Fascias, soffits and guttering in Corfe Castle

Iron. Plenty of houses here carry no fascia whatsoever. The channel hangs off rise and fall brackets driven into the rafter ends, ogee or half round, bolted at every union. Iron almost never fails along a length. It fails at the joints, where the bolt and the bedding have given out, and along the rear face that no brush has touched in decades. What follows is rust, a run that sags and holds water, and a stain and green growth down the stonework. The cure is to take it down, wire the rust back, re-bed and re-bolt the unions, paint front, back and inside, and re-hang it falling properly on sound brackets.

Timber. Where boards do exist, a fascia, a soffit or a bargeboard up the verge, they are lifted off rather than capped over rot, and we will not cap over a soft board. That exposes the rafter ends, the plate they sit on, and the tilt fillet beneath the lowest tiles. Soft ends are cut away and pieced solid. A felt support tray goes in so the underlay finishes over the board and its water lands in the gutter rather than soaking back into the wall. Any tile disturbed is refixed as BS 5534 requires.

Plastic, and where it belongs. On a modern house at the edge of the village, or a rear elevation nobody can see from the lane, uPVC is a perfectly sensible answer and we will say so. On a frontage it usually is not, and a cracked cast section is better matched in iron or in aluminium that reads the same from across the street. Downpipes, hopper heads and shoes are treated on the same principle, and if the pipe currently empties onto the paving rather than into a gully we would sooner put that right while access is up.

Air, and the jobs that stay small. A soffit being renewed is the moment for eaves ventilation, either a soffit vent in the panel or an over fascia vent above it, so an air gap stays open over the loft insulation and winter condensation is not mistaken for a roof leak. Much of what we attend here is minor: a leaking joint, a bracket working loose of the wall, a length that has dropped out of fall, a downpipe snapped at the bend, a blocked outlet choked with moss and debris. Those get refixed, re-hung or replaced singly, and wasps or nesting birds behind a board are dealt with before anything is shut up.

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 cottage with the run straight over the pavement, a house set up a bank behind a wall and a newer place on the edge of the village are three different jobs. 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.

People hear conservation area and assume nothing can be touched. It is narrower than that, and it is worth knowing which side of the line your house sits on. If the building is listed, the rainwater goods are part of what is protected, and swapping a cast iron ogee run for white plastic is a change of character that needs consent first. Repairing and repainting the iron you already have is maintenance, and that is the route we would push you towards anyway.

If the building is not listed, replacing gutters and boards is usually still your own decision, with one catch worth checking. An article 4 direction can take the ordinary freedoms away street by street, and you can look your address up before anyone orders materials. What we will not do is talk you into plastic on a frontage that faces the square and then leave you arguing with the council about it.

We cover Corfe Castle, Church Knowle, Kingston, Wareham and Swanage, broadly BH20, 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.