Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Holton Heath
Old capping and old timber off together, the rafter feet checked, and the gutter re-hung to a fall that drains.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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This is fascia, soffit and guttering replacement and repair in Holton Heath: the fascia, the soffit, the bargeboard, the capping and the whole rainwater run of gutter, outlets, hoppers and downpipes.
What usually starts it in Holton Heath is water in the wrong place. A gutter spilling over the same corner in every heavy shower, a downpipe that has come away and is now soaking a wall, or a wet patch on a bedroom ceiling in a cold spell that turns out to be condensation, not a leak. If a length is hanging loose, or water is pouring down the wall onto a path, ring 07435 839745 and keep children and cars clear of it.
The answer is nearly always at the eaves, and the eaves are where we start. The gutter gets lifted so the board behind it can be tested, the rafter feet get a look, and the whole run is photographed. Then a written itemised quote: fascia, soffit, bargeboards, gutter, every outlet and every downpipe on separate lines, and a plain answer about whether you need the lot or one elevation.
The work
Where a roofline gives up, and what we do about it
What has actually failed. A fascia carries every gutter bracket on the run, so it is the board that decides everything. Peeling and blown paint on timber is the early sign, and a screwdriver going into it is the confirmation.
Once that has happened the run sags, drops at one end, pulls away from the wall and starts overflowing at the back instead of the front. Separate from that sit the ordinary repairs: a leaking joint at a union, a union that has come apart in the cold, a downpipe off its clips, a missing shoe, an outlet packed with moss washed down off the tiles.
Stripping and checking. The gutter comes down, the boards come off, and the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom edge of the underlay are exposed. That is when the job can be priced honestly. Rot usually stops within a few inches of a rafter end and gets cut back and spliced with new timber. A felt support tray goes in so the underlay drips into the gutter rather than down the back of the new board, and a tilt fillet sets the bottom course of tiles back to the right angle over the run.
New boards, new run. uPVC fascia and vented soffit, bargeboard and capping to the gable, and the gutter picked for the roof, not for what happens to be on the van: half round, ogee, square, or deepflow where a large slope drains into one short length and a standard section spills every time it rains hard. Timber can go back in timber, cast iron on an older Holton Heath building can usually be re-bedded at the joints, re-hung and repainted, and aluminium is worth asking about on a long exposed run.
Hanging it and following the water. Brackets at proper centres, and a fall set towards the outlet. Level looks right and holds standing water for the life of the run, which is what makes plastic sag between the clips. Outlets, unions, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are renewed or refixed, and we trace the rainwater to the bottom. Around Holton Heath a lot of downpipes discharge to a gully or a soakaway rather than to a drain, and a soakaway that has silted up will keep the wall damp however new the gutter is.
Air, birds and moss. Vented soffits, or an over fascia vent strip where the board is too narrow, keep the air gap running through the eaves and into the loft. Without it, warm damp air from the house sits against a cold roof and you get condensation on the underside of the felt, wet insulation and sometimes mould on the timbers. Birds nesting behind a lifted soffit and wasps in a gable end are common in Holton Heath and both are sorted before new boards go up, and the run and outlets are cleared before we leave.
How it runs
Replacing the roofline on a bungalow or detached house
Thomas walks round the house with you, looks at each run from the ground, and pushes a screwdriver into any fascia that looks tired. The quote separates out the access, the length of every run, taking down the old boards and gutter, new fascia, soffit and bargeboard where there is one, gutters with outlets and downpipes, and disposal.
Thomas stays your contact while the old roofline comes off and the new one goes up. On a Holton Heath bungalow the whole run is often reachable from a tower on the drive, while a two storey detached house needs a scaffold along the gable. Gutters go back up as each length of fascia is fixed, so you are not left without drainage overnight. Offcuts and old boards are bagged and taken away, and the ground is swept at the end of each day. If a rafter foot behind the old fascia is rotten, we let you see it, with a price, before any timber is cut or spliced.
Replacing boards and gutters like for like counts as repair, so there is no planning application and no building control. With no conservation area at Holton Heath, the colour and the gutter profile are up to you. If the house is listed, Dorset Council's listed building consent comes before the old boards come down.
Cost
Bays, conservatories and rotten rafter feet
A metre of fascia above a bay window is not the same work as a metre on a straight gable, so the job is priced run by run.
Height and what is underneath. Bungalows make up a big share of the housing in Holton Heath, and a bungalow run usually comes off a tower. A detached house with a conservatory across the back means building the platform around the glass, and a semi with a bay window under the front run needs the same care. A two storey gable wants a scaffold. Access sits on its own line because of the work at height rules.
What the boards are hiding. A soft fascia on a Holton Heath house of this age is often sound behind, but not always. The rafter feet and the wall plate only show once the old board is off. Capping over with plastic covers that up, which is why we remove the old boards.
The number of corners and outlets. A corner return, a satellite dish or a service cable in the way, and each hopper and downpipe all add time. So does setting the gutter to a proper fall, because one hung level holds water all year.
Ask any other firm whether the old boards will be removed or just capped, what happens if the rafter feet are rotten, whether gutters, outlets and downpipes are all renewed, and whether the tower or scaffold is in the price.
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging loose or a fascia gone soft
Ring instead of sending the form. A length of gutter off its brackets or a downpipe snapped at the shoe will pour the next downpour down your wall and into the brickwork.
The ground round Holton Heath shrinks and swells, so water dumped at the foot of a wall is worth stopping quickly, because it softens the soil next to the foundation. Keep cars and people clear of anything hanging. The first visit props or takes down the loose section and gets the water discharging into a gully again, then we price the run once we can see how far the rot goes. Scheduled jobs run Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If you ring and it goes unanswered, expect a call back as soon as we can manage.
Worth knowing
The capping fitted a couple of decades ago is often what has to come off
A lot of the housing here went up in the 1980s, which puts it at a particular stage. The original roofline was timber, and on a good many of these houses that timber was never taken off.
Somewhere in the years since, plastic was screwed over the face of it: a capping board on the fascia, plastic sheet under the soffit, and a new gutter hung on the same brackets. It looked new for a long time and it may still look new from the drive.
The problem is what it sealed in. Capping over damp timber keeps the damp there, and the fascia and rafter feet carry on going soft behind a surface nobody can see. The giveaways are a gutter that has started to lean away from the wall even though the boards look perfect, screws that will not tighten, and a soffit that flexes when you push it. If that is your Holton Heath house, the honest job is taking the capping and the old timber off together and starting from the rafter feet. It costs more than capping again, and it is the last time you will pay for that run. We will tell you which of the two you are looking at, with photographs, before you decide.
Who you are dealing with
Fascias priced by the owner himself
Holton Heath is 10.7 miles from our base in Boscombe, and we work across the village, Sandford, Lytchett Minster, Upton and the roads towards Wareham, broadly BH16. Dorset Council is the local authority. Your contract is with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Holton Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The firm belongs to Thomas Hannen, and he is the person who walks round your roofline and puts the quote together. There is one verified customer score on Checkatrade, and it is 10 out of 10. We charge nothing to visit and nothing for the itemised written quote.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Holton Heath?
Most repairs in Holton Heath need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Holton Heath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Holton Heath. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Holton Heath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Holton Heath. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Holton Heath. |
Questions
Questions about fascias and guttering in Holton Heath
How do I tell if my fascias have been capped over?
Look at the ends of the run and under the soffit. Capping is a thin board over the face of the original, so you often see the old timber at a corner return or where the plastic stops short. If the gutter is leaning while the boards look immaculate, that is usually the answer.
Is capping always the wrong thing to do?
No, over dry, solid timber it is a fair job and a cheaper one, and we fit it happily. It is only wrong when it goes over timber that has already started to go, because then it hides the problem rather than fixing it.
Can you do just the back of the house?
Yes. Each elevation is priced on its own line, so you can do the run that has failed and leave the rest. On most houses one side takes far more weather than the others and gives up years earlier.
Will you make good the wall where the old pipes were?
Yes. Old fixings come out, the holes are filled and the new downpipe is set on its own clips rather than reusing tired ones. Where a wall is stained from years of overflow we will tell you honestly whether cleaning it is worth doing once the run is right.
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Get a price for your Holton Heath roofline
Tell us what the gutter is doing and we will come and see what is behind it. Thomas prices every job himself and puts it in writing, free.