Fascias, soffits and guttering in Woodlands

Profile before anything else. The most common complaint we get is a gutter that overflows in heavy rain with nothing at all in it, and the answer is almost never clearing. It is either fall or capacity. A big steep roof throws water into the run faster than a small profile can move it along, so it backs up and goes over the back of the gutter, down the wall and into the brickwork. Half round is the standard and it is fine on a modest slope. Square, ogee and deepflow hold more water per metre, and on a wide or steep roof taking driving rain that is what the run should have been in from the start.

Fall, brackets and the joints. The run comes off, and goes back on new brackets at proper centres, falling towards the outlet. A gutter hung dead level looks correct from the drive and stands full of water twelve months a year, which perishes union seals and keeps the board behind it damp. Every union gets a new seal, the outlet sits at the low end, downpipes are clipped straight, hopper heads are checked, and the shoe is set so the rainwater discharges into a gully rather than at the footings. Staining down a wall usually tells us which pipe has been missing its target for years.

The boards, and what is behind them. Fascia, soffit and bargeboard come off rather than being capped over, because until they are down nobody can see the rafter feet, the wall plate or the bottom course of tiles. Rot starts at the top edge of the fascia where the felt has torn or shrunk back over the eaves, so a felt support tray goes in as standard, with a tilt fillet lifting the bottom course to the right angle. Soft rafter ends are spliced. Tiles disturbed at the eaves or the verge are refixed as BS 5534 expects. Where a board is honestly sound, dry and well fixed, capping the face and lining the soffit is a fair job at a lower price and we will say so.

Materials, air and the nuisances. uPVC in black or a woodgrain finish sits far better against trees than brilliant white and never needs painting. Timber suits an older or moulded profile, primed on all four faces. Cast iron is worth rubbing down, re-bedding and repainting where it survives, and aluminium is the one to price on a long unbroken run because it comes in a single length with no unions at all. While the boards are down the eaves get put right: soffit vents in the new panels, or an over fascia vent where the soffit is too narrow, with the air gap over the loft insulation left clear, because closing that gap turns a dry roof space into a condensation problem. Approved Document F sets the eaves ventilation figures. Open corners are sealed against birds and wasps nesting behind a soffit, and any outlet blocked with moss and debris off the tiles is pointed out while we are up there.

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 forest lane cottage with the eaves under a canopy, a detached house with a long straight gable, and a bungalow with a conservatory under the back run are three different jobs before a board comes off. 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.

A roofline under trees lives a different life from one on an open plot, and it is the single biggest thing that decides how often a house around here needs this work. A run in shade never fully dries. Leaves, needles and small twigs land in it all year rather than for a fortnight in November, moss coming down off the tiles settles at the back of the gutter and holds water there, and a timber fascia under a dripping canopy goes soft years before the same board on a bare gable would. Paint fails early for the same reason. It is not neglect, it is the position.

So the sensible plan on a wooded plot is different. Choose the deeper gutter profile rather than the cheapest, because the run is carrying solids as well as water. Choose uPVC or repaired iron over new painted softwood on the shaded elevations, since anything that needs a paint film will want doing again far too soon. Get the eaves ventilation right while the soffits are off, because a damp roof space and a shaded roof go together. And check the tree side of the building first every time, not the side you see from the drive, since that is where the rot will be and where a quote based on the front elevation will have missed it.

We cover Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Ashurst, Bartley and Cadnam, broadly SO40, where the New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority. 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.