Fascias, soffits and guttering in Minstead
Rotten boards taken off properly, the run re-hung so it empties, and the colour and profile kept in keeping with the lane.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Minstead sits in a conservation area inside the National Park, so on a roofline here the colour and the profile matter as much as the material. Like for like is maintenance. A white square run where a black half round one used to be is a different conversation.
The calls are usually one of three. Water is getting behind a gutter and the top of a wall has gone damp. A soffit has dropped away and something is nesting in the gap. Or the boards have simply had enough, with paint peeling and blown and a run sagging between brackets.
What decides the job in every case is the timber behind the board, and that cannot be judged from the lane. We come out, get up to the eaves, test what is there with a screwdriver and photograph the rafter feet behind the fascia. Then a written quote broken out line by line, boards, gutter, downpipes, access, and Thomas prices it himself. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Renewing a roofline on a Forest cottage
Working out what you have. Some of the older properties out here have no fascia at all: the rafter feet run out past the wall and the gutter hangs on brackets. Others have painted softwood boards, and a few have already been done in plastic. Each wants a different job, so the survey comes before the price rather than after it. On timber we test at the ends of each run and both sides of every joint, because a fascia rots from behind the gutter where you cannot see it and the front can look passable while the board is finished.
Strip rather than cap. Capping over means fixing plastic onto the old board. Over dry, sound, well fixed timber that is a fair job and we will price it. Over rot it is a cover, and the fixings end up holding into soft wood. Taking the boards off is also the only way to look at the wall plate and the ends of the rafters, splice out anything soft, reinstate the tilt fillet beneath the bottom course of tiles and fit a tray so the felt overhangs the gutter properly instead of dropping its water behind the fascia. Getting water behind a gutter is what damps the top of a wall, and it is almost always this.
The rainwater run. Gutter, outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are all itemised separately. Half round is the traditional profile and the one that suits these elevations. Ogee sits square to a fascia, and deepflow holds more for the same width where a long or steep slope empties into one short run. Materials go from uPVC to aluminium, which comes in longer lengths with fewer joints, to cast iron on the older properties, which we would rather re-bed and paint than take down.
Fall and discharge. Level is the enemy. A gutter with no fall in it looks right from the lane and behaves like a trough, so the water stands, the outlet silts and a joint splits at the first hard frost. We strike a line, drop the run to the outlet, and set the brackets close enough that no length can bow, each into timber that holds a screw. Then it is filled from the far end and watched out at the shoe. Every downpipe is clipped back and made to deliver into a gully or a soakaway, since a pipe emptying onto the ground beside a wall leaves damp and staining low down.
Air and nuisance. While the soffit is down we put the eaves ventilation right, through the boards or above the fascia, keeping the air gap clear over the loft insulation so the felt does not grow condensation in a damp winter. New boards go up with the verge and the run ends meshed. Out here that matters: the space behind a soft soffit is a standing invitation to nesting birds and wasps, and moss and debris coming down off the tiles is what leaves an outlet blocked.
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 roofline in the same material and position is repair, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control. Minstead sits in a conservation area and in the New Forest National Park, so the planning authority is the Park rather than the district, and it publishes a property by property map of what applies. Work to a listed building needs consent in its own right, whatever the material.
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 cottage with a low open eaves over a verge, a detached house with two gables, and a bungalow with a wide overhang are three different ways in. 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. Minstead is a fair drive out for us, so ring rather than email and tell us if water is already getting into the wall. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Colour and profile are the things people get wrong
Minstead is in a conservation area, and inside one the control is on how the building looks from public view rather than on the fact of the work. Renewing a rotten fascia in the same material, the same profile and the same colour is maintenance and nobody needs asking. Changing the appearance is what needs thinking about first.
In practice that comes down to two decisions people make almost by accident. The first is colour: a great many of these houses have a black or dark run, and the default order from a merchant is white. A bright white gutter and bargeboard on a cottage frontage changes the look of it far more than anyone expects, and it is the thing that gets noticed from the lane. The second is profile: swapping a half round run for a modern square one, or boxing in an open eaves that never had a soffit, alters the shadow line along the whole elevation. Neither is automatically a problem, and on a rear elevation neither is likely to trouble anybody. The Park Authority sets out how it looks at these in its heritage and conservation guidance. We will put both the like for like option and the alternative on the quote, and say which of them we think you would need to ask about.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Minstead, Lyndhurst, Emery Down, Bartley, Cadnam and the villages in the middle of the Forest, broadly SO43, under the New Forest National Park Authority. 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
Minstead questions we get asked
Do I need permission to replace my fascias in the conservation area?
Not for a like for like renewal, which is repair. Permission comes into it where the appearance changes noticeably from a public road, and always where the building itself is listed. Tell us the address and we will say which side of that line you are on.
Can I have black guttering instead of white?
Yes, and on most houses here it is the better choice. Black and anthracite are standard finishes now, they hold their colour rather than going chalky in the sun, and they sit far more quietly on an older elevation than bright white does.
Something is nesting behind my soffit. What happens?
We leave an active nest alone. The area is made safe, we come back once the birds have finished, and the new boards go up with mesh closing the gap so it does not happen again. Wasps are dealt with the same way, just faster.
Will you need scaffold?
It depends on the height and how long the work takes. A single storey run is often a tower job. A two storey gable or a full strip and renewal wants a proper working platform, and that is a separate line on the quote rather than something buried in a rate.
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Get a price for your Minstead roofline
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will get to the eaves, look behind the boards and put an itemised price in writing, at no charge.