Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Winfrith Newburgh

Every board is tested before quoting. A fascia rots where the gutter hides it, at the end of a length, and along its top edge under the drip off the felt. Blown, peeling paint says look properly, and a screwdriver settles it.

A soffit fails on its hidden face and tells you by hanging clear of the wall at one end. Bargeboards and the capping to a gable weather from the side and normally outlast the pair of them. On an older Winfrith Newburgh property a soft section can often be cut out and pieced in, leaving the rest of the board.

Off, not over. Capping over is screwing plastic onto what is there. On dry, sound, firmly fixed timber it is honest work and we will quote it. On soft timber it is a cover for a problem that keeps going underneath. Stripping is also the only way to look at the ends of the rafters and the plate beneath them, to splice out a soft one, to reinstate the tilt fillet under the bottom course of tiles, and to fit a tray that carries the felt over the gutter lip. That last detail is what stops driving rain and roof water getting at the back of the gutter and damping the top of a wall.

Sizing the run. This matters more in Winfrith Newburgh than in most places. Half round is the ordinary profile, ogee is the square fronted one that sits flat against the fascia, and deepflow carries appreciably more water for the same width. Where a long or steep slope drains into one short length, or where a single outlet is serving a whole elevation, the gutter will cope with drizzle and give up in a downpour no matter how clean it is. The fix is a deeper profile or a second outlet, and it goes on the quote as its own line. Outlets, unions, brackets, hoppers, downpipes and shoes are all itemised, in uPVC, aluminium on a long straight run, or cast iron repaired and repainted where an older property still has it.

Fall and proving it. Hung level a gutter looks correct from the road and behaves like a trough, holding water in every dip through the year until the outlet silts and the first frost splits a joint. Putting a fall in is the fix: a struck line, a steady drop to the outlet, brackets close enough that no length can bow, and a screw into solid timber at each. It is then filled from the far end and watched out at the shoe, which is also when a collapsed outlet or a downpipe that stops short of the gully shows itself.

Air and nuisance. In a damp winter the loft is the part that suffers, so the ventilation goes in while the eaves is open: a vent through the soffit or above the fascia, with the gap over the loft insulation left genuinely clear. That is what keeps condensation off the felt when the ground and the air are both wet. The new boards go up meshed at the verge and at the end of each run to keep nesting birds and wasps out, and the outlet is cleared of the moss and debris that comes down off the tiles.

We do not work to a rate per metre. A metre of bargeboard on a steep gable is not the same as a metre of fascia on a bungalow.

Access. A cottage with low eaves close to the lane, a farmhouse with a long front and a bungalow set back on the newer edge of Winfrith Newburgh each need a different platform. A tower does most, a tall gable wants a scaffold, and a conservatory means building round it. Access is priced on its own, as the work at height rules require a safe platform.

What is behind the board. Rotten fascia is a sign of water getting in. The question is whether the rafter feet and wall plate are sound, and that only shows once the board is off.

Material. uPVC fascia and soffit with a plastic gutter is the usual answer on a newer house. Painted timber boards, or cast iron gutters, cost more but may be needed on a listed building.

Where the water goes. Each outlet, hopper and downpipe is priced one at a time, and the gutter is hung to a fall. On Winfrith Newburgh clay the downpipe needs to reach a drain, not splash beside the wall where the ground shrinks and swells.

Ask any other quote whether the old boards are coming off or being covered, what happens if the rafter feet are rotten, and whether the gutters and downpipes are included or only the fascia.

From our base in Boscombe it is 19.8 miles to you. We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, Crossways, West Lulworth, Bere Regis and Wareham, broadly DT2, under Dorset Council. The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Winfrith Newburgh, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Its owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at your roofline himself and prices every run, outlet and downpipe. A verified customer's score of 10 out of 10 sits on our Checkatrade page. You pay nothing for the visit, and nothing for the written, itemised quote.

Most repairs in Winfrith Newburgh 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.