Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Walhampton and Portmore

Reading the boards. A fascia is the wettest timber on a building, because the gutter sits hard against it and the felt drips onto its top edge. It fails behind the gutter first, then at the ends of the run and either side of each joint, so peeling and blown paint is a prompt to look, not a diagnosis.

We test with a screwdriver. A soffit rots on the face nobody sees and announces it by hanging clear of the wall. The bargeboard and the gable capping are weathered from the side, not soaked, and generally hold out longest.

What is behind them. Getting the boards off is the only way to see the rafter feet, the wall plate and the bottom course of tiles. Soft rafter ends are cut back and spliced. The tilt fillet is reinstated so the bottom tile lies at its proper angle, and a support tray takes the felt out past the fascia so its water lands in the gutter. That is the case against capping over rot: the plastic looks right while the timber under it keeps going. Over a dry, sound, firmly fixed board, capping over is a fair job and we will price it as one.

Long runs. On a Walhampton and Portmore terrace or converted house the gutter often runs the whole length of a building, not just one house, which changes the specification. Fewer joints is better, so aluminium is worth pricing because it comes in longer lengths than uPVC. A single outlet serving a long run is what makes a gutter overflow in heavy rain even when it is perfectly clean, so the fix is often a second outlet or a deepflow profile rather than another clear out. Half round and ogee both work; the profile matters less than whether the run can carry what the roof sheds.

Fall, fixings and pipework. On a long run the fall is what keeps it honest. Hung level it holds water in every dip through the year, silting the outlet and rotting the timber behind a bracket, and on a shared elevation that becomes somebody else's ceiling eventually. A line goes up, the run drops steadily to the outlet, and the brackets go in close, each into timber that holds a screw. Outlets, unions, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are itemised. Cast iron on the older properties in Walhampton and Portmore is repaired and repainted wherever it is sound, and every downpipe is made to deliver into a gully or a soakaway, never left throwing rainwater at the brickwork.

Air and nuisance. On a shared Walhampton and Portmore elevation the roof space usually runs further than one home, so ventilating it properly matters more than people expect. A vent through the soffit or above the fascia, with the air gap kept clear over the loft insulation, is what keeps condensation off the underside of the felt. Mesh and verge closures go on with the new boards, since a soft soffit on a long run gives nesting birds and wasps plenty of choice, and moss and debris off the tiles is what leaves an outlet blocked.

We price by the run, not the metre, because boards round a bay take far longer than boards along a straight eaves.

Height and obstacles. A bungalow can be done from a tower. A three storey gable on an older house wants scaffold, and a conservatory or bay under the eaves means building the platform round it. The work at height rules make that access a line of its own.

The timber behind. On Victorian and estate houses in Walhampton and Portmore the fascia was often nailed straight onto the rafter ends, and years of an overflowing gutter rot both, now and then as far back as the wall plate. Nobody can say how far until the board is off, which is why we remove it rather than sleeve it in PVC.

Corners, bays and outlets. Each return, bay, hopper and downpipe adds time, and so does re-hanging a gutter that was fixed dead level and sits full of water.

Timber or plastic. Where a period house has painted timber and cast iron, moving to plastic changes how it looks, and on some addresses the National Park will want a say.

Before you choose, ask whether the old boards are removed or covered, what happens if the rafter ends are rotten, whether soffit ventilation and downpipes are part of it, and whether the scaffold is included.

We look after rooflines in Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley and South Baddesley, on the SO41 side of the river. It is 13.7 miles from our base on Wolverton Road in Boscombe. Planning for these addresses rests with the National Park Authority.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales with the number 15471719. Thomas Hannen runs it, and he is the one who measures your roofline and writes the quote. Look us up on Checkatrade and you will find a verified customer’s 10 out of 10. Coming out costs you nothing, nor does the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Walhampton and Portmore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Walhampton and Portmore 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.