Fascias, soffits and guttering 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.
Nothing around Matchams is listed and there is no conservation area over it, so what goes back on your eaves is entirely your choice. That is worth knowing, because it means you can pick the roofline on how it performs rather than on what a planning officer will accept.
The calls out here are usually one of three. 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.
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 rather than 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 here, 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
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 fascia, soffit or gutter is repair and maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control, and the Planning Portal sets out where that line sits. There is no conservation area here and nothing listed in the settlement, so for a Matchams house the material, the profile and the colour are yours to choose. Dorset Council is the planning authority if anything else comes up.
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 the run over a gravel drive, a chalet with a dormer sitting in the eaves, and a detached house with a garage tying into the same gutter are three different set ups. 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. Matchams is a short run from us on the Ringwood side, so a length hanging off gets looked at quickly rather than booked weeks out. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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 does not. There is no conservation area over it and nothing listed in the settlement, so 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 here 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
A local firm you can check
We cover Matchams, St Leonards, St Ives, Ashley Heath, Ringwood and Three Legged Cross, broadly BH24, 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
Matchams questions we get asked
Can we change the colour of the fascias and gutters?
Yes. Nothing here is listed and there is no conservation area, so white, woodgrain, grey or black are all just choices. 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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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.