Fascias, soffits and guttering in Winfrith Newburgh
Boards tested before anything is priced, the run sized for what the roof sheds, and every downpipe followed down to see where the water actually goes.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A roofline in Winfrith Newburgh has to do more than look tidy. The village sits low beside a watercourse, so the run and the downpipes have to move a downpour away from the walls rather than tip it out at the bottom of them.
The calls follow the weather. After a wet spell it is a gutter overflowing over the front edge, a joint leaking down a wall, or water getting at the back of the gutter and damping the top of an elevation. After a gale it is a length pulled away from the wall or a downpipe off its clips.
Both start the same way. We get up to the eaves, test any timber with a screwdriver, look at how the gutter is hung and follow each downpipe right down to whatever it empties into. Then photographs of what is behind the boards, and a written quote broken into lines: fascia, soffit, run, every downpipe, and the access. Thomas comes out and prices it himself, and there is nothing to pay for that.
The work
What actually gets replaced, and what does not
Testing 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 village property a soft section can often be cut out and pieced in rather than the whole board renewed.
Off rather than 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 here 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.
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 there is no planning application and nothing for building control. Winfrith Newburgh has its own conservation area, which is article 2(3) land and narrows what counts as permitted development, and there are a great many listed entries in the village, where work needs listed building consent whatever the material.
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 cottage with a low eaves close to the lane, a farmhouse with a long front elevation, and a bungalow set back on the newer edge of the village are three different ways in. 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. Winfrith Newburgh is a run west along the coast road for us, so ring rather than email and tell us if water is already coming down a wall. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A soakaway is not always the answer here
Parts of the village sit within the mapped flood zones alongside the watercourse that runs through it, and you can check your own address on the government flood risk service. That has a direct consequence for the roofline, and it is one that gets overlooked. Everything a roof sheds arrives at the foot of a wall through one downpipe, and if the ground there is already wet, a soakaway has nowhere to put it.
So on properties near the water we look at the discharge as carefully as the gutter. A soakaway in ground with a high water table fills and stands, the downpipe backs up, and rainwater ends up surcharging at the base of the wall, which is where the damp and the staining come from. The answer is usually a positive outfall, meaning the downpipe goes into a gully connected to a proper surface water drain rather than into a hole in the garden. The rules for rainwater drainage are in Approved Document H. We are not a drainage contractor and we will not pretend otherwise, but we will tell you on the visit whether what you actually have is a gutter problem or a discharge problem, and we will size the run so it is not dumping a downpour in the worst possible place.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, Crossways, West Lulworth, Bere Regis and Wareham, broadly DT2, 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
Winfrith Newburgh questions we get asked
Water is coming in at the top of a wall, not the bottom. Is that the gutter?
Very often it is water getting behind the gutter rather than over the front of it, because the roof underlay stops short and drips down the back. A felt support tray fitted while the fascia is off is the fix, and it cannot be done without taking the boards down.
My gutter overflows even though it was cleared last autumn.
Then it is the run rather than the contents. A length hung level, a profile too small for the slope above it, or one outlet doing the work of two will all cope in drizzle and fail in a downpour. Re-hanging to a fall or a deeper run is what fixes it.
Do I need consent in the conservation area?
Not for a like for like renewal, which is maintenance. You do need it if the building is listed, and there are a lot of listed buildings in the village, so tell us the address when you ring and we will check before we quote.
Can you move where a downpipe discharges?
We can change the shoe, extend it, and take it properly into an existing gully. Putting in a new drain or a new soakaway is drainage work and we will say so rather than bodge it, but we will tell you exactly what is needed and why.
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Get a price for your Winfrith Newburgh roofline
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will get to the eaves, follow the pipework down and put an itemised price in writing, at no charge.