Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement 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 Sandford 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.

Thomas walks the whole roofline with you before writing a price. On the estate houses in Sandford the boards are often the original painted timber, sometimes already capped in plastic, with a gutter that has sagged between its brackets.

His quote measures each elevation separately and then lists what comes down, what goes up and how he reaches it: fascia, soffit, bargeboards on the gables, the gutter, every outlet and downpipe, the tower or scaffold, and taking the old stuff away. Thomas is your one contact from start to finish.

A bungalow run is done off a tower wheeled along the path. A Sandford semi's front gutter often carries straight on across next door, so we agree the join with you before we start. Soft boards come off rather than being clad over. The house is never left without a working gutter overnight, the ground is swept daily, and the waste goes with us. When a rafter foot behind a board has rotted, you see it on your phone with a figure beside it, and you decide.

Replacing fascia, soffit and guttering like for like is maintenance: no planning application and nothing for building control. No conservation area covers Sandford, so the material and colour are your choice. Dorset Council keeps the list if you want to check whether your house is one of the few that are listed, and a listed building would need consent first. We also look at where each downpipe empties, because water dumped at the footings of a wall is worth moving.

If a gutter has pulled off its brackets or a downpipe has snapped at the bend, keep people clear of the drop and do not try to pull it down. The next heavy rain will run down the wall and into the brickwork, and water pooling at the footings is worth stopping quickly.

Our first visit props the run and gets the water discharging somewhere sensible. Then we price the proper repair once we can see how far the rot goes. Booked work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For a gutter hanging off, the phone gets to us faster than the form. Should nobody answer, expect a call back from us as soon as possible.

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 watching next door have theirs done is a fair hint that yours is due.

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 Sandford 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.

Nearby places we also cover for fascias, soffits and guttering, with straight-line distances from Sandford, and the other trades we offer in Sandford itself.

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