Fascias, soffits and guttering 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.
This is replacement and repair of the roofline itself: the fascia, the soffit, the bargeboard, the capping and the whole rainwater run of gutter, outlets, hoppers and downpipes.
What usually starts it 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 rather than a leak.
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 rather than 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 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 here 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 and both are sorted before new boards go up, and the run and outlets are cleared 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 roofline like for like is repair, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off. There is no conservation area over Holton Heath and only a few listed entries near here, so on an ordinary house the board, the colour and the gutter profile are yours to choose. Dorset Council is the authority, and where a building is listed, consent comes before the boards come off.
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 bungalow with clear ground the whole way round, a detached house with a conservatory across the back, and a semi with a bay window under the front run 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. We are close enough to get here the same day for anything hanging, and we would rather support a loose length than let it come down on a car. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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 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
A local firm you can check
We cover Holton Heath, Sandford, Lytchett Minster, Upton and Wareham, broadly BH16, 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.
Questions
Holton Heath questions we get asked
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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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.