Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Downton

Cast iron usually stays. Where an old run is still cast iron it is usually worth keeping. The metal outlives everything fitted since. What fails is the putty and bolt at each joint, the fixing into a rotten fascia, and the paint.

Stripping a joint, re-bedding and re-bolting it, then preparing and painting the whole run inside and out, is a real repair with decades in it. We only recommend taking cast iron down when a length has actually cracked, and even then a single section can often be replaced rather than the lot.

Painted timber. The fascia behind an old gutter is the wettest board on the house. It fails at the end of a length, beside each joint, and along its top edge under the drip off the felt. Some of it can be cut out and pieced in. Where the whole board has softened, off it comes with the soffit and any bargeboard, and we will price both a timber replacement, which keeps the look and needs painting, and a foiled uPVC one, which does not.

What is behind the board. This is the part nobody quotes on because nobody can see it. Once the fascia is off you get a proper look at the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom course of tiles. Soft rafter ends are cut back and spliced. The tilt fillet is put back so the bottom tile lies right, and a support tray brings the felt out over the gutter lip where it belongs. That is why we strip rather than cap over rotten timber. Where a board is dry and sound, capping over is a perfectly good job and we will say so.

The rest of the system. Outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are each priced as their own item. Half round is the traditional profile, ogee is the square fronted one, and deepflow carries more water for the same width. Aluminium is worth pricing on a long Downton terrace run, because it comes in longer lengths with fewer joints to leak.

Fall, and where it goes. Here is the reason a clean gutter still overflows. Hung level it is a trough: the water stands, the outlet silts, and the first hard frost splits a joint. Re-hanging means striking a line, dropping the run steadily to the outlet and putting the brackets in tight, then filling it from the far end and watching it leave at the shoe. On a Downton terrace the downpipe often drops into a gully in a narrow passage or a soakaway, so we check that is taking the rainwater rather than backing up, because a blocked gully leaves staining and damp at the foot of a wall that looks exactly like rising damp.

Ventilation, and what nests up there. An old soffit that has dropped away from the wall is an open door. Nesting birds and wasps use the gap, and moss and debris coming off the tiles settles on top of the boards. So the new ones go up with the openings meshed and the verge closed. At the same time the loft gets its air back, through soffit vents or a vent above the fascia, with the gap over the insulation left clear, so the felt stays dry instead of growing condensation right through the winter.

You will not get a price per metre from us, because a straight bungalow eave and a run round an old cottage bay are different days.

How we reach it. Bungalows are a big part of Downton, and most are done off a tower. A semi with a conservatory under the back gutter needs the platform built around the glass, and a cottage whose eaves overhang the pavement needs scaffold that leaves room for people walking past. The work at height rules are why that is its own figure.

The timber you cannot see. On the older Downton houses the fascia is nailed to rafter ends that may have been wet for decades. Only when the board is off can anyone say whether those rafter feet, and the wall plate they sit on, are sound. Plastic capping over the top would hide the answer, so we strip the boards.

Cast iron. Some older houses still have cast iron gutters and downpipes. Repair, like for like replacement or a change to plastic is a real choice on a listed building.

Every fitting. Outlets, hoppers, corners and downpipes are counted one by one, and so is rehanging the gutter to a fall on new brackets. A soffit with vents, where the loft needs air, is priced separately.

When you get another quote, check whether they strip or overclad, what they do about rotten rafter ends, and whether scaffold is part of their number.

From our base at Boscombe it is 18.4 miles to Downton. We work on houses right across the village and out to Redlynch, Morgan's Vale, Woodfalls, Breamore and Fordingbridge. For Downton addresses, planning and building control sit with Wiltshire Council.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it, and he is the one who comes to your house and prices the roofline. One verified Checkatrade customer rated the work 10 out of 10. Both the visit and the itemised written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Downton, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Downton 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.