Fascias, soffits and guttering in Highcliffe

On a house. Fascia along the rafter ends, soffit beneath it, bargeboard climbing the gable to the verge. On the post war stock here they are painted softwood, commonly with a cover board already screwed across the front. That comes away with everything else. A cover board over damp timber keeps the moisture in and leaves fresh brackets biting into nothing. Where a board is genuinely dry and firm, capping is fair value and we will tell you so. Replacements are uPVC, and this near the water the screws, clips and brackets are non ferrous whatever the boards are made of.

On a block. Flats bring their own version. One long shared channel serving several homes, a single outlet doing the work of two, a hopper head at high level feeding a pipe that runs down the face of the building. When that arrangement backs up, the water shows on somebody's ceiling rather than on the path. Renewing it properly means sizing the run to the roof rather than copying what was there: half round, ogee against a square edged fascia, or deepflow where the roof simply sheds more than a standard section will move.

Behind the boards, either way. Lift the fascia and the rafter ends, the wall plate and the tilt fillet under the first course of tiles are all visible for the first time in decades. Soft ends are cut out and pieced solid. A felt support tray goes in so the underlay finishes over the board and its water arrives in the channel instead of behind it. Tiles moved to reach it are refixed as BS 5534 sets out. Brackets, unions, outlets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are renewed as one and hung to a genuine fall, because a length put up level ponds all year.

Ventilation and the smaller work. A soffit off is the moment to build eaves ventilation in, through the panel or over the fascia, so an air gap stays open above the loft insulation and February condensation is not reported as a leak. Plenty of jobs here are far smaller than a replacement: a dripping union, a bracket pulled from soft wood, a downpipe snapped at the shoe, an outlet packed with moss and debris off the tiles. We refix, re-hang or swap that piece alone. Wasps are seen to before a board comes down, and nesting birds are given until they have gone.

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 off a side road, a house with a conservatory under the back gutter and a three storey block with a shared run are three different jobs. 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.

A large share of the homes in Highcliffe are flats and maisonettes, and on a leasehold flat the outside of the building, including the gutters, the hoppers, the downpipes and the boards they hang on, belongs to the freeholder and is maintained out of the service charge. So if you are looking at water coming off a shared gutter and down the front of the block, the first job is finding out who manages it rather than booking a tradesman. We will still come and look, and put what the roofline needs in writing so you have something to send them.

If you sit on the residents' company or you are the agent, one thing is worth knowing early. Where the cost passed on to any single leaseholder goes over a set threshold, the landlord has to consult the leaseholders formally before committing, under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That moves the timetable rather than the work, and a roofline is far easier to organise in spring than in the middle of a wet November.

We cover Highcliffe, Walkford, Friars Cliff, Mudeford and Christchurch, broadly BH23, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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.