Gutter Cleaning Bournemouth | Cleared & Water Tested

Gutter cleaning, Bournemouth

Who clears gutters in Bournemouth, and what does a clean include?

Bournemouth Roofing & Building clears gutters across Bournemouth from a base in Boscombe. A proper clean empties every run, valley, outlet and hopper, flushes each downpipe, then puts water through to prove it reaches the gully. Thomas Hannen looks at the whole system first, and the site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.

What does it cost? There is no set price, because the price comes from your house, not a rate card. Access decides most of it: a bungalow, a two storey semi with a conservatory under the back gutter, or a three storey frontage onto the pavement. Then the number of outlets and downpipes, what is packed into the run, and whether anything needs repair. How the price is worked out is set out below.

The water test is the part that proves the job. A run can be emptied and still not drain, because the real blockage is in an outlet, a hopper or the gully at the foot of the pipe. So nothing is called done until water has gone in at the top and out at the bottom, and you can watch it happen.

If an overflowing gutter or a blocked parapet outlet is putting water through a ceiling right now, ring 07435 839745 rather than using the form, and tell us where it is showing.

Signs your gutters want clearing: water spilling over the front edge at one spot in heavy rain, a length sagging between brackets, grass or moss growing along the top, a dark stripe down the wall under a joint, damp on an inside wall or a top floor ceiling, and birds going in and out of a gutter or hopper.

You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, owned by Thomas Hannen, who comes out and prices every job himself. A verified Checkatrade customer scored us 10 out of 10, and you can read what customers say on our reviews page.

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
Photographs of any broken joint, bracket or outlet, each priced on its own line

Request a free quote All our services

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

A gutter clean means emptying every run, proving it with water through the outlets and downpipes, and putting right what that test shows up. It covers everything 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 from a safe place to stand beside it, with the access planned around any border, conservatory roof or footway that makes a ladder pitch wrong. Either way the run is emptied down to the plastic or the iron, never just 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 instead of down the wall. These are cleared from the roof, not 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 work, not clearing, and it is priced on its own line, and we say plainly when a section is past refixing. New lengths and full replacement runs are on our gutter repairs page.

Ladder, Tower or Roof

The access suits the gutter. An open two storey eaves is done off a footed ladder. Over a conservatory, a border or a pavement, the access is worked out at the site visit so nothing leans on the glass, the plants or the path. Three storey frontages and parapets come off a scaffold tower, and valleys are cleared from the roof.

Fascias, Soffits & the Gutter Face

Clearing deals with the inside of the gutter. Washing the outside face of the run, the fascia and the soffit is cleaning work on a separate line, so ask about it on the visit if the white has gone green. Moss on the roof and algae on render are on our exterior cleaning page, and rotten boards are on our fascias, soffits and guttering page.

What it costs

How much does gutter cleaning cost in Bournemouth?

Gutter cleaning in Bournemouth is priced after a free site visit, not from a rate card. Four things set it: how the run is reached, how many outlets and downpipes have to be proved, what is packed into the run, and whether anything needs repair. The written itemised quote is free, and nothing starts until you have agreed it.

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, not 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, never 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.

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

Reading the symptom

What does an overflowing gutter tell you about the fault?

Where a gutter overflows tells you the fault: at one spot it is a blockage, along the whole run it is fall or capacity, and a drip from a clear gutter is a joint. 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, out of sight 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. In Bournemouth, BCP Council decides listed building consent and publish their listed buildings guidance and their list of conservation areas.

Fault finding

Blockage, Fall, Joint or Capacity

Blockage, fall, joint and capacity faults each need a different fix, and only a blockage is cured by 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 does a gutter overflow do to a fascia, a render or a ceiling?

An overflowing gutter rots the fascia behind it, saturates the render or brickwork below it and, behind a parapet, can come through a ceiling. A gutter is one of the cheapest components on a house and one of the most expensive to ignore.

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 and never sits still. Once the rafter feet are wet you are into roof carpentry, well past 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

How often should gutters be cleaned in Bournemouth?

Once a year suits most houses, and the useful month is late autumn, once the leaves are down and not 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 and not 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.

Under pines the timing changes. BCP Council's appraisal of the Meyrick Park and Talbot Woods conservation area records that much of this part of Bournemouth was planted with Scots pines around 1812, and pines and tree lined avenues still define it. Pine needles come down all year, not only in autumn, and knit into a mat that sits over the outlet. Under a big pine, have the outlets checked in spring as well as after the autumn clear.

Cutting the tree back is the obvious fix, so check before anyone picks up a saw. BCP Council says pruning or felling a tree with a Tree Preservation Order without consent is a criminal offence, and a tree in a conservation area needs six weeks' written notice before any work. Until that is settled, plan on more frequent clears.

Nesting birds decide the date too. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it is illegal to disturb an active nest, and BCP Council gives the main nesting season as March to August, with a nest in use protected all year. A gutter, valley or hopper with birds going in and out has to wait until the young have gone, so book the clear before spring or once summer is over.

Straight answers

Straight answers about gutters

Why is my gutter overflowing?

Where it overflows tells you why. Water going over the front edge at the same spot every time is a blockage, and it is nearly always at or near the outlet, where moss and silt pack into the narrowest part.

Water spilling along the whole length, but only in the heaviest rain, is fall or capacity, and clearing will not change it. A clear gutter that drips at one joint has a perished union seal or a sagging length. A puddle at the foot of the downpipe means the gully below is blocked. The fault table above sets out what puts each one right.

Is my landlord responsible for the gutters?

Usually yes. If you rent a house or a flat on an ordinary residential tenancy, section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 puts the repair of the structure and exterior on the landlord, and gutters are named in it. Report a blocked, leaking or pulled-away gutter to the landlord or agent in writing, with a photograph and the date. If you own a leasehold flat, the roof and rainwater goods are normally kept by the freeholder and paid for through the service charge. That matters in central Bournemouth, where about half the homes are flats and many are converted villas with one gutter running past four front doors. Ask the managing agent in writing to have the run priced. We quote freeholders, managing agents and residents' associations, and put the communal runs and any private balcony or garage gutter on separate lines so everybody can see what belongs to whom. Our page for landlords and letting agents covers the rest. If you own a freehold house, the gutters are yours to book.

Is it worth paying for gutter cleaning, or should I do it myself?

On a bungalow with firm, level ground under a footed ladder, doing it yourself is reasonable. Above that, paying is usually worth it. Gutter clearing is work at height, and while the HSE do not ban ladders for short duration work, a two storey eaves over a path, anything above a conservatory, and valleys and parapets cleared from the roof are not jobs to do off a borrowed ladder. A paid clean should also include the part most people skip: proving each downpipe and gully with water, and looking at the joints and brackets while the run is empty. A blocked gutter left for a winter usually costs more than the clean, because the overflow rots the fascia and soaks the wall below it. If the run has dropped because the board behind it has gone soft, the answer is new boards, which is on our fascias, soffits and guttering page.

What does a proper gutter clean include?

A proper gutter clean empties the whole rainwater system and then proves it works with water. Every eaves run is emptied down to the plastic or the iron, not skimmed, because a mat of silt left in the bottom starts the next blockage. Valleys, parapet channels and box gutters are cleared from the roof, with the lining looked over while the channel is empty. Outlets and hoppers are cleared, downpipes are rodded and flushed, and the gully at the bottom is checked to make sure it takes the water away. Then water goes through the run to show it reaches the shoe. Anything broken rather than blocked, such as a perished seal, a sagging length or a loose bracket, should be photographed and priced separately rather than slipped into the clearing price. The debris should leave in bags and the ground below should be swept. Our guide to autumn gutter clearing covers when to book it.

Questions

Gutter cleaning questions

How long does a gutter clean take?

An ordinary two storey house with a couple of downpipes is usually done in a morning, often less. Valleys, parapets, a tower to put up, a lot of packed moss, or a repair found once the run is empty all add time. The written quote says which of those apply to your house, so you know before the day.

Do I need to be home for gutter cleaning?

No. The work is all outside, so you do not need to be in. We do need safe access all the way round: a side gate left unlocked, room on the drive for the ladder or tower, and pets kept indoors. If you are out, you get photographs of anything broken and a note of what the water test showed, and any repair is priced for you to agree before it is done.

Can gutters be cleaned without ladders?

Some can. A gutter vacuum on a reach pole can empty an ordinary eaves run from the ground, which helps over a conservatory, a border or a footway. Ask at the site visit how yours would be reached. A vacuum cannot put hands on a joint, lift a leaf grate out of a parapet outlet or refix a bracket, so those still need a ladder, a tower or the roof.

Are gutter guards or brushes worth fitting?

Sometimes, on an easy run under broad leaves. Mesh and brush guards keep out big leaves but not moss, silt or pine needles, which mat on top of them or work through, and the guard has to come out to clear what gets past it. Under the pines in much of Bournemouth they rarely save a visit. A yearly clear with the outlets checked usually works better, and we will tell you which your house needs.

Can you clear a gutter with birds nesting in it?

Not while the nest is in use. Disturbing an active nest is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and BCP Council gives the main nesting season as March to August. If birds are going in and out, the clear waits until the young have gone. Old, empty nesting material can come out, and it is often what is blocking the outlet.

Can gutters be cleaned in winter or bad weather?

Yes, and winter is the season a blocked run shows itself, because that is when the gutters carry the most water. What stops us is weather, not the 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.

Areas covered

Gutter Cleaning Across Bournemouth, Poole & Dorset

Bournemouth Roofing & Building clears gutters all over Bournemouth, from Boscombe, Southbourne and Winton to Charminster, Moordown, Kinson and Westbourne, and across Poole and Christchurch. Further out we cover Wimborne, Ringwood, Blandford Forum and Lymington, 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. A page for every place we cover, grouped by area.

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 guides

Autumn gutter clearing: timing beats frequency Gutter overflows in heavy rain but not light rain

Gutter Cleaning in Bournemouth