Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Beacon Hill

Timber that has done its time. The original boards on this Beacon Hill 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, not 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 and not 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 Beacon Hill 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 Beacon Hill's housing, 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. On a Beacon Hill bungalow 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.

We price the run rather than the metre, because a straight gable end and a run that turns round a bay window are different work.

How we reach it. The eaves of a bungalow can be done from a tower. A two storey gable wants a scaffold, and a conservatory or a flat-roofed extension under the gutter means building the platform around it. The work at height rules set that, so it is priced as its own item.

The timber behind. Rot in a fascia usually means water has sat there for years. Behind the board, the rafter feet and wall plate may be sound or may need splicing, and nobody can tell until the old board is off. That is why we do not clad over old boards.

Corners, outlets and the fall. Every external corner, stop end, outlet, hopper and downpipe is a line of its own. A gutter hung dead level holds water and drips from its joints, so it goes back up with a fall to the outlets.

Where the water ends up. Beacon Hill sits on sandy ground, but a downpipe that simply spills onto the soil next to the wall, instead of into a gully and the drain, keeps the footings wet. Moving a downpipe or adding a gully is worth pricing now, and Approved Document H covers where rainwater should go.

Ask other quotes whether the boards come off or get capped, what they do if the rafter feet have rotted, and whether the downpipes are part of it.

Beacon Hill is 9.8 miles from our base in Boscombe, off the A350 in the BH16 postcode, and we also cover Corfe Mullen, Upton, Lytchett Matravers and Broadstone. Dorset Council is the local authority, though a straight roofline replacement never needs it.

You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The firm is Thomas Hannen's, and Thomas is the one who inspects the fascias and puts the price together. A verified customer rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Both the visit and the written quote, line by line, are free. Before you book a visit in Beacon Hill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Beacon Hill 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.