Fascias, soffits and guttering 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 these houses we will often piece in a section rather than renew the whole board, 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 ' + C['bs5534'] + ' 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 is a cover rather than a cure, and on a village 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 being renewed rather than removed, 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 rather than 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.

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 tiled cottage with a low eaves on the lane, a farmhouse with a hopper head at high level, and a modern house at the edge of the village 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 Tarrant Monkton, the Tarrant villages, Pimperne, Blandford Forum, Spetisbury and Witchampton, 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.