Fascias, soffits and guttering in Ridge
Rotten bargeboards, gutters blown off their brackets and soffits letting the wind in, put right around Ridge. Free site visit and a free written price.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Yes, a roofline can be renewed on its own. The fascias, soffits, bargeboards and the whole rainwater run come off and go back without disturbing the covering above them, and on open ground like this it is nearly always that edge work which has failed rather than the roof.
The description we get on the phone here hardly varies. Water is coming off the roof in the wrong place, and it started after a blow. The wind arrives across the harbour with very little in its way, so the damage lands at the ends of things: the bargeboard on a gable, the stop end at the windward corner, the last bracket before an outlet. Now and then a whole length has already parted from the wall and is lying in a hedge.
What we do about it does not change. Proper access goes up on every elevation, a section comes down so we can find out how far back the soft timber runs, and you get a written itemised price with each elevation on its own line. Where one side of the house still has years in it, we say so.
Order of work
What happens, in the order it happens
Before a price exists. Nobody can judge a roofline standing on the grass. A ladder goes up for a first look and a tower or a scaffold goes up to work off, and on this ground we start at the gable that faces the weather, because that is the end which gives up first. A blade pushed into the board behind the gutter settles the argument. If it sinks, the fascia has gone soft and rotted through and paint is money thrown away. Peeling, blown paintwork says the same thing a season or two earlier.
The rainwater run comes down first. Gutter, brackets, unions, stop ends, outlet, downpipe, clips and shoe, all off before a board is touched. Faults you could only guess at from below are plain once the run is on the ground: a length that had dropped and was emptying over a joint, a union weeping in every downpour, a section pulled away from the wall, or a run that had been overflowing at the back of the gutter and leaving a green stain down the brickwork.
Then the boards. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and any old capping come off rather than getting clad over, because what matters is underneath them: the rafter feet, the wall plate and the eaves course of tiles. Cladding hides all three. Where the timber under the failed paint is dry and firm, capping the face is a fair and cheaper job, and we will say so instead of selling you the bigger one.
Carpentry, where the job needs it. A rafter foot gone at the tail is cut back and a new tail sistered on. A wall plate that has been sitting wet for years is a bigger conversation, and you will see photographs of it before we go any further. On an exposed verge the bargeboard goes back in one length rather than spliced, since a joint on the windward gable is one more place for driving rain to get in.
Closing the eaves back up. The tilt fillet is reset so the bottom course sits at its proper angle and drips forward. A felt support tray carries the underlay out over the edge, so anything running down the felt lands in the gutter and not behind the new board. New soffit takes soffit vents, or an over fascia vent goes on where the soffit is too narrow for them, keeping the air gap through to the loft open. Shut that eaves ventilation off and you have swapped a rotten fascia for condensation under the felt, which is the whole reason Approved Document F cares about it. The verge and the eaves course go back fixed as BS 5534 expects.
Hanging the new run. uPVC on most houses, painted timber where the look matters, cast iron repaired and kept where it is worth keeping, aluminium on a long unbroken length. Half round, ogee, square or deepflow is a capacity decision rather than a taste one, because a wide slope in driving rain sheds more water than a small profile will carry. Then the fall. Brackets go on at closer centres on the exposed elevation, screwed into sound timber, with a real slope towards the outlet. Guttering hung level holds water the year round, and a full length is what tears a bracket out in a gale.
Before we leave. Water goes down each run to prove the fall and show the joints are dry. Every downpipe wants a shoe that discharges into a gully or a soakaway clear of the footings rather than spitting rainwater at the wall, which is how you end up with damp inside and staining outside. Open corners are closed so birds and wasps cannot nest behind a soffit, and the outlets are left clear of moss and debris off the tiles.
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 like for like is repair and maintenance, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control, and the Planning Portal sets out where that ends. There is no conservation area over Ridge itself, and there are a dozen listed entries near here, so it is worth checking whether your own building is one, because there you need listed building consent from Dorset Council before any of it changes.
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 the eaves over a hedge, a long single storey range on a smallholding, and a two storey house standing open to the harbour are three different platforms before a board is touched. 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. After a south westerly blow this is one of the first places we get called to, so ring rather than wait and we will get anything loose taken down or supported. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Before you choose a colour
On open ground, the roofline is the line people see
This is a nationally protected landscape, and the usual assumption is that everything in one needs permission. It does not. Renewing a rotten fascia in the same material, refixing a gutter that has come away, repainting sound timber: all of that is maintenance and nobody has to be asked. The designation bites on new building and on changes of appearance, so an extension, an outbuilding, or a frontage that suddenly reads differently from across open fields.
The reason that lands harder here than it would in a town is that there is nothing to hide behind. A building on this ground is seen from a long way off, and the eaves line is what the eye settles on first. Dark stained timber swapped for gloss white plastic will show. What usually works is a woodgrain or coloured board that keeps the line quiet, and we price it against the standard white so you can decide with the difference in front of you. If your own building is one of the listed ones round here, ask before you order anything, because consent comes ahead of the work rather than after it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ridge, Stoborough, Arne, Wareham, Sandford and Holton Heath, broadly BH20, 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.
Questions
Roofline questions we get asked around Ridge
Can you renew one elevation and leave the rest?
Yes. Out here the side facing the weather fails a good while before the sheltered side, and there is no sense buying all four at once. Every run is priced on its own line, and we will tell you plainly which ones still have life left in them.
The gutter looks fine. Do the boards still have to come off?
If the fascia behind it has gone soft, yes. A bracket is only as good as the timber it is screwed to. Sound gutter can sometimes go back up on the new board, although the clips, unions and seals are usually the part that has perished.
What is the green stripe down the wall under our gutter?
Water going over the back of the run instead of out of the front, usually because the fall has flattened or an outlet is blocked. Re-hanging that length to a proper fall stops it. Washing the wall without touching the run only buys you a year.
Does a bargeboard always have to be replaced whole?
Not always. Rot starts at the foot of a gable where water sits, so sound timber higher up can be cut back to and spliced into. Once it has reached the fixings the whole board comes off, and on an exposed gable we would rather it went back in one piece anyway.
Will the tiles have to come off?
No. The bottom course is eased up far enough to get the support tray and the tilt fillet in, then it beds back down. Nothing higher up the slope is disturbed.
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Tell us which elevation has gone and we will bring the right access. Thomas prices the job himself, run by run in writing, with nothing to pay for the visit or the quote.