Fascias, soffits and guttering in Christchurch
Rotten fascias, gutters pulling off the wall and rusted cast iron, put right across Christchurch and Mudeford. Free site visit and a free written price.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A Christchurch roofline usually fails at the fixings long before the gutter or the board does. Two kilometres from the water, the screws, the brackets and the nails in a fascia corrode from the outside in, and a run that looks perfectly sound drops off the wall in a gale.
People here ring about three things. A gutter pulling away from the wall, taking its brackets with it. A soffit that has gone soft and dropped at one corner, usually where a downpipe has been discharging against the wall for years. And rust bleeding out of a cast iron run and staining the front of a town house. All three are roofline work rather than roof work, and none of them can be judged from the pavement. We put the access up, take a section of gutter down, get a screwdriver into the board and photograph what is behind it, then price the run elevation by elevation in writing.
The work
Boards, gutters and fixings this close to the water
Everything that makes up a roofline. The fascia carrying the gutter brackets, the soffit under it, the bargeboard up a gable, the capping over an older board. Then the gutter with its outlets, unions, brackets and stop ends, the hopper heads on taller town elevations, the downpipes and the shoes. Any one can be renewed on its own, and the quote separates them.
Salt, and what it does to a fixing. This close in, salt settles on the roofline and keeps it damp between showers, which is exactly the condition that eats a mild steel screw or a gutter bracket. Cast iron rusts at the socket, and the nails holding a timber fascia to the rafter feet corrode to nothing while the board looks fine. So we use non ferrous fixings on the seaward elevations as a matter of course, and it says so on the quote. BS 5534, the code of practice for slating and tiling takes the same line about fixings in an exposed position on the roof above.
Diagnosis. A screwdriver into the fascia behind the gutter answers most of it: soft timber means the board has rotted and painting it again is money wasted. Peeling and blown paint, a run sagging between brackets, a length dropped away from the wall, a leaking joint at a union, or overflow at the back of the gutter are separate faults with separate fixes.
What we do about it. The gutter comes off, the old boards are stripped rather than clad over, and the rafter feet, wall plate and tilt fillet are checked while they are visible. The felt support tray goes in so the underlay drips into the gutter and not behind it, the bottom course of tiles and the verge go back, and the new gutter is re-hung to a fall with brackets at the right spacing. A gutter hung dead level holds water all year. Capping over sound timber is a fair, cheaper job and we say so when that is what you have.
Materials, air and water. uPVC on most houses, timber where a painted board suits a period frontage, cast iron repaired where it is original, aluminium on a long run. Half round, ogee, square or deepflow, chosen by how much water the slope sheds. New soffits carry vents so the eaves ventilation and the air gap into the loft survive the job, which is what Approved Document F is about, and a sealed eaves is how you get condensation. We check every downpipe discharges into a gully or a soakaway rather than at a wall, and close the soffit against birds and wasps.
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 roofline like for like is repair and maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control. Christchurch Central is a conservation area and there are 24 listed entries in the town, and there appearance is controlled: taking cast iron off a frontage and putting white plastic up instead is a planning question rather than a repair. the council's list of conservation areas, so you can check your own address. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is the authority.
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 town terrace with the run over a pavement, a block of flats with a communal path under the eaves, and a detached house with a conservatory at the back are three different platforms. 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. Christchurch is a few minutes from the yard, so a length hanging over a footway here is usually a same day or next day look rather than a wait. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Inside the conservation area, the roofline is part of the view
Christchurch Central is a conservation area, and what that controls is appearance. It does not stop you repairing anything. Renewing a rotten timber fascia in timber, or taking cast iron down, cleaning it back and repainting it, is maintenance and needs nobody's permission. Swapping the material or the profile on an elevation people can see from the street is where it turns into a planning matter, and that is a call to the council before the order goes in rather than after the scaffold comes down.
Two things follow. If you are on a frontage inside the area, ask us to price the repair as well as the replacement, because on cast iron the repair is often the better buy and it keeps you clear of the question. And if the building is listed, the controls cover all of it, so even a like for like renewal is worth checking first. Outside the area none of this applies.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Christchurch town, Purewell, Stanpit, Mudeford, Somerford and Burton, broadly BH23, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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
Christchurch questions we get asked
Our flat is in a converted house. Can we order the work?
Usually not. Flats are a large share of the homes in the town, and under most leases the roof, gutters and downpipes belong to the freeholder and are maintained out of the service charge. Report it in writing to the managing agent and ask that we are invited to quote.
Do we need stainless fixings this close to the sea?
On the seaward elevations, yes. Salt keeps the roofline damp between showers and mild steel screws and brackets give up early, which is why a sound looking gutter comes off the wall in a gale. Non ferrous fixings cost very little more and they are itemised.
Can the cast iron on the front be kept?
Often it can. If the barrel is sound, the run comes down, gets cleaned back, the joints are re-bedded and it is primed and painted. That also avoids the conservation area question that changing to plastic would raise.
How long does a roofline job take here?
Most houses are two or three days once the access is up, longer if a run sits over a pavement and the footway has to be managed. Nothing is left open overnight, so an elevation we start is closed and watertight before we leave.
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Get a price for your Christchurch roofline
Tell us the address and which runs are giving trouble. Thomas comes out, checks the board behind the gutter and puts an itemised price in writing. The visit and the quote are free.