Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Boscombe

What the fault usually is. A gutter pulled away from the wall, a run sagging between brackets, a leaking joint at a union, a downpipe snapped at the shoe, or a clean gutter that still overflows in a downpour. Sound timber stops a screwdriver. Rotten timber lets it in like cork, and then the brackets have nothing to hold. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and any capping come off as a set so we can see what is behind.

Behind the boards. Take a fascia off and you are looking at the rafter feet, the wall plate, the tilt fillet that kicks up the bottom course of slate or tile, and the end of the underlay, which should carry over a felt support tray and drip into the gutter, not onto the board. That eaves detail is set out in BS 5534. Soft rafter feet are cut back and spliced before anything new goes on.

The run. Lengths, unions, brackets, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes. We re-hang to a proper fall off a line, not level, leave each union its expansion gap, and set brackets at the spacing the profile is made for. Half round suits a small house, ogee sits flat to the fascia and carries more, and a big Boscombe villa roof with a long slope usually wants deepflow or a second outlet, because it throws more rainwater than a standard profile can take.

Materials. On newer homes and blocks most renewals go back in uPVC, which does not rot or need painting. On the older Boscombe villas the choice is less obvious. Painted timber fascias and carved bargeboards are part of how the house looks, and cast iron gutters and hoppers were fitted as standard. Cast iron rusts from the back of the run, the face no brush reaches, but a rusted length can often be replaced on its own. Seamless aluminium, rolled on site, is a good middle way on a long run.

Air in, water out. The soffit is the air intake for the loft, so soffit vents or an over fascia vent go back and the air gap stays clear, or you trade a sound roof for condensation on the underside of the felt. Approved Document F covers the ventilation side. At the bottom, every downpipe has to discharge into a gully or a drain, not onto the path. Birds and wasps get in through open joints in old soffits, and moss and debris off the roof block the outlets first.

One person to ring from the first visit to the last. 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.

Replacing a fascia or gutter like for like is a repair, with no planning or building control involved. Boscombe has five conservation areas of its own, and the council keeps the list; on a listed building or a converted flat, a change of material or profile on the front elevation is worth checking before it is ordered, and we flag it on the quote.

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 a tall converted Boscombe house, keep people out from under any loose length and do not climb up yourself, and on a block let the managing agent know too. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.

Call now: 07435 839745

Much of Boscombe's older housing sits inside one of its five conservation areas: the Victorian and Edwardian villas of Boscombe Spa and Boscombe Manor, the square at Churchill Gardens with its fretwork porches and tile-hung gables, the villas of Knole Road and the terrace on Undercliff Road. What gives those streets their look is very often the eaves: moulded timber fascias, carved or pierced bargeboards on the gables, and cast iron gutters with decorative hopper heads.

Whether a change of material needs permission depends on the building. On a house, replacing boards like for like is plain maintenance. On a converted flat or a listed building, changing timber to plastic on the front elevation may not be yours alone to decide, and an Article 4 direction can take householder rights away in a particular area, so we check your address against the council's records before quoting plastic in place of timber. Either way, we price both options: new timber boards cut to the old profile and a matched cast iron or aluminium run, and the plastic alternative. Replacing a carved bargeboard with a flat white board takes something off the street that is expensive to put back, so we will tell you honestly where we think keeping the timber is worth it and where it is not.

Nearby places we also cover for fascias, soffits and guttering, with straight-line distances from Boscombe, and the other trades we offer in Boscombe itself.

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