Fascias, soffits and guttering in Downton

Cast iron. 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 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 village 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.

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 terrace with the run over a narrow pavement, a semi with a bay window under the front gutter, and a bungalow on the newer edge of the village are three different ways in. 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 Downton, Redlynch, Morgan's Vale, Woodfalls, Breamore and Fordingbridge, broadly SP5, under Wiltshire 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.