Fascias, soffits and guttering in Fordingbridge
Repairs priced as repairs, replacement where the board behind the gutter has gone. Rafter feet checked before anything new is fixed to them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
We renew and repair the roofline. That is the fascia and soffit at the eaves, the bargeboards up the gable, and the gutter, outlets, hoppers and downpipes that carry the water off the roof and away from the wall.
Two calls come in more than any other. The first is a gutter that has stopped behaving: overflowing at the same spot, sagging in the middle, or leaning away from the wall so it spills at the back. The second is a fascia that has gone. The paint blistered a few winters ago, the timber went dark, and now the whole run is moving.
Both need the same first step, which is somebody up at the eaves rather than looking from the drive. We lift the gutter, test the board behind it with a screwdriver, look at the rafter feet and photograph what is there. The quote is written and itemised: boards, gutter run, each outlet, each downpipe and the disposal, priced separately so you can see what you are paying for.
The work
Renewing a roofline, run by run
Sorting repair from replacement. A soft fascia is a replacement, because the gutter brackets screw into it and nothing you fix to soft timber stays put. A run that sags between brackets, a leaking joint at a union, a cracked hopper, a downpipe off its clips or an outlet packed with moss are repairs, and they are often mistaken for the bigger job. Water going over the back of the gutter rather than the front is its own diagnosis again, usually a run that has tipped towards the wall or an underlay dripping behind the board.
Taking the old run down. Gutter first, then fascia and soffit, and now the rafter feet and the wall plate can be seen and judged. Rot in a rafter end normally goes back only a few inches and gets cut out and spliced. A felt support tray carries the bottom edge of the underlay out over the gutter so it stops running down behind the board, and a tilt fillet lifts the bottom course of tiles to the right angle. Capping plastic over an existing rotten fascia skips every one of those checks, seals the damp in and leaves the new boards hanging on old timber. Where the timber is sound and dry it is a different story, and capping over is then a reasonable and cheaper job.
What goes back. uPVC boards with vented soffits, and a gutter chosen for the roof it is draining. Half round for a standard run, ogee where the squarer face suits the elevation, square, or deepflow where a big slope empties into one short length and a normal section simply will not carry it. On the older buildings in town, painted timber can be renewed in timber and cast iron is frequently worth saving, with the joints re-bedded, the run re-hung and everything repainted. Aluminium in a matching profile is the other option where the look matters.
Fall, brackets and discharge. Brackets go back at proper spacing and the run is set to fall to the outlet. A gutter hung dead level looks completely right from the pavement and holds water in it every day, which is what turns it green, drops it between the clips and eventually pulls it off the wall. Outlets, unions, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are renewed or refixed, and we follow the rainwater to where it discharges. A pipe into a silted gully or over a soakaway that stopped taking water years ago will keep staining the brickwork however good the run above it is.
Ventilation and the nuisances. Soffit vents, or an over fascia vent strip where the board is too narrow to take them, keep a continuous air gap through the eaves into the loft. Without it warm damp air sits against a cold roof and you get condensation on the underside of the felt, which people usually report as a leak. Birds get in behind a soffit that has lifted and wasps into a gable end, and both are dealt with before new boards go on. Moss off the tiles is cleared out of the run and the outlets before we leave.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, the length of each run, stripping the old boards and gutter, the fascia, soffit and any bargeboard, the gutter, outlets and downpipes, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Renewing a fascia, soffit, bargeboard or gutter like for like is repair, so no planning application and nothing for building control. Fordingbridge has no conservation area over it, but it carries a great many listed entries for a town of its size, so the control here is building by building rather than street by street. On a listed building work affecting its character needs consent, and that includes a roofline on a principal elevation. New Forest District Council is the planning authority.
Cost
What decides the price of a roofline
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 town house with the eaves out over a footway, a 1970s detached with a conservatory beneath the back run, and a bungalow you can take a tower right round are three different platforms 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.
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging off, or a fascia gone through
Ring rather than use the form. A length of gutter pulled off its brackets, a downpipe snapped at the bend or a fascia soft enough to put your hand through goes to the front of the queue, because the next heavy rain runs straight down the wall and into the brickwork. The first visit is about getting it supported and discharging somewhere sensible, and we price the run properly once we can see how far the rot goes. If the run is over a footway or a shared drive, say so when you ring, because that one gets made safe before anything else is discussed. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Here the control is on the building, not on the street
Fordingbridge works differently from most of the towns and villages around it. There is no conservation area drawn over the centre, which is what usually controls the look of a roofline. What there is instead is a long list of individually listed buildings, scattered through the town rather than gathered in one block. So the answer to what you can do with your roofline depends entirely on your building, not on your postcode or your street.
In practice that splits the town in two. If your house is not listed, and most are not, the board, the colour and the gutter profile are your decision and there is nothing to apply for. If it is listed, the roofline is part of what is protected, and consent comes before a board is taken off. That includes changing cast iron to plastic, changing a profile, or altering the eaves detail. It usually does not include repairing what is there in the same material. If you are not sure which you are, we would rather find out at the survey than after the scaffold is up, and it takes one search to settle.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Fordingbridge, Sandleheath, Alderholt, Godshill and Breamore, broadly SP6, under New Forest District 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.
Questions
Fordingbridge questions we get asked
Can you repair a gutter rather than replace the whole run?
Very often, yes. A dripping union, a bracket that has come loose, a cracked hopper or a downpipe off its clips are all repairs, and we price them as repairs. What we will not do is refix brackets into a fascia that has gone soft, because the run comes down again within a year or two.
What is the point of vented soffits?
They give the loft somewhere to breathe. Air comes in at the eaves, moves up through the roof space and takes the moisture from the house with it. A sealed soffit stops that, and you get condensation on the underside of the felt, damp insulation and sometimes mould on the timbers.
Will the new gutter match the ones either side?
It can. Profiles are still made in half round, ogee, square and deepflow, and in a run of similar houses it is worth matching so the elevation reads as one. Tell us at the survey and we will price the profile that fits rather than the one that happens to be standard.
How long does it take from quote to job?
The visit and the written quote are free and usually happen within a few days. The work itself is normally a couple of days on a standard house once access is up. Anything found once the boards are off gets photographed and priced before we carry on.
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Get a price for your Fordingbridge roofline
Tell us what the gutter is doing and where. Thomas comes out, tests the board behind it and puts an itemised price in writing. The visit and the quote are free.