Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Verwood
Bungalow eaves, hip runs, gable verges and downpipes renewed, with the rafter feet and the wall plate behind the boards checked while the run is open.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Verwood is mostly bungalow work, and a bungalow puts its whole roofline within about four metres of the lawn. You can read most of it yourself with a pair of binoculars, and a repair here is often genuinely cheaper than a renewal.
On a Verwood roofline the gutter, the soffit or the bargeboard is usually where it shows. A gutter standing proud of the board, or dropped at one end. A soffit gone dark and soft under a joint that has dripped. Or a bargeboard that has lost its paint and opened up at the mitre. A gutter hanging off a Verwood bungalow eaves is at head height, so if one has come loose or water is pouring down the wall, ring 07435 839745.
We come out, get up on the eaves and push a screwdriver into the fascia beside a bracket. That is the only test that gives a straight answer, and it takes a minute. If the board is sound we will say so and quote you for the run alone. The visit and the written itemised quote cost nothing either way.
The work
Hip runs, gable verges and boards on their second life
Boards. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and the capping behind it. Sound timber stops a screwdriver; rotten timber lets it in like cork, and then the board is finished and the brackets screwed to it have nothing left to hold.
Blistered and peeling paint on a Verwood timber board is the same message read from the ground: water is behind the film and no number of coats will dry it out. Where it is a renewal, the four come off together, not one at a time.
The run. Gutter lengths and the unions joining them, the brackets under them, the outlet, then the downpipe and the shoe, with a hopper head on the taller Verwood houses. The old run comes down whole, with no patching in the middle. Brackets are set at the spacing that profile was made for, each union is left the gap it needs to move, and the fall is pulled off a string line. A gutter hung dead level looks right from the garden and holds water in every length all year, which perishes the seals and grows silt.
Profile is capacity. A bungalow hip sheds a lot of roof into very few outlets, so this matters more here than on a two storey house. Half round is the ordinary domestic gutter, ogee sits flat to the fascia and holds more, square is the modern version, and where a long hip is beyond what half round will carry, a deepflow profile or a second outlet is the fix, and another clear out is not. Boards go back in uPVC on most of Verwood, and board thickness matters more than colour because a thin one flexes between rafters and works the screws loose. Painted timber, cast iron and seamless aluminium all still turn up, and cast iron rusts from the inside where no brush reaches.
Behind the boards. With the board down, everything behind it gets looked at and photographed: the rafter feet a new fascia will screw into, the wall plate carrying them, the tilt fillet holding the bottom course of tiles up so they throw water clear, and the underlay, which belongs on a felt support tray dripping into the run rather than finishing on top of the board. BS 5534 covers it. Capping belongs on timber that is dry and hard and nowhere else, because over a soft board it is a lid, not a repair, and the new brackets go into wet wood.
Air, water and what nests up there. A Verwood bungalow roof space covers every room in the house, and all of its ventilation comes in through the soffit, so vent discs or a strip vent go back in and the air gap over the insulation stays open. Where the eaves is boxed with no soffit to take a vent, an over fascia vent does it from above. Shut the intake and you get condensation on the felt and mould on rafters that were perfectly sound. Approved Document C and BS 5250 set the expectation. Water then has to go somewhere: a gully or a soakaway placed far enough out to take it, never a shoe spitting at the base of a wall. Let it get behind the run and it puts staining down the render. Birds nest behind a soffit wherever a joint has opened, wasps go in higher, and moss and debris off the tiles pack an outlet solid.
How it runs
Replacing the roofline on a Verwood bungalow
Thomas walks round the house and looks along every run: fascia, soffit, any bargeboard on a gable, the gutter, each outlet and every downpipe. A bungalow roofline is long for the size of the house, often right the way round with a hip at each corner. The written quote lists access, the length of each run, stripping the old boards and gutter, the new fascia and soffit, the gutter and downpipes, and disposal as separate items.
The old boards come off a Verwood house rather than being capped over, so we can see the rafter feet and the wall plate. If they are rotten, we photograph them and price the repair before going further. Nothing is left open at night, offcuts leave with us and the ground is swept each day.
Replacing boards and rainwater goods with the same again is repair, not building work, so there is nothing to apply for, the line drawn by regulation 12 of the Building Regulations 2010. No conservation area covers the housing, and the few listed buildings sit away from the estates, so the board, the profile and the colour are up to you. Dorset Council is the planning authority, and if an address is listed listed building consent applies.
Cost
What decides the cost of fascias and gutters here
Two rooflines of the same length can take very different amounts of time. Height and what is underneath. A Verwood bungalow run is low and a tower can be walked along it. A two storey gable needs a scaffold, and a run above a conservatory or a bay means building a platform around it. The work at height rules put access on its own line.
Hips and corners. A hipped bungalow has corners on every side, each one with a mitred fascia, an angle in the gutter and a soffit to close in. Corners take longer than straight lengths.
Chalet bungalows. A dormer in the front slope has its own small roofline, and fitting it from the main platform adds work.
Behind the old boards. By now many eighties fascias have had water behind them for years. The rafter feet and the wall plate are only visible once the old board is off, and capping over them hides the rot.
The fall. Every outlet and downpipe is priced, and a gutter rehung to a proper fall drains instead of holding water.
Ask anyone else quoting whether the old boards are coming off or being clad, what happens if the rafter feet are rotten, and whether the downpipes are included.
If a section has come away
A gutter hanging loose or a fascia gone soft
Phone us for this, not the form. A length of gutter off its brackets, a downpipe cracked at the swan neck, or fascia so soft a thumb goes in means the next downpour runs down the brickwork instead of into the drain.
Keep cars and people clear of anything hanging over the drive. On the first visit we take down or prop the loose section, send the water somewhere sensible, and price the whole run once we know how far the rot reaches along the rafter feet. Roofline jobs are booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Cannot get through? We phone you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
On a bungalow you can check the roofline yourself
More than four in ten homes in Verwood are bungalows, and that gives you something most homeowners do not have: a roofline you can actually see. One dry afternoon and a pair of binoculars will tell you most of what a survey would.
Start with the paint on any timber board, because blistered or flaking paint means water is behind the film rather than that it is due a coat. Then look along the gutter from one end: a run that dips in the middle has lost brackets, and one standing proud of the board has lost its fixings into soft timber.
Do that once a year and you will catch things while they are still a repair. A perished union, two brackets and a length of downpipe is a morning. The same run left for five winters takes the fascia, the soffit and sometimes a rafter foot with it. We would far rather come out and refix a bracket than sell you a roofline you did not need, and if that is all it is, that is what the quote will say.
Who you are dealing with
Who fits your fascias and gutters
We fit rooflines across Verwood, Three Legged Cross, Woodlands, Edmondsham, West Moors and Alderholt, a drive of about ten miles from our Boscombe base, all within Dorset Council's area. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, is registered in England and Wales. Before you book a visit in Verwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who walks round your house, looks along each run and writes the price himself. One verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Both the visit and the itemised written quote are free of charge.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Verwood?
Most repairs in Verwood 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.
| Question | In Verwood |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Verwood. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Verwood, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Verwood. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Verwood. |
Questions
Questions about fascias and guttering in Verwood
My gutter is clear and it still spills off the hip. Why?
Because the profile is at its limit. A Verwood bungalow hip sheds a wide area into very few outlets, and half round on a long run simply cannot take a heavy downpour. A deeper profile or a second outlet fixes it. Another clear out will not.
Can you replace just the gutter and leave the boards?
Often, yes, and we will say so if the timber is sound. The catch is that the new brackets screw into the fascia, so if the board is soft the run has nothing to hang on. That is what the screwdriver check is for, and it is free.
Do you need a scaffold on a bungalow?
A tower, normally: refixing a bracket or a downpipe clip is short duration work and the HSE are clear that a ladder still has its place for that, but stripping boards off wants a platform the run can be worked along. Access goes on the quote as its own line, not buried in a rate.
What if a rafter foot is rotten once the board is off?
The soft section is cut away and a new end scarfed on. That gets photographed and priced on the spot, so you decide before we go any further. It is the one thing invisible from the ground and the biggest single swing in a roofline price.
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Book a look before it turns into a renewal
Thomas Hannen prices every job himself, and if two brackets and a union are all it needs, that is what the quote will say. Free visit, free written itemised quote.