Fascias, soffits and guttering in Longham

The decision on the boards. Three components sit at the edge of the roof: the fascia carrying the channel, the soffit sealing the underside of the overhang, and the bargeboard following the gable up to the verge. Late sixties and seventies houses out here have them in painted softwood, and a fair number are already wearing a cover board that was fitted instead of a repair. Our default is to take everything away. Cladding traps moisture against the timber, and the brackets that follow have nothing worth screwing into. Where the wood is dry and firm, capping is a reasonable saving and we will point that out. New boards are uPVC.

The decision on the run. Size and shape are worth a conversation rather than a guess. Half round is the ordinary answer. Ogee, with its flat rear face, sits neatly against a square edged fascia. Deepflow moves considerably more water and earns its place on a wide hipped roof where everything drains into a single length. Whatever the choice, the brackets, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes are replaced as a set and the length is hung falling towards its outlet. Put up level it looks straight from the drive and stands full of water every month of the year. Cast iron barely features on these streets, while aluminium is worth a figure on a long exposed elevation.

What the strip reveals. With the fascia away, the rafter ends, the plate beneath them and the tilt fillet raising the first row of tiles are all open to inspection. Damp ends are cut off and made good. A felt support tray then carries the underlay across the front of the board so that the water it sheds falls into the channel. Tiles disturbed getting there are refixed to the pattern in BS 5534. We also trace the pipe to the bottom, since one emptying onto a border rather than into a gully or a soakaway is what keeps the wall behind it damp.

Air, and the work that stays small. A soffit coming down is the cheapest opportunity you will get for eaves ventilation. Vented panels, or over fascia vents where the board is shallow, keep an air gap open above the loft insulation, and without one the condensation gets blamed on the roof every February. Not everything needs the full treatment either. A weeping joint, a perished union, a bracket dragged out of soft wood, a snapped downpipe, an outlet solid with moss and debris off the tiles: those are refixed, re-hung or swapped alone. Wasps come first, and nesting birds get their gap sealed once the nest is empty.

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 detached house with a conservatory under the back run, a bungalow with a hedge tight to the boundary and a chalet with a dormer in the way 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 lot of the detached houses around Longham have had something added at the back: a conservatory, a sun room, a single storey extension or a bay that pushes out under the eaves. It makes a difference to a roofline job that people do not expect. The platform has to be built around the glass rather than over it, which takes longer to set up than a clear elevation, and the old gutter and boards have to come down in shorter lengths so nothing is dropped through a roof panel.

There is a water question with it as well. Where an extension was added, the original downpipe was often moved or shortened, and a good number now discharge onto a conservatory roof or into a gutter that was never sized to take a second run. That is what causes the overflow at one corner every time it rains hard, and no amount of clearing will change it. If that is your house, say so when you ring, because it changes both the access and where the water should be going once we are finished.

We cover Longham, Ferndown, West Parley, Hampreston and Wimborne, broadly BH22, 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.