Gutter Cleaning Bournemouth | Downpipes & Repairs

Rainwater goods

Gutter Clearing, Downpipes & Rainwater Repairs in Bournemouth

Emptying a gutter is half the job. The other half is proving the water still has somewhere to go once the debris is out. What we get called back to on somebody else's clean is nearly always a run emptied and never tested, with the real blockage further along in an outlet, a hopper or a gully.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building clear and repair rainwater goods across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, and inland through Wimborne, Wareham, Ringwood and Blandford. Thomas Hannen comes out and prices the work himself, and the visit and the written itemised quote both cost you nothing.

Three things bring people to this page. Water falling off the front of a gutter in a downpour instead of going near the downpipe. A dark stripe down the render under one joint, widening each winter. And a damp patch on a top floor ceiling with a sound roof above it, because water is standing behind a parapet where nobody can see it.

So we quote on the whole rainwater system rather than the length you can see from the pavement: every run, valley, outlet, hopper and downpipe, plus the gully each pipe discharges into. It is common to find the run everybody has been staring at is clear and the fault is at the foot of a pipe thirty feet away.

Eaves gutters, valley gutters, parapet and box gutters cleared by hand
Outlets, hoppers, downpipes and gullies flushed and proved with water
Sagging runs re-hung, brackets refixed, unions and seals renewed

Request a free quote All our services

The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.

Leaf litter and moss being lifted out of a house gutter by hand

Cleared, then proved Water goes through the run and out at the shoe before we call it done.

What the job covers

Clearing, Proving & Putting It Right

From a bungalow run behind a hedge to a lead lined channel three storeys up behind a parapet wall.

Eaves Runs & Ordinary Half Round

Debris comes out into a bucket wherever there is a safe place to stand beside it, and off a vacuum with a camera on the pole where a border, a conservatory roof or a footway makes a ladder pitch wrong. Either way the run is emptied to the plastic or the iron rather than skimmed: a thin mat of silt in the bottom holds water and starts the next blockage off.

Valleys, Parapets & Box Gutters

Where a roof drains inwards there is no front edge to spill over, so a blockage goes into the building rather than down the wall. These are cleared from the roof rather than off a ladder, the outlet and leaf grate checked, and the lining looked over while the channel is empty. A box gutter that has been ponding often has a split seam under the silt.

Outlets, Hoppers, Downpipes & Gullies

The narrow parts are where everything packs. An outlet is the first choke point, a hopper head takes what two runs throw at it and chokes at the spigot, and a modern pipe blocks at a swept bend or at the shoe. We rod and flush from the top, then check the gully underneath is taking it, because clearing a downpipe into a blocked gully only moves the puddle.

Re-hanging, Brackets, Unions & Seals

Once a run is empty the faults show themselves. A union whose seal has hardened, a length sagging between brackets so water stands instead of running to the fall, a bracket pulled out of a soft fascia, a joint that has dripped long enough to rot the board behind it. That is repair rather than clearing, priced on its own line, and we say plainly when a section is past refixing.

Rainwater spilling over the front edge of a blocked gutter during heavy rain

Reading the symptom

Where the Water Comes Out Tells You What Is Wrong

Stand outside for two minutes in heavy rain and you have most of the answer before anybody puts a ladder up.

Water going over the front edge at the same spot every time is a blockage, and it is nearly always at or close to the outlet, because that is the only part of a gutter narrow enough to catch anything. Water spilling along the whole length, but only in the very heaviest rain, is usually not a blockage at all. It is fall, capacity, or one downpipe taking too much roof, and no amount of clearing will change it. Rainwater drainage is set out in Approved Document H.

A gutter that is clear and still drips has a joint problem. Union seals harden and let go, and a run that has sagged between brackets holds a low pool of standing water that finds the nearest seam. Neither of those is cured by clearing, and neither should be charged as clearing.

Then the quiet one: a stain on a top floor ceiling with a sound covering above it. If the roof has a parapet, a valley tucked behind it, or a hopper head high on the wall rather than a gutter you can see from the pavement, that is where to look. A leak of that kind runs far longer before anybody finds it, because nothing shows on the outside of the building at all.

What the runs are made of

Cast Iron, Plastic & Lead Lined Channels

What your gutters are made of changes how they fail and what a repair looks like. On some buildings it also decides whether you may replace them at all.

Cast iron

Half round or ogee, hung on brackets and bolted together over a bedded joint. It fails at those joints, and it fails from the inside, because the back of a gutter is the face nobody paints. Left long enough the rust holds water against the fascia and the timber goes before the iron does. A sound run is worth keeping, so we would rather rebed a joint and get paint inside the run than strip a frontage.

UPVC

Standard on almost anything built since the nineteen seventies. It clips into brackets, and sagging between them causes most of the trouble: a low spot holds water and every seal in that section works harder than it was meant to. The other common fault is expansion. The lengths are meant to sit with a gap at the union so they can move, and a run pushed hard end to end on a cold day bows out of its brackets in the first heatwave. Seamless aluminium, rolled to length on site, is the alternative on a long open elevation: far fewer joints, and it will not rust.

Lead lined valleys, parapets and box gutters

This is not a gutter you buy in a length. It is a channel formed in the roof and lined, usually in lead, falling to one outlet at one end. Huge capacity, one narrow exit, and that is the combination that floods inwards. The failures are splits at the seams, lead laid in bays too long for its own movement, and an outlet holding a fist of wet moss since the last gale.

Listed frontages and conservation areas

Clearing and maintaining what is there needs nobody's consent. Replacing is another matter. On a listed building the gutters, hoppers and downpipes are protected fabric, and works affecting the character of a listed building need consent first. In a conservation area the control is over appearance, so swapping cast iron for plastic across a frontage is a planning question. Dorset Council publish their listed building consent guidance and BCP Council publish their list of conservation areas.

Fault finding

Blockage, Fall, Joint or Capacity

Four faults, four different jobs, and only one of them is a gutter clean. This is what we work through on a survey.

Common rainwater faults, what each one damages and what actually puts it right.
What you see	What it usually is	What it damages	What puts it right
Water over the front edge in the same place, every time	The outlet packed with moss and silt	The wall and the render directly under it	Clear the run, clear the outlet, flush the downpipe through
The whole run spilling, but only in the heaviest rain	Fall, capacity, or one downpipe taking too much roof	A broad band of that elevation	Check the fall, prove the pipe, then count the outlets
A steady drip from one joint on a clear gutter	A perished union seal or a bracket that has let go	The fascia and soffit under the joint	New seal, refix the bracket, bring the run back to the fall
Water running down the face of the fascia	The run has dropped, or the underlay stops short of the gutter	Fascia, soffit and the rafter feet behind them	Re-hang the run and dress an eaves tray in behind it
A stain on a top floor ceiling, covering sound	A parapet, valley or box gutter backing up inwards	Roof timbers, insulation and ceilings	Onto the roof, clear the channel, check lining and outlet
A puddle at the foot of the downpipe	The gully below is blocked, or the shoe discharges to nothing	The base of the wall and any solid floor near it	Rod the gully and prove the water runs away, not just out

It matters when you compare prices, because clearing is quick and repair is not. Anyone who treats all six lines as a clean will be back, and you pay twice.

The damage

What an Overflow Does to a Fascia, a Render or a Ceiling

A gutter is one of the cheapest components on a house and one of the most expensive to ignore. Little that goes wrong with one stays a gutter problem for long.

Water going behind or over the back of a run soaks the fascia and the soffit under it. The timber softens, the screws lose their grip, the run drops a fraction further, and more water goes behind it. That is the loop, and it is why a gutter starting to come away gets worse quickly rather than sitting still. Once the rafter feet are wet you are into roof carpentry rather than rainwater goods.

On the wall below, a constant fall of water keeps one stripe of masonry saturated. On render that shows as green algae first and then as a hollow patch where it has lost its grip. On brickwork the joints wash out, and after a hard frost the brick faces start coming off. Solid walls, which is most of the older housing here, carry that water further inside than a cavity wall does.

Indoors the tell is timing. Damp from an overflowing eaves gutter follows the weather, shows on the elevation the water runs down, and dries back between spells. Damp from a parapet or box gutter arrives slowly, sits on a top floor ceiling, and carries on after the rain stops because the timber above it is already wet.

Finished hipped roof with a clear gutter run along the eaves

Off the tiles and away Water into the run, along to the outlet and down, with nothing standing anywhere.

How often

When Gutters Want Doing, and Who Has To Do

When Gutters Want Doing, & Who Has To Do It

nbsp;It

Once a year suits most houses, and the useful month is late autumn, once the leaves are down rather than still coming. Twice a year where mature trees overhang the roof, one clear at the back end of autumn and one in spring.

Spring matters more than people expect, and it has nothing to do with leaves. The first proper rain after a dry spell washes a season of dead moss off the tiles and straight into the gutters, where it settles around the outlet and sets into a wet mat. That is why clearance is part of a roof clean on our exterior cleaning page rather than an extra bolted on to it. Then the unscheduled one: after an autumn gale, check anything with a parapet, a valley or a hopper head, because those give you no warning at all.

If you rent, the gutters are not yours to sort out. Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 the landlord has to keep the structure and exterior in repair, and gutters are named in it. In a flat the roof and the rainwater goods are usually retained by the freeholder and maintained through the service charge, so the instruction comes from the managing agent.

As for doing it yourself, this is work at height. HSE guidance on work at height is what a contractor works to, and it is why access is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate. The HSE are clear that they do not ban ladders for short duration work, so a bungalow run off a properly footed ladder is reasonable. A three storey frontage off a pavement is not.

What it costs

How a Gutter Cleaning Quote Is Put Together

Gutter work is priced on how you reach the run, what is packed into it, and how many outlets and downpipes have to be proved rather than glanced at. Length matters least of the four.

We do not publish a rate by the metre, because a metre of gutter behind a conifer three storeys up and a metre on an open bungalow gable are not the same metre. These move it, each on its own line.

What the survey is measuring

How you get to it. A bungalow run, a semi with a conservatory under the back gutter and a three storey frontage off a pavement are three different jobs before anybody opens a ladder. Duration counts as much as height, because a repair means hands on the gutter rather than a pole.
What is in the run. Dry leaf litter lifts out in minutes. Moss washed off the tiles sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out, and packed silt behind a hedge is slower than any photograph makes it look.
How many outlets, hoppers and downpipes. This moves a price further than length does, because the narrow parts are where debris packs and every one has to be flushed and proved.
What kind of gutter it is. An eaves run is straightforward. A valley, a parapet channel or a box gutter means getting onto the roof, checking a lining and clearing an outlet with nowhere else to spill.
Whether it is a clean or a repair. A perished seal, a sagging length, a bracket out of a soft fascia or a downpipe solid at the shoe are repairs, photographed and priced separately rather than smuggled into a clearing rate.
Where the debris goes. It leaves in bags with us and the ground underneath is swept before we are, rather than a season of wet moss going onto a border.

What we will ask you before we come out

How many storeys, and whether there is room for a tower. Cast iron or plastic. Whether anything overhangs the roof. Whether there is a parapet, a valley or a hopper head high on the wall. When it was last done, and whether it is overflowing now. Two photographs, one from the garden and one of the wall under the worst joint, tell us the rest.

Reading two gutter quotes side by side

The difference is almost never the cost of emptying a gutter. Ask whether the downpipes are run through or only the gutter emptied, whether the outlets, hoppers and gullies are checked, and whether water goes through afterwards to prove it. Ask who takes the debris away, and what happens if a repair is needed: a photograph and a price first, or a surprise on the invoice.

A gutter that looks empty is not the same as a gutter that works. Access, clearing, testing, any repair and disposal all sit on separate lines.

Questions

Gutter Questions We Get Asked Most

How often do gutters actually need clearing?

Once a year for most houses, in late autumn once the leaves are down. Twice where mature trees overhang the roof, the second in spring, because the first heavy rain after a dry spell washes dead moss off the tiles into the run. Anything with a parapet, a valley or a hopper head wants checking yearly whatever grows near it.

Can gutters be cleared properly from the ground?

A good many can. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera on the end empties an ordinary eaves run from the driveway and shows you the inside before and after, which is the right answer where a border or a footway makes a ladder pitch wrong. What it cannot do is put hands on a joint, lift a leaf grate out of a parapet outlet, or refix a bracket.

Should cast iron gutters be replaced with plastic?

Not if the iron is sound, and often not even when it looks rough. Cast iron rusts from the inside because the back of the run never sees a paintbrush, but a joint can be taken apart, rebedded and bolted back up, and the run wire brushed and painted internally. There is a permission question too: on a listed building the gutters are protected fabric.

Do you clear gutters in winter?

Yes, and winter is when most people ring, because that is when a blocked run shows itself. What stops us is weather rather than season: nobody goes on a roof or a ladder in high wind, driving rain or ice, so a booking occasionally moves by a day. Frozen debris is worth waiting out, because a run full of ice can only be chipped, and chipping cracks plastic.

Is the wet patch on my ceiling coming from the gutter or the roof?

Look at the timing and the position. A gutter fault follows the weather, shows on the elevation the water runs down, and dries back between spells. A parapet or box gutter is the awkward one: it stains the middle of a top floor ceiling with a sound covering above it, and carries on after the rain stops because the timber is already wet.

Areas covered

Gutter Cleaning Across Bournemouth, Poole & Dorset

Clearing, testing and rainwater repairs in these towns, and everywhere between them:

Moss on the roof covering itself, and green on render, paths and driveways, are on our exterior cleaning page. A leak that turns out to be the covering rather than the rainwater goods is on our roofing page. We will tell you which of the three you are looking at.

See every area we cover

Gutter cleaning by location

Gutter cleaning in every town and village we cover

Each page is written around the rainwater systems actually hanging on the buildings in that settlement: whether the runs are cast iron or plastic, whether the roofs drain over an eaves edge or inwards behind a parapet, and what the trees and the planning position do to the job. 84 pages covering 115 settlements, grouped here by the part of the coverage they sit in.

Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch

Ringwood, Fordingbridge and the Avon valley

Ringwood
Hangersley (also Hightown)
Burley (also Burley Street)
Bransgore
Sopley
Thorney Hill
Fordingbridge
Sandleheath
Rockbourne (also Martin)
Breamore (also Woodgreen)
Hyde (also Frogham, North Gorley and more)
Downton
Redlynch
Lover

The New Forest and the Solent shore

New Milton
Barton on Sea
Bashley
Ashley
Milford on Sea
Everton (also Hordle)
Lymington
Walhampton and Portmore (also Pilley)
Boldre (also Sandy Down, Tiptoe and more)
East Boldre
Brockenhurst
Lyndhurst
Minstead
Cadnam and Bartley

Gutter Cleaning & Rainwater Repairs Bournemouth