Fascias, soffits and guttering in Norton

Houses built before the boards. On the older properties there is nothing to take off at all. Rafter ends stand open to the air and the channel hangs on rise and fall brackets driven into them, ogee or half round, bolted together at each union. Iron does not give out along a length. It gives out at the joints, where bolt and bedding have gone, and along the rear face nobody has ever painted. Down it comes, the rust is taken back, the unions are re-bedded and bolted, front, back and inside are painted, and it is re-hung to a fall on brackets that still have timber to grip.

Houses built with them. Where a fascia, soffit or bargeboard does exist, it is taken off rather than clad over decay, because cladding holds the damp against the wood and hands the new brackets a board with no strength left. Firm, dry timber is a fair candidate for capping and we will say when yours is. Replacements are uPVC. Underneath sit the rafter ends, the wall plate and the tilt fillet lifting the first row of tiles, and any soft end is cut away and made good. A support tray follows so the underlay carries over the board and delivers into the channel. Tiles moved are refixed as BS 5534 requires.

The rest of the run. Brackets, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes are renewed together, screwed and clipped so the whole length falls to its outlet, since one hung level stands full of water all year. Deepflow is the answer where a long roof throws more at the channel than an ordinary section will carry. Salt this close to the water does more harm to the ironmongery than to the material, so screws and brackets are non ferrous, aluminium is worth pricing against plastic where appearance counts, and any pipe emptying onto bare ground rather than into a gully or a soakaway leaves the wall behind it permanently damp.

Air, and the small jobs. Where a soffit is renewed, eaves ventilation goes in with it, through the panel or over the top of the fascia, keeping an air gap above the loft insulation so winter condensation is not written off as a leak. A weeping joint, a bracket working loose of a rafter end, a snapped downpipe, an outlet choked with moss and debris off the tiles: those stay small, refixed or re-hung on their own. Wasps first, nesting birds once they are done.

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 tight to the lane, a bungalow with open garden all round and a house with a lean-to under the back gutter 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.

A quarter of the housing around here predates the First World War, and on those roofs the eaves were built open on purpose. The rafter feet show, air moves freely across them, and the roof space breathes through the gap rather than through anything anybody fitted. It is not a fault and it does not need correcting.

What we are often asked to do is board it all in with plastic, because it looks tidier and it needs no painting. That can be done, and on some houses it is the right answer, but it has to be done with ventilation built in from the start. Close an open eaves up with a solid soffit and no vents and you have taken the roof's only air supply away, and in a damp winter the moisture ends up on the underside of the felt and then on a bedroom ceiling. If you want the look, have the vents priced with it. On a listed building, boxing in an open eaves changes the character of the place and that is a consent question first.

We cover Norton, Yarmouth, Freshwater, Totland and the west of the Island, broadly PO41, under the Isle of Wight 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.