Fascias, soffits and guttering in Ashley Heath

Getting the old boards down. Three things come off before anything goes back: the fascia along the front of the rafter ends, the soffit tucked underneath it, and the bargeboard climbing the gable to the verge. On the 1970s and early 1980s houses out here all three are painted softwood, and half of them already wear a plastic cover board that somebody nailed on in place of doing the job. That cover board is the problem. It stops the timber drying and it leaves your gutter brackets fixed to something with no strength in it. Capping is honest enough over dry, firm wood, and we will happily tell you when that is what you have. Over rot, no.

The timber nobody sees. Once the fascia is down, the ends of the rafters, the plate they bear on and the tilt fillet that kicks the lowest course of tiles up all come into view. Spongy rafter ends are sawn back to sound wood and new lengths let in. Then a fresh felt support tray goes under the underlay so it finishes over the front of the board and every drip lands in the channel rather than down the wall. Tiles disturbed on the way go back down to the pattern set out in BS 5534.

Choosing the run, not just replacing it. Profile matters on a bungalow. Half round is the default and it is fine on a modest roof. Ogee sits flat against a square edged fascia and looks more like the older timber it replaces. Deepflow simply holds more, and on a long hipped roof tipping everything into one length that is the difference between a gutter that copes in November and one that empties over your path. Everything metal or moulded goes with it: brackets at proper centres, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes, shoes. The boards go up in uPVC. Then the whole length is set falling to the outlet, because a run put up dead straight looks lovely from the drive and stands full of water for twelve months.

Air at the eaves, and the jobs that stay small. While the soffit is off, it costs almost nothing to put eaves ventilation in. A vented soffit, or an over fascia vent where the board is too shallow for one, holds the air gap open above your loft insulation and takes the condensation argument off the table. Plenty of what we do here never gets as far as a replacement, mind. One dripping union, a bracket that has torn out of soft wood, a snapped downpipe, an outlet stuffed with moss and debris washed off the tiles, paint peeling on a bargeboard that is otherwise fine. Those get refixed, re-hung or swapped piece by piece. Wasps are seen to first, and a nest behind a soffit is closed up only once the birds have finished with it.

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 detached bungalow off a quiet road, a chalet with a dormer in the run and a house with a conservatory under the back gutter are three different jobs. 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.

Just over half the homes in Ashley Heath are bungalows, and that changes this job more than it changes any other trade. A bungalow spreads the same floor area over a much bigger footprint, so there is far more eaves for the size of the house, more corners to turn, and often a hip on all four sides feeding one long gutter run. You are buying metres of fascia and gutter here, not rooms.

Access works in your favour. Most of it comes off a tower or a ladder rather than a scaffold, and nothing stands over your garden for a fortnight. A low eaves is also easy to keep an eye on. Stand under it after heavy rain with a torch and look up: a stained soffit, a fascia that gives under your thumb at the corners, or daylight where the board meets the wall all say the same thing, and it is cheaper dealt with then than after the gutter has pulled the brackets out of the timber.

We cover Ashley Heath, St Leonards, St Ives, Ringwood and Verwood, broadly BH24, 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.