Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Redlynch

The boards. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and the capping over a gable ladder fail as a set. Timber rots from behind the gutter and along the top edge where the felt has been dripping onto it, so peeling and blown paint is a symptom, not the problem.

Where the screwdriver goes in, the board comes off. Where it does not, we will say so and leave it, and we are happy to cap over a dry, sound, firmly fixed board and leave it in place, which is a legitimate job and a cheaper one.

The structure behind. With the boards down you can see the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom course of tiles for the first time in decades. Soft rafter ends get cut back and spliced. The tilt fillet is reinstated so the bottom tile lies at its proper angle, and a felt support tray stops the underlay sagging short, which is the detail that keeps rainwater off the back of the gutter and the top of the wall dry. The bottom course is refixed as BS 5534 expects.

The run and the pipework. Gutter, outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are each priced on their own line. Half round is the common profile, ogee is the square fronted one that sits flat to the fascia, and deepflow carries more water for the same width where a long slope drains into one short length. uPVC, aluminium on a long straight run, and cast iron repaired and repainted on the older Redlynch cottages all have their place. A run that is dropped at one end, pulled away from the wall, or overflowing through a leaking joint gets re-hung rather than patched, and the downpipes are refixed with fresh clips as it goes back.

Hanging it to a fall. A gutter without a fall in it is a trough with a hole at one end. Water stands in the low spots, the outlet silts, a bracket fixing never dries out, and the first frost splits a joint. Putting it right is not complicated: a line, a steady drop to the outlet, brackets set close enough that no length can bow, and a screw into solid timber at every one. On a Redlynch bungalow you can stand in the garden and see whether it is right, which is a rare luxury. It gets filled from the far end and watched out at the shoe, and every downpipe is clipped back so it discharges into a gully or a soakaway rather than throwing rainwater at the brickwork, where driving rain and a blocked outlet will already be leaving staining.

Air and nuisance. This is where a Redlynch bungalow differs most. The roof space above you is large, the eaves feeding it is long, and once the soffit closes up the loft has no air at all. So the eaves ventilation goes in as the boards go back, through soffit vents or an over fascia vent, with the gap over the insulation left properly open. That is what keeps the felt dry and the timbers sound. The openings are meshed at the same time, because nesting birds and wasps find a low quiet eaves quickly, and any moss and debris off the tiles is taken out of the outlet before we finish.

A roofline is not priced by the metre. The same length can be a morning on a straight bungalow eaves or two days round bays and corners.

Getting up to it. A single storey run over a lawn is tower work. A two storey gable, a conservatory or bay window under the eaves, or a cottage built hard against the lane needs scaffold arranged round the obstacle, and the work at height rules put that on its own line.

The timber behind. On the older Redlynch cottages the fascia is often painted softwood, patched more than once. What matters is the rafter feet and wall plate it is nailed to, and they only show once the board is down. Clipping a plastic cover over the top leaves any rot to carry on, so the old boards come off.

Every change of direction. Straight runs go quickly. Corner returns, hoppers, outlets and downpipes each add time, as does working round a satellite dish or a cable, and the gutter has to be set to a fall so it drains instead of holding water.

Air at the eaves. Where the loft insulation is pushed into the eaves, the new soffit needs vents so the roof space can breathe.

With another firm's quote, check whether the boards are replaced or covered, what happens if the rafter feet have rotted, and whether gutters and downpipes are new or only the fascia.

Redlynch sits 18.2 miles from our Boscombe base. We work across the parish and around it: the village, Woodfalls, Morgan's Vale, Landford and Whiteparish, plus Downton and Fordingbridge either side. For anything that needs permission, the council is Wiltshire.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it belongs to Thomas Hannen, who measures up and prices every roofline himself. We hold a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade from a customer the site verified. Thomas's visit is free, and so is the written quote with every line itemised. Before you book a visit in Redlynch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Redlynch need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.