing that off with new boards turns a dry loft damp over one winter, which is why Approved Document F matters on what looks like a cosmetic job. We check where every downpipe discharges, into a gully, a soakaway or onto a path, since a shoe aimed at a wall makes staining nobody can scrub off. Birds and wasps get in behind a gapped soffit, so the closures go back properly.

A roofline is not priced by area, or even simply by the metre. A metre over a bay is slower than a metre on a straight run.

Length and shape. A hipped Ashley bungalow has fascia on all four sides, with a corner at every hip. That means more metres, more corners and more joints than a two storey house of the same floor area, although the low eaves keep the platform simple.

Access. A long run at the back of a plot, a chalet bungalow with a dormer sitting in the eaves, and a semi with a bay window each need something different. A run over a conservatory means building the platform around it, and the work at height rules put that on its own line.

Behind the boards. Original timber fascias from the sixties have had a long time to let water into the rafter feet. Capping over with plastic hides it, so we take the old boards off and look.

The detail. Every outlet, hopper and downpipe is counted, and the gutter is set to a proper fall. On Ashley's clay, a downpipe that empties onto the path beside the wall is worth moving to a gully while the scaffold is up.

Ask whether the boards are being replaced or clad over, who pays if the rafter feet need splicing, and whether the gutter and downpipes are all new.

Rooflines in Ashley, Bashley and Fernhill, and across New Milton, Barton on Sea and the lanes towards Hordle, come under New Forest District Council. From our Boscombe base it is 8.9 miles. You can look up Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd yourself: registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Ashley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns it, and he is the one who walks round your eaves and does the pricing. One verified customer has rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Coming out costs nothing, and the written quote lists each item free of charge.

Most repairs in Ashley 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.