Fascias, soffits and guttering in Wareham
Rusted cast iron, soft fascias and downpipes discharging into nothing, put right across Wareham and Stoborough. Free visit and a free written price.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In Wareham the question is usually not whether the gutter needs renewing but where the water is going once it leaves the downpipe. Get that wrong on this ground and a new roofline still ends up putting water into the bottom of your wall.
Three things bring people to the phone here. A cast iron run weeping at a joint and staining a town frontage. A fascia gone soft behind the gutter, usually on a back extension where nobody looks. And a downpipe emptying into a gully that has stopped taking water, so it backs up and runs across the path. All three are roofline work, and all three want looking at from the eaves and from the ground. We come out, take a length of gutter down, prod the board and the rafter feet behind it, check every outlet and shoe, and put an itemised written price together with the boards, the gutter and the rainwater pipes on separate lines.
The work
Frontages, back extensions and the runs between them
The parts. Fascia, soffit, bargeboard and capping. Gutter, outlets, unions, brackets, stop ends, downpipes, hoppers and shoes. In the older streets a higher roof often discharges into a hopper head at high level and then into a pipe on the wall, and on the newer estates it is a straight run into a back inlet gully. Both get checked, because the failures are different.
Diagnosis. A screwdriver into the fascia behind the gutter settles whether the board has rotted. Blown, peeling paint means water has been sitting behind it. A run sagging between brackets, a length pulled away from the wall, a leaking joint at a union, and overflow at the back edge rather than over the front are separate faults with separate answers. On cast iron the failure is usually rust at the back of the socket rather than the barrel itself.
Off, not over. The old boards come off rather than being capped, because that is the only way to see the rafter feet and the wall plate. The tilt fillet is reset, a felt support tray fitted so the underlay drips into the gutter rather than behind it, and the bottom course of tiles and the verge go back. Cladding over a soft fascia seals the rot in and the brackets tear out later. Over dry, firm timber capping is a fair cheaper job and we will say so.
What goes back, and how. uPVC on most houses, cast iron repaired and repainted where it is original on a frontage, aluminium on a long unbroken run, painted timber where the building suits it. Half round, ogee, square or deepflow, chosen by what the slope above sheds rather than by what was there. Then the fall: proper bracket centres and a real slope to the outlet, because a gutter hung dead level looks smart and stands full of water all year.
Ventilation, and where the water ends up. New soffits keep the eaves ventilation and the air gap into the loft, which is what Approved Document F is written around, and sealing it gives you condensation under the felt. Then the discharge. Every downpipe has to reach a gully or a soakaway that can actually take it, and Approved Document H covers how that should work. A shoe emptying at the wall plus driving rain means damp inside and green staining outside. Closed properly, the soffit keeps out birds and wasps and the outlets stop blocking with moss and debris.
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 a roofline like for like is repair and maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control. What does bite here is heritage: there are 196 listed entries in and around the town, which is a lot for a place this size, so it is genuinely worth checking whether your own building is one. On a listed building you need listed building consent from Dorset Council before the material or the appearance of the roofline changes.
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 town terrace with the run over a pavement, a back extension tucked between two walls, and a detached house with a garage tying into the same gutter are three different platforms. 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. If a downpipe has come apart low down and is emptying against the wall, say so when you ring, because on this ground that puts water where you least want it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On this ground, where the downpipe goes matters as much as the gutter
Parts of Wareham sit in flood zones 2 and 3, and you can check any address on the government flood risk service. For a roofline job that is not about the river coming up. It is about the water table. On ground that is already wet through the winter, a soakaway can only take what the soil will let go of, and when the ground is saturated it takes nothing at all. The water then backs up to the foot of the downpipe and finds the easiest way out, which is across the surface and against the bottom of your wall.
So when we quote a new gutter here, we follow the water to the end rather than stopping at the shoe. If the gully has silted up it gets cleared and checked. If a soakaway is failing every winter, the honest answer is often a positive outfall to a surface water drain instead, and that is a separate conversation with the council rather than something to hide in a roofline price. What we will not do is hang a beautiful new run and leave it discharging into something that has already given up.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Wareham town, Stoborough, Sandford, Ridge, Holton Heath and Wool, broadly BH20, 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
Wareham questions we get asked
Our downpipe backs up in winter. Is that the gutter?
Usually not. It is normally the gully or the soakaway at the bottom, which cannot take the water when the ground is already wet. We check the discharge end as part of the visit, because a new gutter feeding a blocked outfall solves nothing.
Can our cast iron be repaired rather than replaced?
Often yes, if the barrel is sound. It comes down, gets cleaned back, joints re-bedded, primed and painted. On a frontage in this town that is usually both the cheaper and the more appropriate answer.
How do we know if our house is listed?
Ask the council, and do it before you order anything. There are a great many listed entries in the town, so it is not a remote possibility here, and on a listed building the roofline material is a consent question rather than a choice.
Do you need to get onto the roof?
Only to the eaves. We work off a tower or a scaffold at gutter level, ease the bottom course of tiles up to reach the felt, and put it back as the new fascia goes on. Nothing else on the covering is disturbed.
Nearby, and next door
Fascias, soffits and guttering near Wareham
Fascias, soffits and guttering nearby
Our other trades in Wareham
Everything we do in Wareham Fascias, soffits and guttering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for your Wareham roofline
Tell us what has failed and we will follow the water from the eaves to the gully. Thomas prices the job himself and itemises it in writing, with nothing to pay for the visit or the quote.