Fascias, soffits and guttering in Sixpenny Handley

Deciding what has actually failed. The fascia is the wettest board on the house because the gutter sits against it, so it rots from behind and at the ends of the run. Blown paint and a stain running down the front tell you to look properly; a screwdriver going into the timber tells you the answer. A soffit fails from its back face and announces it by hanging clear of the wall. Bargeboards and the capping over a gable are hit sideways rather than soaked, so they usually outlast the other two.

Capping over, honestly. Screwing plastic over an existing board is a genuine job when the timber underneath is dry, sound and firmly fixed, and where we find that we will quote it, because it is quicker and it costs you less. Where the board is soft it is a cover for a problem that carries on underneath, with the new fixings holding into rotten wood. Then the boards come off, which is the only way to look at the ends of the rafters and the plate under them, to splice out a soft one, to reinstate the tilt fillet beneath the bottom course of tiles, and to fit a tray that carries the felt out over the gutter.

Choosing the run. Half round is the ordinary profile. Ogee is the square fronted one that sits flat against the fascia. Deepflow holds noticeably more water for the same width, and it is the right call where a long or steep slope empties into one short length and the existing gutter overflows every time there is a downpour. Outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are all itemised. uPVC is the standard, aluminium is worth pricing on a long straight elevation because it comes in longer lengths with fewer joints, and cast iron on an older property is usually better repaired and repainted than removed.

Hanging and proving it. Getting the fall right is most of the job. Set dead level a run holds water in every dip through the year, which silts the outlet and splits a joint at the first frost, and no amount of clearing changes that. So a line goes up, the run drops steadily to the outlet, and the brackets go in close enough that no length can bow, each screwed into solid timber. It is filled from the far end and watched out at the shoe before we call it done. Downpipes are clipped back and made to deliver into a gully or a soakaway, since a pipe emptying beside a wall puts damp and staining into the brickwork.

Air and nuisance. Two small things get done while the eaves is open and both save money later. The first is air: a vent in the soffit or above the fascia, with the gap over the loft insulation left properly clear, so the felt stays dry rather than sweating through the winter. The second is closing the place up. Mesh at the verge and at the end of every run keeps nesting birds and wasps out, and each outlet is picked clear of the moss and debris that comes down off the tiles and leaves it blocked.

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 on the village street with a low eaves, a bungalow with a deep overhang, and a farm cottage set back down a track are three different ways 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.

We cover Sixpenny Handley, Pentridge, Cranborne, Tollard Royal, Gussage and the villages along the Chase, broadly SP5, 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.