Fascias, soffits and guttering in Three Legged Cross
Fascias, soffits, bargeboards and gutters renewed across Three Legged Cross, including the first generation of plastic roofline that is now coming to the end of it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Plenty of the houses in Three Legged Cross already have a plastic roofline, and that is exactly why we get called. Plastic does not rot, but it goes brittle, the fixings let go and the joints pop, and where it was capped over old timber the rot is still quietly going on behind it.
The usual reasons for a call are a gutter overflowing at one corner in heavy rain, a length that has dropped off its brackets after a gale, or a soffit that has gone chalky and started to sag away from the wall. On the older houses it is the more familiar picture: paint peeling and blown off a timber fascia with soft wood underneath. The free visit is about getting behind the plastic rather than admiring it from the drive, because on a capped roofline the board that matters is the one you cannot see. We lift a section where we can, test the timber behind it, and put photographs and an itemised price in writing.
The work
From the fascia to the shoe
Reading a plastic roofline. White boards do not rot, so the signs are different. Look along the fascia in bright light: a wavy line means it was nailed up tight with nowhere to move. Press the soffit where it meets the brickwork and see whether it flexes or crumbles. Check the unions after a hot spell, because a joint with no room left in it will be sitting open. And if the plastic was simply capped across the original timber, none of that tells you anything about the fascia hiding behind it, which is the board your brackets are actually screwed to.
Taking it back to timber. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard come away, cover board included, and what is underneath gets tested rather than assumed. New boards go back in uPVC, carried up to the verge on a gable. Rafter ends, the wall plate and the tilt fillet raising the bottom row of tiles all become visible, and anything soft is cut off and replaced with sound wood. A felt support tray goes in so the underlay finishes over the front edge and its water lands in the channel rather than behind it. Tiles lifted are refixed to the pattern in BS 5534. Capping over is only fair where the timber is dry and firm, and we will tell you which you have.
The run, sized properly this time. Half round is the common section, ogee sits flat against a square edged fascia, and deepflow carries a great deal more, which is the honest answer where a long roof puts more through one length than it can shift and it is overflowing every autumn. Brackets, unions, outlets, hopper heads, downpipes and shoes all go back together, screwed and clipped so the length falls to the outlet. Cast iron is unusual on these roads, aluminium is worth a figure on a long exposed elevation, and any pipe finishing on a border rather than in a gully or a soakaway is what has left the green staining down your wall.
Ventilation, and the small repairs. New soffits are the cheapest chance you get at eaves ventilation, a soffit vent in the panel or an over fascia vent above it, keeping an air gap open over the loft insulation so February condensation is not written off as a roof leak. Most calls here are smaller than a replacement anyway: a leaking joint, a perished union, a bracket dragged out of a soft board, a snapped shoe, a blocked outlet packed with moss and debris off the tiles. Those are refixed, re-hung or swapped individually from a ladder. Wasps are seen to first, and a bird nest behind a soffit is closed up once it is empty.
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.
Renewing like for like is repair and maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control. No conservation area covers Three Legged Cross and there is a single listed entry near here, so the profile, the colour and the material are yours to choose. On a listed building it would be a different question, and listed building consent is the test there.
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 detached house with a deep overhang, a bungalow with a hedge on the boundary and a terrace with the run carrying on next door 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.
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. We are up this way most weeks, so a length hanging off the wall is usually looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Your plastic roofline is not the last one you will buy
A lot of the roofline around here went up in white plastic in the eighties and nineties, and it was sold on the idea that it would never need doing again. Most of it has done well, but it does age. Sunlight takes the surface off, so it goes chalky and yellows on the elevations that get the most of it. Cold makes it brittle, which is when a bracket snaps or a clip lets go in a gale. And a lot of it was nailed rather than screwed and butted up tight at the unions, so there was nowhere for the run to expand and the joints have pushed themselves apart.
The check is easy enough from the ground. Look along the fascia on a bright day: a rippled line means it was fixed too tight. Press the soffit with your thumb where it meets the wall, and if it flexes or crumbles it has had its day. Then look at the unions after a hot spell, because that is when a joint that has run out of room will be sitting open. And if the plastic was capped over the original timber, none of that tells you about the fascia underneath, which is the part we are actually interested in.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Three Legged Cross, Verwood, West Moors, Woodlands and Ashley Heath, broadly BH21, 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.
Questions
Three Legged Cross questions we get asked
Our plastic fascia is only thirty years old. Why has it failed?
Usually the fixings and the fitting rather than the plastic. Nailed instead of screwed, butted tight at the unions with nowhere to expand, or capped straight over timber that was already soft. The board itself is often the last part to give up.
How can I tell if there is rot behind the capping?
From the ground you mostly cannot, which is the honest answer. A stained soffit, a rippled fascia line or a gutter that has dropped are all hints. The certain way is to take a board off and look, and that is what the free site visit is for.
Is it worth changing the gutter profile?
Sometimes. If your run overflows in heavy rain every autumn and it is clear and hung to a fall, the run may simply be too small for the roof feeding it. Deepflow carries a lot more water than a standard half round, and it costs little more to fit while everything is off.
Do we need permission?
No. Renewing fascias, soffits, bargeboards and gutters like for like is maintenance, so there is no application and nothing for building control to check, and there is no conservation area over Three Legged Cross.
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Get a price for your Three Legged Cross roofline
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, get behind the boards and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.