Fascias, soffits and guttering in Barton on Sea
Old boards off, the rafter feet checked, and a new gutter run hung to a fall that drains. Stainless fixings on the seaward side.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A roofline job is a replacement, not a clear out. The old gutter and the old boards come off, we look at the rafter feet and the wall plate behind them, and a new run goes up on a fall that actually drains.
People here ring us for three reasons. A length of gutter has come away from the wall and there is a wet stripe down the render under it. The white boards have gone grey and the paint is peeling off the bargeboard on the gable. Or somebody has been in the loft and found the underside of the felt wet, which is usually a soffit with no air getting through it.
None of that is settled from the ground. We get up on the eaves, put a screwdriver into the fascia behind the gutter, and photograph what is there so you can see it too. Then you get a written itemised quote with the fascia, the soffit, the gutter run, each outlet and each downpipe on its own line.
The work
Boards off, rafter feet checked, a new run hung
What has actually failed. A soft fascia takes a screwdriver like cheese, and once it does the bracket screws have nothing to hold, which is why the gutter has dropped or pulled away. Peeling and blown paint on a timber board means water has been getting behind it for years. A run that sags between brackets, a leaking joint at a union, and water going over the back of the gutter in heavy rain are three different faults.
Stripping and renewing. The gutter comes off first, then the old fascia and soffit, so the rafter feet and the wall plate are visible. Rot usually stops at the last few inches of the rafter and those get cut back and spliced. New fascia goes on to a straight line, a felt support tray carries the underlay drip out over the gutter rather than down the back of the board, and a tilt fillet lifts the bottom course of tiles so they sit right. Capping plastic over a rotten fascia traps the damp against it, which is why we take the old boards off rather than clad them.
The gutter itself. uPVC in half round, ogee, square or deepflow, and the profile matters: a big hipped bungalow roof sheds more water into one run than a half round gutter will carry, and a deepflow section is the answer rather than a second downpipe. Timber fascias get painted properly if you want to keep them, cast iron gets its joints re-bedded and repainted where the run is worth saving, and aluminium is worth asking about on an exposed elevation. Brackets go back at proper spacing and the run is set to a fall, because a gutter hung dead level looks perfect from the pavement and holds water all year.
Outlets, downpipes and where the water goes. Every outlet, hopper, union, downpipe and shoe is checked, and we follow the rainwater down to see where it discharges. A downpipe into a silted gully, or one stopping short of a soakaway that gave up years ago, keeps staining the brickwork however good the new gutter is.
Air, birds and moss. New soffits get vents, or an over fascia vent strip where the soffit is too narrow, so the eaves keep an air gap into the loft and the condensation stops. Birds nesting behind a loose soffit and wasps in a gable end are common here, and both get sorted before the new boards go on. Moss off the tiles is what blocks an outlet, so we clear the run before we leave.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, the length of each run, stripping the old boards and gutter, the fascia, soffit and any bargeboard, the gutter, outlets and downpipes, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Renewing a fascia, soffit, bargeboard or gutter like for like is repair, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off. Barton on Sea has no conservation area over it and only a couple of listed entries near here, so on an ordinary house the board, the colour and the gutter profile are your choice. New Forest District Council is the authority, and where a building is listed, works that affect its character need consent before a board is touched.
Cost
What decides the price of a roofline
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 single storey bungalow with a clear side path, a two storey house with a conservatory sitting under the back gutter, and a block of flats where the run goes out over a communal path are three different platforms before a board comes off. 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.
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging off, or a fascia gone through
Ring rather than use the form. A length of gutter pulled off its brackets, a downpipe snapped at the bend or a fascia soft enough to put your hand through goes to the front of the queue, because the next heavy rain runs straight down the wall and into the brickwork. The first visit is about getting it supported and discharging somewhere sensible, and we price the run properly once we can see how far the rot goes. On the seaward side we would rather get a hanging length supported and discharging somewhere sensible than leave it swinging through an onshore blow. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Salt eats the fixings before it touches the boards
Barton on Sea sits a little over a kilometre from the water, and what salt goes for is not the plastic. It is the metal. Bracket screws, the fixings holding a downpipe clip to the wall, and anything mild steel behind a fascia corrode from the exposed end of the run inwards, so the gable nearest the sea lets go first while the sheltered end still looks sound. That is why a gutter here often comes away at one end and stays perfectly hung at the other.
It changes two things on the quote. We fix with stainless steel rather than whatever came in the box, and it says so in writing. And a north facing soffit on the seaward elevation stays damp between showers in a way it does not inland, which rots a timber board from behind and greens a white one on the face. Keep timber and that elevation wants painting on a shorter cycle than the rest of the house. Go to plastic and that is where the ventilation detail matters most.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Barton on Sea, Barton Common, New Milton, Milford on Sea and Highcliffe, broadly BH25, under New Forest District 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.
Questions
Barton on Sea questions we get asked
Can you just cap over my timber fascias?
Only if the timber under them is sound, and nobody knows that until somebody has pushed a screwdriver into it. Where the boards are solid and it is the paint you have had enough of, capping over is fair. Where the fascia is soft, capping seals the damp in against the rafter feet and you pay for the same run twice.
My gutter overflows at the back rather than the front. Why?
Usually the run has dropped away from the wall at the fixings, or there is no felt support tray and the underlay drip lands behind the gutter instead of in it. Sometimes it is moss packed into the outlet. Three different repairs, identical from the garden.
Does being this close to the sea change what you fit?
It changes the fixings more than the boards. Salt corrodes mild steel from the exposed end of a run inwards, so stainless steel screws and non ferrous fixings go on the seaward elevations as a matter of course.
Will new soffits stop the damp in my loft?
If the damp is condensation, yes. A sealed soffit with no air gap lets warm wet air sit against a cold roof and you get water on the underside of the felt. Soffit vents or an over fascia vent strip give the eaves somewhere to breathe. If a tile has slipped instead, that is a different job.
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Get a price for your Barton on Sea roofline
Tell us which run has given up and what you have noticed. Thomas comes out, gets up on the eaves, and puts an itemised price in writing. The visit and the quote are free.