Fascias, soffits and guttering in Spetisbury

The old half of the village. On the cottages the eaves are deep timber and sometimes there is no soffit under them at all, with a cast iron channel bolted to the fascia or hung on brackets in the rafter ends. Iron gives out at its unions and along the rear face nobody paints, not in the middle of a length, so where the metal is sound the sensible job is taking it down, re-bedding and bolting the joints, painting behind as well as in front, and re-hanging it on a fall. Timber that has gone soft is another matter, and cladding over it with a cover board simply locks the moisture in.

The newer half. On the post war houses the boards are thinner softwood, often already capped, and the channel is plastic that has sagged between brackets. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard all come away and go back in uPVC, and we cap over only where the wood underneath is genuinely dry and firm. The rainwater goods are renewed as one set, brackets, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes, hung falling to the outlet, because a length put up level ponds along its middle for twelve months. Half round suits most, ogee sits flush to a square edged fascia, and deepflow moves far more where a long roof drains into a single run.

Whatever the age, what is behind it. Lift the fascia and there are the rafter ends, the plate carrying them and the tilt fillet that raises the lowest row of tiles. Wet ends are cut back and pieced in solid. A felt support tray follows, carrying the underlay over the front of the board so the water it sheds arrives in the channel. Tiles moved to get there go back to the pattern in BS 5534. Out this way the downpipe usually empties into a gully and then a soakaway, and a soakaway that has silted up hands the water straight back to the foot of your wall.

Air, and the jobs that stay jobs. A soffit off is the moment for eaves ventilation, either vented panels or over fascia vents on a shallow board, holding an air gap open above the loft insulation so condensation is not mistaken for a leak. A lot of what we do here is far smaller: one weeping joint, a perished union, a bracket torn from soft wood, a downpipe snapped at the shoe, an outlet solid with moss and debris washed off the tiles. Those are refixed, re-hung or swapped on their own. Wasps first, nesting birds once they have finished.

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 terrace where the run carries straight on next door, a cottage tight to the lane and a bungalow with garden all round it are three different jobs. 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.

Semis and terraces make up a good part of the village, and on those the gutter is one continuous run passing over the party wall. You cannot properly renew half of it. Cut a new length into an old one and you get a joint sitting right where the two roofs meet, usually between two different profiles, and that joint is the first thing to leak. Worse, your new brackets end up screwed to your half of a fascia while next door's half is still soft, so the board sags and pulls your end down with it.

So the sensible order of things is to talk to your neighbour before you book anything. We quote each house separately, each owner pays for their own, and the run comes off and goes back in one go with a single fall to the outlet. If your neighbour is not ready, we will still do your side and we will show you on the quote exactly where the new work stops and what that joint will and will not do. What we will not do is pretend it is as good as doing the whole run.

We cover Spetisbury, Charlton Marshall, Blandford, Sturminster Marshall and the Winterborne villages, broadly DT11, 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.