Fascias, soffits and guttering in Hyde
Boards, bargeboards and gutter runs renewed, downpipes taken to somewhere that can actually take the water, and the timber behind it all checked first.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A roofline is renewed because the timber behind the boards has gone soft, not because the plastic in front has gone grey. Around Hyde there is a second question worth asking at the same time, which is where every downpipe on the house currently ends up.
People ring here about three things. A gutter that has dropped at one end and now stands away from the wall. A soffit gone dark and spongy under a joint that has dripped for years. Or a deep bargeboard on a gable that has cupped and opened at the joints.
We come out, get a ladder on the eaves and push a screwdriver into the fascia beside a bracket. Sound timber stops it. Soft timber lets it straight in, and once it does the board is finished and so is whatever the brackets were screwed into. The visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Cottage eaves, long verges and where the pipes finish
Boards, and how they fail. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and capping come off as one set when it is a renewal. Paint blown and flaking off a timber board is not a decorating problem, it means water is behind the film and the timber stays wet. Green or black staining along the bottom edge says the run above has been going down the face of the board for years. A gutter pulled away from the wall, or one sagging between brackets, has lost its fixings into soft wood.
The run. Gutter lengths, the unions between them, brackets, the outlet, a hopper head, the downpipe and the shoe. Faults sit in those parts, hardly ever in the length of gutter itself. Down comes the old run. Brackets go back at the spacing the profile was designed around, each union keeps the gap it needs to expand, and the fall is pulled off a string line. A gutter hung dead level looks fine from the garden and holds water all year, and a leaking joint in a cold snap does the rest.
Materials and profile. Painted timber is still right on the older cottages, where the moulded fascia and the deep bargeboard are part of how the building looks, and it wants the end grain sealed and primer on all four faces. Cast iron rusts from the inside, because the back of a run is the one face no brush reaches, and a sound length is worth painting internally rather than swapping. uPVC does not rot but a thin board flexes between rafters. Seamless aluminium is rolled on site and hung in one piece. Half round is the ordinary domestic gutter, ogee holds more and sits flat to the fascia, square is the modern version, and a long steep slope wants deepflow or a second outlet.
Under the board. The eaves opens up as soon as the fascia is down. Rafter feet, wall plate, then the tilt fillet propping the bottom course of tiles at the angle that sheds properly, and the underlay, which is supposed to be carried on a felt support tray and drip into the run. BS 5534 covers that detail, and it is the one most often left out when a roofline is done as a facelift. Capping over hard, dry, painted timber is sensible work. Over a board you can push a screwdriver into, it is a lid.
Air in, water away. Air enters a cold roof at the eaves and leaves at the ridge, and the soffit is the intake, so vent discs or a strip vent go back in, with an over fascia vent where a boxed eaves gives nothing to cut into. Keep the air gap open above the insulation or you get condensation on the underside of the felt by January and mould spreading over rafters that were sound. What is expected sits in Approved Document F. Then the water: every downpipe has to end somewhere that will genuinely take it, and Approved Document H governs where rainwater may go. Birds get in behind a soffit wherever a joint has opened and wasps go in higher up, and a season of moss and debris off the tiles is what packs an outlet.
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.
Boards and rainwater goods renewed on a like for like basis count as repair, which means no planning application and nothing to notify building control, and regulation 12 of the Building Regulations 2010 draws that line. Hyde is inside the New Forest National Park, and the National Park Authority is the planning authority here rather than the district council. The Western Escarpment conservation area covers this stretch, so appearance from a public road is controlled and the Park Authority sets out what that covers. On a listed building the gutters and hoppers are part of the fabric, and consent is granted under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
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 cottage with low eaves at the back, a house set well off the lane behind trees and an outbuilding carrying one long unbroken run each need a different way 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.
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. Hyde is about fourteen miles out, so ring rather than fill in the form if a run has come down and water is going into the wall. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Around here, ask where each downpipe actually finishes
The ground around Hyde already takes a lot of surface water, and Huckles Brook runs close by, so what your roof does with its rainwater matters more than it would on a town street. A roof this size throws a serious volume off in a single storm, and a downpipe that simply ends in a shoe over a border is putting all of it against the base of the wall.
So when we quote a roofline here we look at the bottom of every pipe as well as the top. A gully with a grating or a back inlet is the usual answer. Where there is no drain to take it, a soakaway has to sit far enough from the building and in ground that will actually accept water, which is not a given on low lying land near a watercourse. If you are unsure how your own address sits, the government's flood map will tell you. Getting this right at the same time as the boards costs very little extra, because the pipe is already off the wall.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Hyde, Frogham, Godshill, Ogdens, Fordingbridge and Sandleheath, broadly SP6, inside the New Forest National Park. 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
Hyde questions we get asked
Is the National Park really my planning authority?
For Hyde, yes. Inside the National Park boundary the Park Authority handles planning rather than the district council, and this stretch also sits in the Western Escarpment conservation area, so appearance from a public road is controlled.
Can I swap a cast iron gutter for plastic?
Round the back, usually. On an elevation seen from the road in a conservation area it is a change of appearance rather than a repair, so it needs checking before anything is ordered. We put the profile and material on the quote so you have something to show.
Where should a downpipe discharge?
Into a gully with a grating or a back inlet, or into a soakaway set far enough from the house to work. A shoe spitting onto a border tight to the wall keeps that wall wet all winter, and on ground that already holds water it is worse.
How long will the job take?
Days rather than weeks once the platform is up. A plain eaves each side goes quickly, but add a bay, a porch and a gable verge and the same length takes twice as long, because every corner is a stop end or an angle. A soft rafter foot gets scarfed, photographed and priced on the spot.
Nearby, and next door
Fascias, soffits and guttering near Hyde
Fascias, soffits and guttering nearby
Our other trades in Hyde
Everything we do in Ringwood Fascias, soffits and guttering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the boards and the pipework looked at together
Thomas Hannen prices every job himself and checks the bottom of every downpipe as well as the top. Free visit, free written itemised quote.