Fascias, soffits and guttering in Sandford

Reading the run. Start at the fascia, because every gutter bracket is screwed into it. Blown paint on timber, a board that gives under a screwdriver, screws that will not tighten: any of those and the run is coming down. If the fascia is sound, the fault is smaller and cheaper. A run sagging between brackets. A leaking joint at a union. A gutter that has tipped back so it overflows behind rather than over the front. An outlet packed solid with moss off the tiles. A downpipe off its clips or a shoe long since broken off.

Off, and what is underneath. With the gutter down and the fascia and soffit away, the rafter feet and the wall plate are visible and the rest of the job can be priced properly. Rot in a rafter end usually goes back only a few inches and is cut out and spliced. A felt support tray takes the bottom edge of the underlay out over the gutter so it stops draining down behind the board, and a tilt fillet lifts the bottom course of tiles to the angle they should be sitting at.

Capping, and where it is honest. Screwing a plastic board over an existing timber fascia is quicker and cheaper, and where that timber is dry and solid it is a perfectly good job. Over a board that has started to go it is the wrong answer, because it seals the damp against the rafter feet and the new plastic ends up hanging on the same failing timber. We look before we advise, and we would rather lose a smaller job than sell you a lid.

The new gutter. uPVC in half round, ogee, square or deepflow, chosen for the area of roof feeding each length rather than for what is standard. A long slope draining into one short run will overflow through a normal half round in heavy rain even when it is spotless, and a deepflow section handles it without adding another downpipe. Timber can go back in timber on an older building, cast iron can often be re-bedded and repainted, and aluminium suits long exposed runs. Brackets go back at correct centres and the run is set to a fall, because level looks right and holds water for the rest of its life.

Air and the rest. New soffits are vented, or an over fascia vent strip goes in where the board is too narrow, so air keeps moving through the eaves into the loft and condensation stops forming on the underside of the felt. Birds behind a lifted soffit and wasps in a gable are dealt with before new boards go on. Then we follow the rainwater to the bottom: a downpipe into a silted gully or over a tired soakaway will keep the wall damp however good the run above it is.

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.

Nothing here needs permission. Taking a rotten fascia off and putting a new one back is maintenance, so no planning application and nothing to notify building control about. Sandford has no conservation area over it and the few listed entries nearby are not on the ordinary housing, so the material, the colour and the gutter profile are your decision. Dorset Council keeps the record if you want to check, and a listed building would need consent first.

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. We are close enough to look the same day in most weeks, and a length still attached at one end is better supported by us than pulled down by the next gust. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Call now: 07435 839745

Most of Sandford went up in one long stretch after the war, with the biggest wave around the turn of the seventies. That matters for a roofline more than for almost any other job, because the boards, the brackets and the gutter on all those houses went on within a couple of years of each other and they have had exactly the same weather since. So when one goes, the neighbours are usually not far behind, and people often ring us after watching next door have theirs done.

Two practical things follow. First, if you are seeing the early signs, blown paint and a run that has just started to lean, it is worth looking at the whole house rather than the one corner, because the rest of it is the same age. Second, on semis and terraces the gutter run frequently carries straight on over the boundary, and half a run replaced against half a run left alone never sits quite right, at the joint or to the eye. If a neighbour is thinking about it too, say so when we come out. Sharing the access is the sensible way to do it and we price each house separately regardless.

Everything we do in Wareham Fascias, soffits and guttering, all areas Every area we cover