Fascias, soffits and guttering in Beacon Hill

Timber that has done its time. The original boards on this stock are painted softwood, and softwood behind a gutter stays damp. It fails at the ends of a run, at a joint, and anywhere a leaking union has been dripping down the face of it for years. Peeling and blown paint is the warning; a screwdriver going into the board is the answer. Where it is soft the fascia, the soffit and any bargeboard come off together, because renewing one and leaving the others is a job you pay for twice.

What we find behind them. The rafter feet and the wall plate are the parts that matter, and nobody sees them until the boards are off. Most of the time they are fine and we cut out one soft rafter end. While the eaves is open the tilt fillet goes back under the bottom course of tiles, and a support tray is fitted so the roofing felt reaches out over the fascia and sheds into the gutter rather than down the inside of the wall. That is the argument against capping over rot: the new board looks right for years while the timber it is screwed to keeps going. Over a dry, sound board, capping is fair and we price it.

Where the water ends up. Rainwater is only solved when it has somewhere to go. We check that each downpipe actually discharges into a gully or a soakaway rather than onto a path, because a shoe pointing at nothing puts damp into the brickwork and leaves a stained stripe down the wall. Driving rain pushes water at the back of the gutter, which is where a missing support tray shows up as a damp patch at the top of a wall. Moss and debris coming down off the tiles is what leaves an outlet blocked, so new outlets go in where the old ones are pitted, and the verge and the ends of the run get closed off properly.

Plastic that has done its thirty years. Where a roofline was already replaced in uPVC, it is now old enough to have gone brittle. Sunlight chalks the surface, union seals harden and weep, and brackets lose their grip so a length bows in the middle. Look for a sag between brackets and a green stripe on the wall under a leaking joint.

Profile and fall. Half round is the common run on this stock, ogee is the square fronted profile that sits flat to the fascia, and deepflow holds more for the same width where a big slope drains into one short length. Whether it empties, though, comes down to the fall. A level run is a trough. So we strike a line, drop it steadily towards the outlet, space the brackets tightly enough that no length can bow between them, and fix every one into timber that will hold a screw. Water in at one end, out at the shoe, and the downpipe clipped back and delivering into a gully so it is not soaking the brickwork.

Bungalows and the loft above them. A quarter of the homes here are bungalows, where the eaves is low, the overhang is deep and the roof space is large for the size of the house. That space needs a through draught. So the eaves ventilation goes in as the boards go back, through the soffit or over the top of the fascia, and we check the air gap above the loft insulation has not been stuffed shut by a roll pushed too far in. Starve a loft of air and you get condensation on the felt in the first cold week of the year. A deep soffit also suits nesting birds and wasps, so every opening is meshed, and any moss and debris washed off the tiles comes out of the outlet before we leave.

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 with a deep overhang over a border, a two storey semi with a garage roof under the back gutter, and a block of flats with a communal run 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 Beacon Hill, Corfe Mullen, Upton, Lytchett Matravers, Sturminster Marshall and Broadstone, broadly BH16, 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.