Fascias, soffits and guttering in Owermoigne

Repaint, or replace? The test is a blade into the top edge of the fascia behind the gutter, because that is the line where water sits. Timber that is still hard has only lost its paint: rub it back, prime all four faces and redecorate, and it will go a good while yet. Timber you can push into has rotted and no coating brings it back. Peeling, blown paint is a symptom of water behind the board rather than a decorating failure, which is why painting a soft fascia is money spent twice.

Splice, or take the whole length? Rot travels inwards from the ends and upwards from the feet. A bargeboard gone at the bottom of a gable but dry above can be cut back to sound wood and a new piece scarfed in to match the moulding. Once the rot has reached the fixings, or once more than a short stretch of it is soft, the whole board comes off, because new timber screwed to old rot holds nothing at all.

Cap over, or strip back? This is the decision that separates two quotes for the same house. Capping means plastic fitted over the board that is already there. Where the timber underneath is dry and firmly fixed it is a fair, cheaper job and you will be told so. Over soft timber it is the wrong answer, because it seals the rot in, hides the rafter feet and the wall plate, and the brackets tear themselves out a few winters later. Stripping back is also the only moment when the tilt fillet can be reset and a felt support tray fitted so the underlay drips into the gutter, with the eaves course and verge going back as BS 5534 requires.

Repair the iron, or change the material? Cast iron is repairable in a way plastic never is. A cracked section swaps out, a leaking joint is stripped and re-bedded, sound metal is rubbed down and repainted, and a rise and fall bracket resets a fall that has been lost. Where it has rusted through at the sockets the choice is uPVC, aluminium on a long unbroken run, or a like for like replacement in the original profile. On a listed cottage that last one is generally the only option on the table.

Keep the gutter, or renew the whole run? Now and then the length is sound and only the clips, unions and seals have perished. More often the labour in taking a run down and refitting it costs enough that new gutter on new boards is the better buy. Capacity comes into it too. A broad or steep slope empties more in a downpour than a narrow profile can hold, so a run that overflows in every storm is frequently undersized rather than blocked, and square, ogee or deepflow solves what clearing it never will.

One elevation, or the lot? Rarely the lot. Boards fail at different rates on different sides of a house, driving rain sees to that, so every run is measured and priced on its own line and you can take the worst one first. Two things do not get deferred whatever else you decide. The eaves ventilation, with soffit vents or an over fascia vent keeping the air gap into the loft clear, so a rotten fascia is not traded for condensation, which is the concern behind Approved Document F. And the discharge, so every downpipe is clipped straight and finishes with a shoe into a gully or a soakaway well clear of the footings instead of staining brickwork and putting damp inside. Open ends are closed against birds and wasps nesting, and outlets left free of the moss and debris that keep a length full and a board wet.

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 village cottage with low eaves close to the lane, a farmhouse with one long straight gable, and a modern detached house with a bay and a porch to work around 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.

There is a fair number of listed entries in and around the village, mostly older cottages, the church and farm buildings rather than the newer housing. If yours is one of them the roofline stops being a free choice. Listing covers the whole building, outside as much as in, and the fascias, bargeboards, gutters and downpipes are part of what is covered. Taking cast iron and moulded timber down and putting plastic up in its place is an alteration, and doing that without listed building consent is an offence rather than a paperwork slip.

Repair, by contrast, is usually fine. Renewing a rotten length of timber in the same timber and the same profile, re-bedding an iron joint, replacing a broken bracket, repainting: that is maintenance and normally needs nothing at all. The line falls where the fabric or the appearance changes. Our habit on a cottage like that is to keep everything that will do another few decades, replace only what has genuinely gone, and match the section when we do. If you are not sure whether your house is on the list, we check it during the free site visit, because it is a far better thing to know before a quote is written than after a board has come off.

We cover Owermoigne, Crossways, Warmwell, Winfrith Newburgh and Moreton, broadly DT2, under Dorset 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.