Fascias, soffits and guttering in Merritown

The gable end goes first. On an exposed plot the middle of a wall is rarely the problem. It is the edges and the openings, and on a roof the edge is the verge, the bargeboard and the fascia return at the corner. Driving rain gets under a verge, wets the end of the bargeboard, and works back along the top edge of the fascia where the felt has already shrunk off the eaves. So we start every survey on the south west elevation, whatever the customer has rung about, because that is where the timber will be worst. The list of what we find there hardly changes: peeling and blown paint, a board sagging or dropped between brackets, a run pulled away from the wall, a leaking joint at a union, green staining down the render below, and an overflow in every squall from a gutter with nothing in it.

Off, and what is underneath. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and the old gutter come off together. We remove them rather than cap over them, because cladding a soft board is the job we get called back to undo, because the rot carries on behind the plastic and the bracket screws lose their bite. With everything down we can see the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom course of tiles. Soft rafter ends are spliced, a felt support tray goes in where the underfelt has torn back, and a tilt fillet sets the bottom course so it drips into the gutter rather than over the back of it. Tiles lifted at the eaves or verge are refixed the way BS 5534 expects. Where the board really is sound and dry, capping the face and lining the soffit is a fair job and cheaper, and we will say so.

Choosing for exposure. uPVC in white, black or woodgrain never needs painting, which matters more here than on a sheltered plot. Timber suits an older or moulded profile, primed on all four faces. Cast iron is worth repairing and repainting where it survives, and aluminium is the one to price on a long exposed run because it comes in a single length with no unions to work loose. Profile matters too: half round is fine on a small roof, but a wide or steep slope in driving rain sheds faster than it can carry, and ogee, square or deepflow hold more water per metre before it goes over the back edge.

Fixings, fall and the pipes. Brackets go on at proper centres and closer where the run is exposed, because a gutter that lifts in a gale has usually been hung too far apart. We re-hang the run so it falls to the outlet rather than sitting level, unions are resealed, downpipes clipped straight, and the shoe set so the rainwater discharges into a gully instead of at the base of a wall, where it soaks the brickwork and shows as damp inside. Hopper heads get checked, and where a downpipe runs to a soakaway we say whether it is taking the flow or backing up. Then the eaves are made good while they are open: soffit vents in the new boards or an over fascia vent where the soffit is narrow, and the air gap over the loft insulation kept clear so the roof space stays dry rather than growing condensation. Eaves ventilation costs almost nothing while the boards are down and a great deal afterwards. Approved Document F sets the ventilation figures. Corners are closed off against birds and wasps nesting behind a soffit, and any outlet blocked with moss and debris off the tiles is flagged up.

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 farm cottage standing on its own in the open, a bungalow with a conservatory under the back run, and a house with a long exposed gable are three different jobs before a board comes off. 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.

This is open ground. There is very little between the south west and the back of a building out here, and that changes where a roofline fails rather than whether it fails. Wind driven rain does not fall on a roof so much as it is pushed at the edges of one: at the verge where the tiles finish over the bargeboard, at the corner where the fascia turns, and at the top edge of the board where the felt stops. Sheltered elevations on the same house can look fine while the weather side has gone completely, and water running over the back of the gutter there will stain a wall long before anyone notices the board behind it.

Two practical things follow from that. First, get somebody to look at the exposed gable before you decide anything, because a quote based on what you can see from the front door will usually miss the worst run on the building. Second, spend the extra at the edges when the new work goes up: closer bracket centres so a full gutter cannot lift in a gale, a properly bedded verge, and a bargeboard fixed back into sound timber. It is a small part of the price and it decides how the job looks in ten winters.

We cover Merritown, Hurn, Parley, Christchurch and Bransgore, broadly BH23, 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.