Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Lytchett Matravers
Rotten boards off rather than capped over, the run re-hung to a proper fall, and every downpipe followed to the bottom to see where it actually goes.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Guttering replacement in Lytchett Matravers is only half the job if nobody asks where the downpipe puts the water. New fascias and soffits can go up and a new gutter can be hung perfectly, but a shoe aimed at a flowerbed will damp a wall as surely as a leaking joint.
The usual list in Lytchett Matravers is short. A run sagging between brackets. A joint that weeps all winter and has left a green stripe down the wall. A soffit that has dropped away at one end. Or a downpipe knocked off its clips by a ladder or a hedge and never put back properly. If a length is dangling off the fascia or rain is pouring down the wall past a window, ring 07435 839745.
None of that is diagnosed from the ground, because the board you can see is only the front of the system. We come out, get to the eaves, test the timber with a screwdriver, look at the fall on the run and follow every downpipe to the bottom. You get photographs of what is behind the boards, and a written quote itemised so the fascia, the soffit, the gutter, every downpipe and the access all carry a figure of their own. Nothing to pay for the visit or the quote.
The work
Soft boards, tired plastic and blocked outlets
The rot hides behind the gutter. A fascia does not fail where you look at it. It fails behind the gutter and at the ends of a run, where it never dries out, and by the time paint is peeling and blown the board underneath has usually gone.
We test with a screwdriver at every joint and both ends. Soffits go from the back, and one hanging clear of the wall at one end has been wet a long time. The bargeboard and the capping over a gable are hit sideways rather than soaked from behind, so they tend to outlast both.
Off, not over. Capping over is screwing plastic onto what is already there. On a dry, sound, firmly fixed board it is honest work and we will quote it. On soft timber it hides the problem and gives the new fixings nothing to hold. Stripping is also the only way to look at the ends of the rafters and the plate they sit on, to splice out a soft one, to reinstate the tilt fillet beneath the bottom course of tiles, and to fit an eaves tray so the felt sheds forwards rather than behind the fascia.
The run itself. Gutter, outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are priced item by item, in uPVC, aluminium on a long straight elevation, or cast iron repaired and painted where an older Lytchett Matravers property still has it. Half round is the ordinary profile, ogee sits square to the fascia, and deepflow is what to ask for where a big slope drains into one short length and the gutter overflows in every downpour. A run hung dead level looks correct and works like a trough, so we strike a line, drop it steadily to the outlet, and put the brackets in tight enough that no length can bow, each taking a screw into solid timber.
Proving it. Once it is up, water goes in at the far end and we watch it come out at the shoe. That is also when a collapsed outlet shows itself, and when you find out that the downpipe you assumed went into a drain in fact stops short above a paving slab. Both get put right while we are there rather than written on a snagging list.
Air and nuisance. With the soffit down we put eaves ventilation in, either through the boards or over the fascia, and hold the air gap open above the loft insulation. A roof space with no air grows condensation on the felt and damp in the timbers, and it costs almost nothing to prevent while the eaves is open. Mesh and closures go on with the new boards, since the gap behind a soft soffit is a nesting site for birds and wasps, and moss and debris washing down off the tiles is what leaves an outlet blocked by November.
How it runs
Stripping and renewing a roofline, run by run
Thomas walks round the house with you, looks at every run, and writes the quote himself. It goes run by run, front, back and gables, with the tower or scaffold, stripping old timber and gutter, new fascia, soffit and bargeboard, the gutter, outlets and downpipes, and the old material carted away. You deal with one company from the first bracket to the last clip.
On a Lytchett Matravers bungalow a tower is usually enough. A detached house with an upstairs, or a run over a conservatory, needs a scaffold, and we plan where it stands on the drive so the car can still get out. Old timber comes off only as far as we can refit that day, the ground is swept each evening, and every offcut goes with us. If the rafter feet behind the board have gone, Thomas sends you pictures and a cost, and nothing more happens until you say.
Renewing the roofline like for like counts as repair, so you need neither planning permission nor building control, and Planning Portal guidance takes the same view for roofs. The village has no conservation area. Swap timber for uPVC on one of the parish's listed buildings, though, and listed building consent from Dorset Council is needed.
Cost
Why two roofline quotes on the same house differ
No rate per metre either, because a metre over a bay is slower than a metre along a straight eaves.
Off, or capped over. Lytchett Matravers houses of the seventies and eighties were mostly built with painted softwood fascias, and many have since been capped with plastic. Capping hides rot rather than stopping it. We take the old boards off, which is when you find out whether the rafter feet behind are sound.
The shape of the run. Straight Lytchett Matravers bungalow eaves go quickly. A detached house with a linked garage, a bay, a porch roof and corner returns has far more joints, brackets and stop ends, and each hopper, outlet and downpipe adds time. Hanging the new gutter to a proper fall is part of the work, because a level gutter holds water all year.
Air into the loft. Plenty of Lytchett Matravers houses of that age have solid soffits with no eaves ventilation. Fitting vented soffit or an over-fascia vent while the boards are off is a small extra line, and it helps a loft that suffers from condensation.
Getting up there. A tower for a bungalow, scaffold for anything taller, and the work at height rules are why access is priced separately.
Worth asking of any other quote: are the old boards coming off or getting capped, what happens if the wall plate is rotten, and are the downpipes in or only the gutter?
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging loose or a fascia that has given way
If a length of gutter has pulled off its brackets or a downpipe has snapped, keep people and cars out from under it and ring us. Rain pouring off a broken run goes straight down the face of the brickwork, and on Lytchett Matravers clay it ends up at the foundations too.
On the first visit we take down anything loose, re-bracket or prop what can be saved, and rig a temporary run so the water reaches the drain. Then we price the proper repair. The form is fine for planned jobs, which we book Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Unanswered calls get returned as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Your downpipe has to finish somewhere sensible
In a village like Lytchett Matravers the rainwater does not always leave in a pipe. Plenty of downpipes here discharge into a gully, a soakaway in the garden, or in the older properties simply onto the ground, and that is the part of the system nobody ever looks at. It matters because everything the roof sheds arrives at one small point at the bottom of a wall.
What we check is straightforward. Does the shoe actually deliver into the gully, or has it been knocked round so it throws water at the brickwork. Does the gully take it away or fill up and stand. Does the soakaway still work, or has it silted so that heavy rain backs up and floods a path. A downpipe discharging badly is one of the commonest causes of damp at the foot of a wall and of staining down a render, and it is often blamed on the gutter above it. Where a discharge point genuinely needs changing, the ground rules are in Approved Document H, and it is worth getting right because the whole of Lytchett Matravers drains towards Poole Harbour and there is no sense pushing roof water somewhere it will simply stand. We will tell you on the visit whether you have a gutter problem, a drainage problem, or both.
Who you are dealing with
A roofline firm you can look up before you ring
Our base is in Boscombe, about eleven miles from the village, and the area we cover takes in Lytchett Minster, Upton, Sturminster Marshall, Corfe Mullen and Wareham, broadly BH16, all of it under Dorset Council.
Thomas Hannen owns the business and will be the person who measures your fascias and gutters and writes the price. On paper we are Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and Companies House will show you that. A verified Checkatrade customer scored the work 10 out of 10. Both the visit and the itemised written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Lytchett Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Lytchett Matravers?
Most repairs in Lytchett Matravers 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 Lytchett Matravers |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Lytchett Matravers. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Lytchett Matravers, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Lytchett Matravers. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Lytchett Matravers. |
Questions
Questions about fascias and guttering in Lytchett Matravers
The wall under my gutter is damp. Is the gutter to blame?
The gutter might be to blame, and so might the pipe below it. A weeping union, a downpipe off its clips or a shoe pointing at the wall all soak the brickwork in the same way. It is worth ruling the rainwater out before anyone talks about damp proofing.
Do you replace the downpipes as well?
If they need it, and they are shown on the quote as their own line so you can see what each one costs. Often the run needs renewing and the pipes only need refixing, and we will say so instead of selling you both.
Can you match the colour of the existing runs?
Usually, yes: white, black and anthracite are all easy, and a woodgrain foil reads as painted timber from the road. Bear in mind an old white run has weathered, so a new white board beside it will look brighter for the first year or so.
How long will the work take?
A bungalow is often a day or two. A house with bays, corner returns and several downpipes takes longer, and any timber repair found behind the boards adds to it. We photograph and price anything unexpected before carrying on.
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Get a price for your Lytchett Matravers roofline
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will get to the eaves, follow the pipework down and put an itemised price in writing, free of charge.