Fascias, soffits and guttering in Ferndown

Diagnosing it properly. Everything we get called to shows itself in one of six ways: paint peeling and blown on the face of a fascia, a board soft enough to take a screwdriver, a run that has dropped or sagged between brackets, a gutter pulled away from the wall, a leaking joint at a union, or an overflow in heavy rain when there is nothing in the run at all. The last one is the one people misread. If the gutter is clear and it still goes over, the problem is fall or profile, and no amount of clearing will fix it.

Off and open. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and gutter come off together. That is the only point at which anyone can see the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom course of tiles, and it is where a job stops being about boards and starts being about carpentry. Soft rafter ends get spliced. A felt support tray goes in where the underfelt has torn back over the eaves, because that is the route water takes to get behind a fascia. A tilt fillet sets the bottom course so it drips into the gutter rather than over the back of it. Tiles lifted at the eaves or verge are refixed as BS 5534 expects. If the timber turns out sound and dry, capping the face and lining the soffit is a fair, cheaper job and we will tell you so.

What goes back, and in what. uPVC is the usual choice and it takes a bracket screw far better than tired softwood. Timber suits an older or moulded profile and gets primed on all four faces. Cast iron, where it survives, is worth rubbing down and repainting rather than removing. Aluminium is the one to price where a run is long and unbroken, because it can be formed in one length with no unions to fail. Gutter profile is a real decision, not a colour choice: half round is fine on a modest roof, and square, ogee or deepflow hold more water per metre where a big or steep slope sheds faster than half round can take it in driving rain.

Fall, downpipes and air. The run is re-hung on new brackets at proper centres, falling to the outlet. Hung level it stands full all year, which perishes the union seals and keeps a board wet from behind. Downpipes are clipped straight and finished with a shoe so the water discharges into a gully instead of at the wall, hopper heads are checked, and staining down brickwork or render usually tells us where a pipe has been missing its target for years. Then the eaves ventilation: new soffits go up with soffit vents, or an over fascia vent where the soffit is too narrow, with the air gap over the loft insulation kept clear, because closing it is how you turn a dry roof into a condensation problem. Approved Document F sets the figures. Open corners get closed so birds and wasps cannot nest behind a soffit, and we flag any outlet blocked with moss and debris off the tiles.

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 bungalow with clear lawn all round, a chalet with a dormer cheek in the run, and a block of flats with the eaves over a parking court are three different jobs before a board comes off. 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.

Ferndown is bungalow country, and a bungalow changes the arithmetic of this job in two directions at once. A bungalow has roughly twice the roof of a two storey house with the same floor area, which means far more eaves, more gutter, more brackets and usually more downpipes. So there is more of it to renew than people expect when they ring.

The other direction is in your favour. Everything is low. A single storey run over open lawn is tower work rather than scaffold work, so the access line on the quote is a fraction of what the same length would cost on a two or three storey gable. That is worth knowing when you are deciding whether to do the front now and the back next year, because doing the whole building in one visit while the tower is already up is almost always cheaper than two trips. The other bungalow point is ventilation. A bungalow loft is broad and shallow at the edges, insulation gets pushed right into the eaves, and the gap closes up. With the soffits off, putting that right is quick and cheap, and it is the difference between a dry roof space and damp insulation every winter.

We cover Ferndown, West Parley, Longham, Stapehill and Wimborne, broadly BH22, 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.