Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Matchams
Soft fascias, split soffits and gutters that overflow at the same corner, put right around Matchams. Free site visit and a free itemised written price.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Matchams starts with the timber behind the boards, and where the run is sound a repair does the job. There is no conservation area over Matchams, so unless your own building turns out to be listed you can choose the new roofline on how it performs, not on what a planning officer will accept.
Eaves out in Matchams usually go wrong at a corner, a soffit or a hidden fascia. A gutter overflowing at the same corner every time it rains hard. A soffit that has dropped or split and now has a gap in it. Or a fascia that has gone soft behind the gutter, which nobody spots until a bracket pulls out and a length swings loose. Plots here are open and there is normally room to stand a tower where we need it, so getting a proper look is straightforward. We take a section of gutter down, prod the board, check the rafter feet behind it, and put an itemised written price together with each run, outlet and downpipe on its own line. If a length has already swung loose off a soft board, or rain is pouring down the wall under it, ring 07435 839745 and do not wait on the form.
The work
Boards, gutters and the choice you actually have
What makes up the run. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and capping on the timber side. Gutter, outlets, unions, brackets, stop ends, downpipes, hoppers and shoes on the water side. Any of it can be renewed on its own, and it is worth knowing which part has failed before you agree to a whole house of new plastic.
How we tell. A screwdriver into the fascia behind the gutter: if the point sinks in, the board has rotted and painting it again is money wasted. Then the run itself. Sagging between brackets means the fixings have gone or the board will not hold a screw. A length pulled away from the wall at one end, a leaking joint at a union, blown and peeling paint on timber, or water coming over the back edge in heavy rain are all separate faults with separate answers.
Off, not over. Capping plastic over an old fascia is quick and it looks smart the day it goes on. Over a soft board it seals the rot in and the brackets tear out a few winters later. So the old boards come off, the rafter feet and the wall plate get looked at while they are open, the tilt fillet is reset and a felt support tray fitted so the underlay drips into the gutter rather than behind it, then the bottom course of tiles and the verge go back. Where the timber is dry and firm, capping is a fair cheaper job and we will say so.
Choosing what goes up. With no constraint on appearance in Matchams, choose on performance. uPVC in white, woodgrain or a dark colour, timber for painted boards, aluminium on a long unbroken run, or cast iron kept and repaired where you have it. Then the profile: half round, ogee, square or deepflow. A big slope draining into one short half round run overflows in every downpour, and a deeper profile or a second outlet is the fix. The run is re-hung to a fall, because a gutter hung level holds water all year.
Air, water and wildlife. New soffits keep the eaves ventilation and the air gap into the loft, which is what Approved Document F is about, and closing that gap up is how you get condensation on the underside of the felt. We check where every downpipe discharges, into a gully or a soakaway and not against the wall, since a badly aimed shoe and driving rain give you staining outside and damp inside. Closed properly, the soffit keeps out birds and wasps, and the outlets stop blocking with moss and pine debris off the tiles.
How it runs
New fascias, soffits and gutters on an open plot
Thomas comes round, looks at each run of eaves and each gable, and writes the price himself. You get a line for the tower or scaffold, then the length of each run, removing the old boards and gutter, the new fascia, soffit and bargeboard, the guttering, outlets and downpipes, and taking the old material away. Those lines make up the whole Matchams job, on one piece of paper.
If the drive and garden give room, the tower or scaffold goes up on your own ground and the Matchams lane stays clear. We strip no more than can be boarded again that day, sweep up each evening and take every offcut with us. If the rafter ends or the wall plate behind a fascia are soft, you see it in a photograph with a price, and nothing further is done until you agree.
Changing fascias, soffits or gutters for new ones is repair, which needs neither a planning application nor building control, as the Planning Portal explains. Matchams has no conservation area, so unless the Historic England list shows your own building, the material, the profile and the colour are all yours to pick. Dorset Council is the planning authority if anything else comes up.
Cost
Bargeboards, trees and the length of each run
A metre of fascia across a bay window takes longer than a metre along a plain eaves, which is why nobody should quote you a flat rate.
Wind on the gables. On an exposed plot the bargeboards and verges take the brunt of a south westerly, so how they are fixed matters. We fix into sound timber, and we never trust the old board to hold the new one.
Boards off, not capped. Covering rotten timber with plastic hides the rot. We take the boards off, check the rafter feet and the wall plate, and replace what has gone. That is the part no one can price from the ground.
Trees overhead. Where pines or oaks hang over a Matchams roof, gutters fill quickly. A deeper gutter profile, larger outlets or a guard can be priced in while the new run goes up, and darker colours hide the streaks trees leave.
Reaching it. A tower for a single storey, scaffold above that, and building round a conservatory or bay if one is in the way. The work at height rules decide the kit, and it is priced as an item.
Ask any rival quote: are the boards coming off or being capped, what if the wall plate is rotten, are all the outlets and downpipes renewed, and is scaffold included?
If a section has come away
Gutter down or fascia rotted through after a storm
A gutter hanging off its brackets, a downpipe snapped at the bend, or a fascia so soft a finger goes through it needs a phone call, not the form. The next heavy rain will run down the wall and into the brickwork.
On the first visit we take down what is loose, support what can stay and point the water at a drain, then price the run once we can see how far the rot goes. Matchams is out on the Ringwood side of us. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent? Ring, and if we miss you we call back.
Worth knowing
No conservation area means you can choose on performance
Most of the villages on this patch come with something attached: a conservation area, a national park authority, a listed frontage. Matchams has fewer strings. There is no conservation area over it, so once you have checked the Historic England list for your own address, a roofline here is a straightforward repair decision and nobody has to be asked what colour it is.
Use that. Instead of matching gloss white because it is what everyone has, pick the profile for the roof you actually own: a deeper gutter where a long slope drains into one short run, an extra outlet rather than a bigger downpipe where water piles up at one end, and a colour that does not show the grey streaking you get under an overflowing joint. Plots out in Matchams are open and often have pines over them, so black or a dark woodgrain looks better for longer than white does. And put the money you save on planning questions into the fixings and the fall instead, because those are what decide whether the run is still straight in ten years.
Who you are dealing with
Who fits your fascias out on the heath
Thomas Hannen runs the business and measures your roofline himself before writing the quote. From Boscombe it is about five and a half miles to Matchams. We also cover St Ives, St Leonards, Ashley Heath and Three Legged Cross in Dorset Council's area, and Ringwood over the Hampshire border.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, is who you would be hiring. On Checkatrade, one verified customer marked us 10 out of 10. Visit and written quote: both free, with every line shown. Before you book a visit in Matchams, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Matchams?
Most repairs in Matchams 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 Matchams |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Matchams. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Matchams, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Nothing in Matchams is on the statutory list, so listed building consent does not come into it. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Matchams. |
Questions
Questions about fascias and guttering in Matchams
Can we change the colour of the fascias and gutters?
Yes. There is no conservation area here, so on an unlisted house white, woodgrain, grey or black are all just choices. If you are unsure, check the Historic England list for your address. Dark colours hide the streaking that shows up under a joint and suit a plot with trees over it.
The gutter only overflows at one corner. Does the whole lot need doing?
Usually not: one corner overflowing normally means the fall has gone flat, that outlet is undersized for what the slope sheds, or the downpipe is blocked at the shoe. We would price the repair first and tell you honestly if the rest has years left.
Do you take the old boards away?
Yes. Everything that comes off leaves with us and it is on the quote as its own line, so there is no skip on your drive and nothing to arrange at the end.
Will you need to come inside?
Only to look in the loft, and only if there is a sign of condensation or a leak that the roofline might be causing. The work itself is all done from outside.
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Get a price for your Matchams roofline
Tell us what has failed and we will come and look properly. Thomas prices the job himself, itemises it in writing, and there is nothing to pay for the visit or the quote.