Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Corfe Mullen

What a nineteen seventies eaves looks like when you open it. Most of the housing in Corfe Mullen went up between the war and the early eighties, and the detail is consistent: a softwood fascia nailed to the rafter feet, a thin soffit board tucked into the wall, a half round gutter on drive-in brackets, and a bargeboard up each gable.

Thirty odd years of paint later, half of these were capped in plastic rather than replaced. Pull the capping off and the timber behind it is often wet, black and soft, because the board was rotting when it was covered and nothing about being covered stopped it.

Strip out and check. Everything comes off, boards and gutter together, and then we look at the parts that actually matter: the rafter feet, the wall plate they bear on, and the bottom course of tiles. A rafter foot that has gone soft gets a new end spliced on. A felt support tray goes in where the underfelt has torn back over the eaves, which is where the water was getting behind the fascia in the first place, and a tilt fillet sets the bottom course at the right angle so it drips into the gutter. Tiles lifted at the eaves or the verge go back the way BS 5534 expects. Where the timber genuinely is sound and dry, capping the face and lining the soffit is a reasonable job and cheaper, and we will tell you so before we would sell you a strip out you do not need.

New boards, and the air behind them. uPVC is the usual answer on this Corfe Mullen stock, in white, black or woodgrain, and it takes a bracket screw far better than tired softwood. Timber still suits the older cottages and anything with a moulded profile, and cast iron rainwater goods are worth repairing and repainting where they survive. Whatever goes up, the soffit goes up vented, or an over fascia vent goes in where the soffit is too shallow to take one, and the air gap over the loft insulation is left open. Eaves ventilation is the difference between a dry loft and condensation dripping on the insulation, and Approved Document C and BS 5250 cover roof void condensation.

Gutter, fall and downpipe. The run goes back on new brackets at proper centres, falling to the outlet. Hung level it looks fine from the drive and stands full of water all year, which is what perishes the union seals and softens a board from behind. Half round suits most Corfe Mullen roofs, but a long steep slope, or a run taking two roof planes off a hip, does better in ogee, square or deepflow because it holds more before water goes over the back of the gutter. Downpipes are clipped straight, the shoe set so it discharges into a gully rather than onto a drive, and hopper heads checked. Open corners get closed so birds and wasps cannot nest behind a soffit, and we point out where moss and debris off the tiles are blocking an outlet.

No rate per metre, because a length of fascia on a straight bungalow eaves and the same length round a bay and a porch are different jobs.

Getting to it. A bungalow with clear ground all round comes off a tower. A semi with a conservatory under the back run, or a chalet with dormers breaking the eaves, means building the platform around them, and a two storey gable wants a scaffold. The work at height rules make access a line of its own.

Behind the boards. A rotten fascia can mean rotten rafter feet or a soft wall plate. Capping over it in plastic hides that for a few years. We take the old boards off, so whatever is behind them gets seen and dealt with.

What goes back. New uPVC boards, with ventilated soffits so the loft breathes at the eaves, a new gutter, each downpipe, outlet and hopper: each is a line, and so is setting a proper fall.

Testing. Where the old soffits might be asbestos cement, the sample test and safe removal are priced in openly at the start, not added later.

Anyone else quoting in Corfe Mullen should be able to say whether they will strip the old boards or cover them, what the plan is if the rafter feet have rotted, and whether new gutters and downpipes are part of it or only the fascia.

On this stock in Corfe Mullen the problem is often not a plain rotten fascia. It is a rotten fascia with plastic capped over it. When the original softwood on this stock began to go, a great many boards were clad rather than taken off. It was quick, it looked smart from the drive, and it left the rot exactly where it was, sealed in behind a sheet of white plastic with no way of drying out.

If your roofline was capped rather than replaced, the test is simple enough. Get up to it safely and press hard at the bottom edge of the fascia, and at the ends of the run where the gutter brackets screw in. Any give, any softness, any bracket that has started to pull, and the timber behind has gone. At that point the capping is holding the gutter up more or less on its own, and a run full of winter rain is a lot heavier than the same run in August. The honest answer then is to strip the whole lot off, splice or replace whatever the rafter feet need, and start again with the fall set properly. It costs more than capping it a second time. It is also the last time you will pay for it.

We fit fascias, soffits and guttering in Corfe Mullen, Broadstone, Lytchett Matravers, Upton and Wimborne, around eight and a half miles from Boscombe. Broadstone falls under BCP Council and the rest under Dorset Council. The business is Thomas Hannen's, and he comes and measures the runs and prices them himself.

The company, Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, is registered in England and Wales with the number 15471719. A verified customer has given us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Your site visit is free, and the written quote with each item listed costs nothing. Before you book a visit in Corfe Mullen, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Corfe Mullen 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.