Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Tarrant Monkton

Cast iron and hopper heads. A good deal of the older pipework in villages like this is cast iron, often dropping from a hopper head at high level.

Cast iron is worth keeping: the metal outlasts anything that would replace it, and what has actually failed is the putty and bolt at a joint, the fixing into a soft fascia, or the paint. We strip and re-bed the joint, refix into sound timber, then prepare and paint the run inside and out. A hopper that is overflowing is usually blocked with moss and debris off the tiles rather than broken, and once it is clear and the outlet below it is proved with water, the staining down the wall stops getting worse.

The boards behind it. Where there is a painted timber fascia it rots on its hidden face, at the end of a length, and along its top edge where the felt has been shedding onto it. A screwdriver settles the argument. On Tarrant Monkton houses we will often piece in a section and leave the rest of the board alone, which keeps the look and keeps the cost down. Where the whole thing has gone, the fascia, soffit and bargeboard come off together and you finally get to see the rafter feet and the wall plate. Soft rafter ends are spliced, the tilt fillet is reinstated beneath the bottom course of tiles, and a felt support tray brings the underlay forward so it drips over the gutter rather than at the back of the gutter. Fixing the bottom course properly as it goes back is what BS 5534 asks for.

Capping over. Fixing plastic over an existing board is honest work on dry, sound, firmly held timber, and we will price it that way where that is what we find. Over rot it covers the problem and cures nothing, and on a Tarrant Monkton frontage it is also the thing most likely to be noticed and questioned. It is not our default here.

Profile, fall and pipework. Half round reads correctly on an older elevation, ogee sits square against a fascia, and deepflow holds more water for the same width where a long slope drains into one short run. Outlets, unions, brackets, downpipes and shoes are itemised one by one, and where a plastic run is staying and being renewed, aluminium is worth pricing on a long elevation because it arrives in longer sections. Driving rain drives water at the back of the gutter, so the rainwater a run cannot take ends up in the wall instead of the discharge. Whatever goes up is set to a fall towards the outlet, never dead level, because a level run holds water all year and gives up whenever it rains hard. The run is re-hung on brackets set close enough that no length can bow, each into timber that holds a screw, and every downpipe is refixed with fresh clips. Then it is filled from the far end and watched out at the shoe. Downpipes finish into a gully or a soakaway, since one emptying at the foot of a wall puts damp into the stonework.

Air and nuisance. Where there is a soffit, having it down is the moment to put the eaves ventilation right. Soffit vents, or an over fascia vent where the boards are shallow, hold an air gap above the loft insulation, and that is what keeps condensation off the felt in a wet winter. Mesh goes on with the new boards and at the verge to keep nesting birds and wasps out, and any moss and debris that has come off the tiles is taken out of the outlet.

Height and ground come first. Low eaves over a garden are an easy day's access. A gable on a slope, a conservatory under the gutter or a run over the Tarrant Monkton lane is another matter. The work at height rules put the tower or scaffold on its own line.

Timber, plastic or cast iron. uPVC fascia and soffit boards are quick to fit. Painted timber takes longer and needs priming on every face. Cast iron gutters on an older or listed Tarrant Monkton house are heavy, need matching brackets and cost more to replace like for like.

What the old board is hiding. Once a rotten fascia is off, the rafter ends and wall plate can be seen. Sound ones are fine. Soft ones are spliced before a new board goes on. Capping over old timber with plastic hides the rot, and we do not do it.

Outlets and corners. Every downpipe, hopper, stop end and corner is extra work, and so is setting a proper fall on a run that was hung dead level.

Worth asking anyone else who quotes: are the old boards coming off or being clad over? Is the soffit vented to keep the roof space dry? Is the scaffold in the figure?

Pimperne, Witchampton, Blandford Forum, Spetisbury and the rest of the Tarrant villages on DT11 are all covered, and Tarrant Monkton itself is fifteen miles from our base in Boscombe. Dorset Council handles planning. When you ring, you get Thomas Hannen, who owns the business and measures and prices the roofline himself.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719, on the register for England and Wales. A verified Checkatrade customer scored us 10 out of 10. We do not charge for the visit, and each run is itemised on a free written quote. Before you book a visit in Tarrant Monkton, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Tarrant Monkton 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.