Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Sandleheath

Old and newer rooflines, one street apart. A fifth of the housing here predates 1919, so on one side of a lane you have painted timber, moulded fascias and cast iron, and on the other a post-war or 1980s house on uPVC. They fail differently.

Sandleheath timber rots from the end grain and the joints inwards and tells you first through blown, flaking paint. Plastic does not rot at all, but a thin board flexes between rafters and works the bracket screws loose until the run pulls away from the wall.

The run, whatever it is made of. Lengths and the unions joining them, brackets, the outlet, a hopper head, the downpipe, the shoe. That is where a gutter goes wrong, not in the length of it. Off comes the old run. Brackets are set at the spacing that profile was designed around, unions are left free to move, and the whole thing is hung to a fall pulled off a string line. A gutter hung dead level looks right from the garden and holds a film of water in every length all year, which is what perishes a joint and grows silt.

Profile and material. Half round is the ordinary domestic gutter, ogee has a flat back against the fascia and carries more, square is the modern version, and a long steep slope or a valley discharging into an eaves run wants deepflow or a second outlet, not a bigger pipe. Cast iron earns its keep while it is whole, since the rust starts on the inner face nobody can reach and a length can be cleaned, painted there and re-jointed. Seamless aluminium is formed to length on the drive and lifted up in a single piece. Timber wants its ends sealed and every face primed before it goes anywhere near the roof.

What the boards are hiding. None of this is decided from the ground. The board comes off, and then we look: rafter feet, the wall plate under them, the tilt fillet holding the bottom course of tiles at the right angle, and the underlay, which needs a felt support tray to see it over the edge and dripping into the run. BS 5534 is the code covering that eaves. Capping suits timber that is dry and hard, and it saves stripping a roof edge with years left. Anything softer and it is a lid, with the brackets for your new run going into wet wood.

Air, water and wildlife. Every cold roof breathes in at the eaves and out at the ridge. The soffit is the intake, so vent discs or a strip vent go back in, and an over fascia vent takes over where a boxed eaves has nothing to cut into. Leave the gap above the insulation blocked and the felt drips in January while mould works across rafters that were sound. Approved Document F says what is expected. Water then has to be sent somewhere real, a gully or a soakaway set out far enough from the footings, or it works behind the run and puts staining down brick and render that driving rain keeps wet. Birds go in behind a soffit wherever a joint has opened, wasps go higher up, and a winter of moss and debris off the tiles blocks the outlet.

We do not work to a rate per metre. A metre of fascia over a bay window is not the same as one on a straight gable.

The type of house. A Sandleheath brick cottage with low eaves at the back, a post-war semi with a straight run each side, and a bungalow with a long hipped roofline are three different set ups. A bungalow run is quick from a tower. A two storey gable needs a scaffold, and a run over a conservatory means building the platform around it. The work at height rules make access its own line.

Behind the boards. On the older houses, the rafter feet and wall plate have often been wet for years behind a leaking gutter. Nobody can tell until the old board is off, and repairing them is priced when found.

Like for like, or a change. A cottage with timber boards and cast iron gutters can go back in timber with cast or cast-effect gutters, or in uPVC. Each changes the cost, and on the older Sandleheath houses it changes the look too.

Outlets and downpipes. Corners, outlets, hoppers and downpipes are priced one at a time, and so is setting the fall again so the gutter drains.

Ask any quote whether the old boards come off or get capped, what happens if the rafter feet are rotten, and whether the downpipes are included.

Our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe is 14 miles from Sandleheath. We fit fascias, soffits and gutters across Sandleheath, Alderholt, Fordingbridge, Damerham, Rockbourne and Godshill, broadly SP6, under New Forest District Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, and its company number is 15471719. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns the business, and he walks the roofline with you and writes the price. On Checkatrade, a verified customer gave us 10 out of 10. The visit is free, and so is the itemised quote.

Most repairs in Sandleheath 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.