Fascias, soffits and guttering in Furzehill

Testing the boards. A fascia rots from behind, so the paint on the front is a poor guide. It fails at the end of a length, either side of a joint, and along the top edge where the felt has been dripping onto it for years. Peeling and blown paint says look harder; a screwdriver sinking into the timber settles it. A soffit fails on its hidden face, and one hanging clear of the wall or worked open by a bird has usually been wet for years. Bargeboards and gable capping are weathered from the side rather than soaked, so they normally last longest.

Strip or cap over. Capping over means screwing plastic onto the old timber. On a dry, sound, firmly fixed board that is honest work and we are glad to quote it. On soft timber it is a cover rather than a cure, because the rot carries on underneath and the new fixings hold into nothing. We take the boards off as standard. It is the only way to look at the ends of the rafters and the plate they bear on, to splice out anything soft, to reinstate the tilt fillet under the bottom course of tiles, and to fit a felt support tray that carries the underlay past the fascia so it empties into the gutter. The bottom course of tiles goes back fixed as ' + C['bs5534'] + ' expects rather than simply laid on.

Plastic at the end of its life. A uPVC run fitted in the nineties is now old enough to have gone chalky and brittle. The union seals harden and weep, the brackets lose their grip so a length is left sagging in the middle or dropped clean off at one end, and a leaking joint that has run all season leaves a green stripe down the wall beneath it. Cast iron on an older property is a different matter, and we would sooner repaint it than remove it. Once a run is that far gone, refixing it is throwing good money after bad and we will say so.

Getting the run right. This is where most overflowing gutters are actually solved. A line goes up first, the run drops steadily to the outlet, and the brackets go in close enough that no length can bow, each taking a screw into solid timber. Where a long or steep slope empties into one short length we will say so and price a deepflow profile, which carries more than half round of the same width, or a second outlet. Ogee is the square fronted option that sits flat to the fascia. Outlets, unions, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are itemised rather than lumped in, and the finished run is filled from one end and watched out at the shoe. Each downpipe is refixed with fresh clips and made to deliver into a gully or a soakaway, because rainwater discharging at the foot of a wall puts damp and staining into the brickwork, and driving rain will already be working at the back of the gutter without any help.

Air and nuisance. With the soffit down it costs very little to sort the eaves ventilation, and it is the part of the job that pays you back. Soffit vents, or an over fascia vent where the boards are shallow, hold an air gap open over the loft insulation, and that is what keeps condensation off the felt and the roof timbers dry. Closures and mesh go on with the new boards and at the verge, since the space behind a soft soffit is where birds and wasps set up, and moss and debris off the tiles is what silts an outlet until it is blocked.

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 a deep overhang, a two storey detached with a bay under the front run, and a block of flats with a shared elevation 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 Furzehill, Holt, Colehill, Wimborne Minster, Broadstone and Verwood, broadly BH21, 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.