Fascia, soffit and guttering replacement in Wool

The fault is worked out first. Blown or peeling paint on a timber fascia is the first warning, and a soft board is the confirmation. Once the timber has gone, the gutter brackets have nothing to hold and the run starts to sag, drop and pull away from the wall.

Separately from that there is the leaking joint at a union, the outlet packed with moss off the tiles, the shoe missing at the bottom of a downpipe and the run that has tipped back so it overflows behind the gutter instead of over the front. Those are afternoon repairs and we would rather price you one of those than a whole roofline you do not need.

Stripping out. The gutter comes down, the fascia and soffit come off, and the rafter feet and wall plate are visible for the first time in decades. Rot stops within a few inches of a rafter end as a rule and those get cut back and spliced. A felt support tray goes under the bottom edge of the underlay so its drip lands in the gutter rather than running down behind the new board, and a tilt fillet sets the bottom course of tiles at the angle they should be at. Capping plastic straight over a rotten fascia leaves all of that untouched, and the new boards then hang on old timber. Where the existing timber is dry and solid, capping over is a fair job and we will price it that way.

New boards and a new run. uPVC fascia and vented soffit, bargeboards and capping to the gable, and gutter in half round, ogee, square or deepflow. Profile is a decision: a large roof slope draining into one short run needs a deepflow section, because a standard gutter will spill in heavy rain however clean it is. Timber renewed in timber is available where an older Wool building wants it, cast iron can often be re-bedded, re-hung and repainted rather than replaced, and aluminium suits a long exposed run.

Fall, fixings and where the water ends up. Brackets at proper centres and the run set to fall towards the outlet, because a gutter hung dead level looks right from the pavement and holds standing water all year. Every outlet, union, hopper, downpipe clip and shoe is renewed or refixed, and we trace the rainwater to the bottom. A downpipe into a gully full of silt, or one over a soakaway that gave up long ago, keeps the brickwork damp and stained whatever the new gutter looks like.

Ventilation and wildlife. Vented soffits, or an over fascia vent strip where the board is too narrow, keep an air gap running through the eaves and into the loft, which is what stops condensation forming on the underside of the felt. Birds behind a lifted soffit and wasps in a gable are common in Wool, both get dealt with before new boards go on, and the run and outlets are cleared of moss and debris before we leave.

Most rooflines in Wool date from the seventies and early eighties, with timber fascias that were painted for years and then left. Thomas walks round the house, looks up at every run and prices it himself. He is the one person you deal with while it comes down and goes back up.

The quote shows each run: access, taking down the old boards and gutter, new fascia, soffit and bargeboard, the gutter, outlets and downpipes, and taking the waste away. On a terrace the gutter often runs straight on over next door, so we agree where our run stops and how it joins theirs before we start. The old boards come off rather than being capped, the rafter feet are checked, and soffit vents go in so the roof space breathes. If a rafter foot or the wall plate is rotten, we photograph it and price the repair before cutting it out. The ground is swept at the end of each day.

Swapping old boards for new ones of the same kind counts as upkeep: no planning application, and building control is not involved. The Wool Conservation Area covers the old core of the village, so if your house is in that part, ask Dorset Council’s planning team whether it falls inside before switching to a different material or colour at the front. For a listed building, listed building consent comes before a single board is removed.

A gutter pulled off its brackets, a downpipe snapped at the bend, or a fascia that has gone soft will pour the next heavy rain down the wall and into the brickwork. Keep people away from anything hanging over a path or a front door.

Ring 07435 839745 about it instead of filling in the form. If we miss you, we call back. We refix or support what has come down so the water goes into a drain, not down the wall, and then price the permanent repair once we can see how far the rot goes. Booked work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Call now: 07435 839745

Wool is really two building stocks side by side. There is the old core, which the conservation area covers, and there is a great deal of post war housing around it which it does not. The difference matters to a roofline job because inside the boundary the appearance of what you put up is controlled, and outside it the board, the colour and the gutter profile are entirely your choice.

So the first thing to establish is which side of the line your address falls, and Dorset Council will tell you in a minute. If you are outside it, and most houses in Wool are, there is nothing to apply for and a like-for-like renewal is simply a repair. If you are inside it, repair is still uncontrolled: renewing timber in timber, or repairing and repainting cast iron, needs nobody's permission. What needs asking about is a change of material or colour on an elevation the street can see. We will price whichever route you want, and we will tell you which one we think fits the building.

Nearby places we also cover for fascias, soffits and guttering, with straight-line distances from Wool, and the other trades we offer in Wool itself.

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