Fascias, soffits and guttering in Milford on Sea

What actually gives way. A gutter pulled away from the wall, a run sagging between brackets, a leaking joint at a union, a soffit gone soft, paint blown off a timber fascia, or a clear gutter overflowing in a downpour. On the exposed elevations the first three are usually a fixing rather than the board. Inland it is more often rot, and the screwdriver settles which: sound timber stops it, soft timber takes it like cork.

The run, and how it is hung. Gutter lengths and their unions, the brackets, the outlet, a hopper head, then the downpipe and the shoe. The old run comes down whole rather than being patched. Bracket spacing follows the profile and tightens up on an exposed elevation, every union keeps room to expand, and the fall is set off a string line. A gutter hung dead level looks right from the garden and holds water all year. Downpipe clips go back in non ferrous, because a mild steel clip on this coast is the first thing to fail and the reason a pipe ends up hanging.

Materials, and what salt does to each. uPVC and aluminium do not care about salt, which is why so much of the seafront housing is on one or the other, and seamless aluminium is rolled to length on site and hung in one piece with no joints to perish. Cast iron rusts from the inside where no brush reaches, and near the water it goes faster. Painted timber still suits the older houses but wants the end grain sealed and primer on all four faces. Half round is the ordinary domestic profile, ogee sits flat to the fascia and holds more, square is the modern version, and a long exposed slope wants deepflow or a second outlet.

Behind the boards. Once the fascia is off, the eaves tells you everything. The feet of the rafters, the wall plate they land on, the tilt fillet under the bottom course of tiles, and the underlay, which should be carried on a felt support tray so the drip lands in the run and not on the timber. BS 5534 covers how that is built. Capping is a reasonable job on hard, dry, painted timber. Over anything softer it is a lid, and the brackets holding your new run end up screwed into wet wood.

Air, water and the gap. A cold roof takes its air in at the eaves, through the soffit, which is why a solid board fitted where a vented one came off changes the whole roof. Strip vents, vent discs or an over fascia vent all put the intake back, and the gap above the insulation has to stay open, or the felt drips in January and mould spreads on rafters that were fine. Approved Document F sets the expectation. Downstairs, the pipe has to empty into a gully or a soakaway set out far enough to take it. Water that gets behind the run stains a render, and on this coast driving rain never lets the wall dry. Birds nest behind a soffit through any open joint, wasps go in higher up, and moss and debris off the tiles pack an outlet solid.

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 seafront flat with the run three storeys up over a path, a bungalow set back behind a hedge and a semi with a conservatory beneath the back gutter each need a different platform. 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.

We cover Milford on Sea, Keyhaven, Hordle, Everton, Pennington and Lymington, broadly SO41, under New Forest District 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.