Fascias, soffits and guttering in Merley
Original fascias, soffits and gutters replaced across Merley, with the loft ventilation sorted while the boards are off and the price written down line by line.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On most Merley houses the roofline is the last original part of the outside. The windows have been done, the doors have been done, and the fascia, soffit and gutter are still the ones the builder put on. That is why they are what fails, and why the job is a strip out rather than a clean.
People here usually ring about one of three things. A gutter sagging in the middle of a run and overflowing every time it rains hard. A fascia with the paint peeling and blown, and the board soft when you press it. Or a damp patch in the loft that the roofer says is not a leak. All three come back to the same few feet of the building. We look at both ends of the problem on the free visit, up at the boards and the brackets from outside and at the eaves and the insulation from inside the loft, because on these houses the two are usually the same story. You get photographs and a written price.
The work
What is left of a seventies eaves
The first morning: everything comes down. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard, plus whatever cover board was screwed across the front of them at some point in the past. Estates like this were built with a generous overhang in painted softwood, and cladding that overhang rather than repairing it has been the standard shortcut for thirty years. It hides what is happening rather than stopping it, and it leaves the gutter fixed to a board that no longer grips a screw. Over dry, firm timber we are happy to cap, and will say so plainly.
Then the part you have never seen. Rafter ends, the plate carrying them, and the tilt fillet that raises the lowest row of tiles are all exposed once the fascia is off. Anything soft is cut away and replaced with solid timber before a single new board is offered up. A felt support tray goes in next, so the underlay finishes over the front edge and its water is delivered into the channel rather than down the back of it. Tiles lifted in the process are refixed as BS 5534 requires.
The second day: the rainwater goods. Brackets at proper centres, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes, all new, all hung to a real fall towards the outlet. Set level, a length looks perfect from the road and holds standing water twelve months a year. Profile is a genuine choice: half round for most, ogee where the fascia is square edged, deepflow where a wide hipped roof puts more through one channel than a standard section can shift. Iron is almost unknown on these roads, aluminium is worth a figure on a long exposed elevation, and any pipe currently emptying onto a border instead of into a gully or a soakaway gets moved while we are there.
Before it is closed up. Eaves ventilation goes in with the new soffit, either as vented panels or over fascia vents where the board is shallow, holding an air gap above the loft insulation. Smaller faults never need this much: a dripping joint, a perished union, a bracket torn out of soft wood, a length that has sunk out of fall, a snapped shoe, an outlet solid with moss and debris off the tiles. Those get refixed, re-hung or swapped piece by piece. Wasps are dealt with first, and a nest behind a soffit is sealed only after the birds have finished rather than with them still in it.
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 like for like is maintenance, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control. No conservation area covers Merley, and the listed entries near here are concentrated on the Canford School estate rather than in the housing, so on an ordinary house the profile and the colour are your decision. To check a boundary, the council keeps the list.
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 detached house with a deep overhang all round, a bungalow with a hedge on the boundary and a house with a garage roof under the run 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.
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. The yard is under six miles away, so a run hanging off the wall here is usually a same day or next day look. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The eaves are the only way air gets into your loft
Merley went up quickly, and most of it in the same stretch of years. The roofs went on with a felt underlay and an eaves detail that relied on air simply finding its way in around the edges, which worked well enough until people started topping up the loft insulation. Push the insulation out over the wall plate and you close the gap the air was using. The moisture from the house has nowhere to go, it condenses on the cold underside of the roof, and by February there are damp marks on the ceiling and everyone starts talking about a leak.
That is the one reason we would push you to renew the boards rather than cap over them. With the fascia off, fitting proper eaves ventilation is a small extra rather than a job of its own: a continuous soffit vent, or an over fascia vent where the soffit is too narrow, plus a tray that holds the insulation back off the wall plate and keeps the air gap open. If you have had the loft topped up in the last few years and the ceilings have started marking since, that is the first thing to look at, not the tiles.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Merley, Wimborne, Canford Magna, Broadstone and Corfe Mullen, broadly BH21, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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
Merley questions we get asked
The roofer says our damp is condensation. What do we do?
Look at the eaves before the tiles. If the loft insulation has been pushed out over the wall plate, the air gap has gone and moisture from the house settles on the cold felt. Vented soffits and a tray to hold the insulation back is the fix, and it is cheapest while the boards are off anyway.
Is it worth doing the gutter if the fascia is sound?
It can be. A run that has gone brittle, leaks at the unions or has dropped out of fall is worth renewing on its own. The test is the board behind it, because the brackets have to screw into solid timber or you are back where you started.
How long does a detached house take?
Usually two to three days. Longer runs, a deep overhang and more corners to turn all add time, and bad rafter feet add a little more because the timber has to be cut back and pieced in before the new boards go up.
Do we need permission for it?
No. Renewing fascias, soffits, bargeboards and gutters like for like is repair and maintenance. There is no application, nothing for building control, and no conservation area over the housing in Merley.
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Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, test the boards, look in the loft and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.