Fascias, soffits and guttering in Breamore

The parts. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard, with capping where somebody has clad over the timber already. On the water side the gutter, its outlets, the hopper heads on the taller elevations, the unions between lengths, the brackets, the downpipes and the shoes. On older buildings the brackets are often driven into the rafter feet rather than screwed to a fascia, which changes the job completely and is one of the first things we look for.

Working out what has gone. A screwdriver in the fascia behind the gutter tells you whether the board is sound or spongy. Blown and peeling paint means water has been getting behind it for years. On cast iron the failure is rust at the back of the socket, a joint weeping, or a length sagging where a bracket has corroded away. Overflow in heavy rain is often not a blockage at all: it is a run with no fall, or a gutter far too small for the slope feeding it.

Repair before replacement. Cast iron that is sound in the barrel can be taken down, cleaned back, re-bedded at the joints, primed and painted, and it will outlast anything plastic put up in its place. Timber that is sound can be filled, primed and repainted. Where the rot has gone through, the old board comes off so the rafter feet, the wall plate, the tilt fillet and the felt support tray can be checked and the underlay dressed to drip into the gutter. Capping over a rotten fascia hides the problem, and on a building of this age it is the wrong answer.

Choosing what goes back. Painted timber, cast iron, aluminium or uPVC, in half round, ogee, square or deepflow. Half round on brackets is what most of these buildings had and it usually stays. Where a long slope drains into one short length, a deeper profile or a second outlet solves an overflow that clearing never will. Aluminium is worth knowing about: it looks close to cast iron from the ground and does not rust.

Ventilation, water and wildlife. Old eaves breathe through gaps rather than vents, so closing them up with new boards is how a dry roof space turns damp, and Approved Document F is why vents go into new soffit work. We check where every downpipe discharges, into a gully, a soakaway or a shoe, because one emptying against a wall keeps the brickwork wet and driving rain finishes the job. Birds and wasps nest behind gapped soffits, and moss and debris off the tiles block the outlets.

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 brick and flint cottage with low eaves over a border, a farm building with one long open gable, and a two storey house on the village street are three different set ups before a board is touched. 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 Breamore, Woodgreen, Fordingbridge, Rockbourne, Sandleheath and the Avon valley villages, broadly SP6, 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.