Fascias, soffits and guttering in Sandleheath
Boards, bargeboards and gutter runs stripped off and renewed on everything from a brick cottage to a post-war semi, with the timber behind them checked first.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A roofline is renewed because the timber behind the boards has gone soft, not because the plastic in front of it has gone grey. A screwdriver pushed into the fascia beside a bracket tells you which of the two you have, and that check costs you nothing.
Three things bring people to this page. A gutter that has dropped at one end and now stands away from the wall. A soffit that has gone soft and dark under a joint nobody knew was leaking. Or a bargeboard that has lost its paint, cupped, and opened up at the mitre.
We look at the whole eaves and verge rather than the one board you rang about, because the fascia is fixed to the feet of the rafters and the gutter hangs off the fascia. Then it goes in writing, itemised, with each elevation and every downpipe on its own line. Visit and quote both free.
The work
Cottage eaves and post-war estates, side by side
Two kinds of roofline, 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. 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 rather than 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.
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.
Boards and rainwater goods renewed the same as they came off count as repair, so nothing is applied for and nothing is notified, and regulation 12 of the Building Regulations 2010 is where that line falls. There is no conservation area over Sandleheath and very little here is listed, so on an ordinary house the board, the profile and the colour are your choice. Where an address is listed the gutters and hoppers count as part of the fabric under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.
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 brick cottage with low eaves at the back, a post-war semi with a straight run each side and a detached house with a conservatory beneath the back gutter each need a different way in. 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. Sandleheath is about fifteen miles out, so ring rather than use the form if a length has come down and water is running into the wall. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Check which planning authority you are actually in
This is the one thing worth getting straight before you ask anybody about a roofline here, and it catches people out regularly. Sandleheath sits outside the New Forest National Park, so New Forest District Council is your planning authority. Villages a few miles east are inside the Park and are dealt with by the National Park Authority instead, under different rules and a different set of officers.
For an ordinary roofline renewal it makes no practical difference, because like for like repair needs nobody's permission either way. It starts to matter the moment the job changes the look of the building, or the address turns out to be listed, and it matters again if you have been told by a neighbour that the Park has to approve your gutters. If you are not sure which side of the boundary you sit on, the Park's own property map will answer it in a minute. Then you know who to ring, and in most cases the answer is that you do not need to ring anybody.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Sandleheath, Alderholt, Fordingbridge, Damerham, Rockbourne and Godshill, broadly SP6, under New Forest District 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
Sandleheath questions we get asked
Do I need permission to change the boards?
On an ordinary house here, no. There is no conservation area over Sandleheath and very little is listed, so renewing boards and rainwater goods is repair. No planning application and nothing for building control.
Can a cast iron gutter be repaired rather than replaced?
Often. Corrosion starts on the inner face where no brush ever goes, so a whole length can be dropped, cleaned back, painted on that side and re-jointed. We will tell you honestly if one is past saving.
Will you renew the outbuildings at the same time?
Yes, and it usually works out cheaper. Outbuilding runs tend to be the oldest thing on the plot and the first to go, and the access is already up. Leaving them off just means paying twice for the same set up.
How long does a roofline take?
Days rather than weeks once the platform is up. A plain run is quick; put a bay, a porch and a gable verge on the same house and the hours double, since each corner needs its own angle and stop end. Soft rafter feet are cut away and scarfed, photographed and priced on the spot.
Nearby, and next door
Fascias, soffits and guttering near Sandleheath
Fascias, soffits and guttering nearby
Our other trades in Sandleheath
Everything we do in Verwood Fascias, soffits and guttering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Find out whether the boards or just the paint have gone
Thomas Hannen prices every job himself and checks the timber before anybody talks about materials. Free visit, free written itemised quote.