Gutter cleaning in Ashley Heath
Needles slip past a guard and plug the outlet, so a hose will not shift them. We take them out by hand and prove the downpipe runs.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Pine needles do not behave like leaves. They slip straight past a gutter guard, they do not float out with a hose, and they pack into an outlet like a plug. That is why so many gutters here block at one point rather than fill along the length.
The call is nearly always the same. The gutter looks fine from the ground, there is nothing obviously in it, and yet water is coming over the front edge in every heavy shower. Somebody has been up with a hose and it made no difference at all.
That is a needle blockage at the outlet, and hosing it only packs it tighter. It has to come out from above, by hand, and then the downpipe underneath has to be run through and watched at the shoe. The free site visit is a survey of every run on the plot, the garage included, and the written itemised quote separates the clearing from any repair.
The work
Needles, cones and what the pines put in your gutter
Sorted by what actually lands in the run, because on this ground it is not mostly leaf.
Needles. A Scots pine sheds all year rather than in one autumn burst, so a gutter here fills steadily instead of over a fortnight. Needles are small enough to pass through a mesh or a brush guard and stiff enough to knit together once they reach the outlet. They come out by hand and they get bagged, never flushed.
Cones, bark and twig. Heavier debris that sits in the bottom of the run and traps everything else against it. One cone across an outlet is enough to stop a whole length. This is the material that turns a slow gutter into an overflowing one in a single storm.
Moss and silt. The same as anywhere else. Moss growing in the laps of the tiles washes down and sets into a mat of sludge that has to be scooped out. Silt from an ageing tile fills the bottom of the run and quietly takes away the depth the water needs, so the gutter starts backing up over the front edge in weather it used to cope with.
Resin, which is the local nuisance. Sap and needle debris together make a sticky layer in the bottom of a plastic gutter that a hose will not shift. It gets loosened and lifted rather than blasted, because pressure on an old plastic run splits it at the joints.
What we fix while we are there. A union whose seal has hardened and drips, a bracket that has let go leaving a sagging dip, a missing shoe throwing water at the brickwork. We refix, realign and re-hang to a fall rather than replace a run that is sound. Rotten soffit and fascias get photographed rather than covered over.
How we reach it. Ladder with a stand-off on nearly everything here, so no weight goes on the gutter. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where a conservatory or soft ground rules a ladder out. A tower for a tall gable, and no scaffold on work this size.
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 run, the number of outlets and downpipes, any repair, and where the debris goes 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.
Nothing here needs consent. Clearing and repairing rainwater goods is maintenance: no planning application, nothing for building control, and no conservation area covering the housing. There is a single listed entry in the wider parish, and on a listed building the gutters count as protected fabric, so a change of material would need listed building consent. For everybody else the profile and the colour are simply your choice.
Cost
What decides the price of a gutter clean
No rate per square metre, because a metre of gutter behind a conifer and a metre on an open gable are not the same metre.
Getting to it. A single storey bungalow with pines along the boundary, a chalet with a dormer front and back, and a detached house with clear ground and nothing overhanging are three different mornings. A bungalow run comes off a ladder or a pole, a three storey gable wants a tower, and a valley gutter between two roofs wants a proper platform. The work at height rules are why the access is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.
What is in it, and how far it has travelled. Leaf litter lifts out in minutes. Moss washed off the tiles sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out, and silt in a long run behind a hedge is heavier and slower than anything a photograph shows. The number of outlets matters more than the length, because that is where it packs.
Whether it is a clean or a repair. A joint that drips once it is running again, a downpipe blocked at the shoe, a length of plastic that has sagged between brackets: none of that is clearing, and it is the part that decides whether you are booking an hour or half a day.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the downpipes are being run through or just the gutter cleared, whether the outlets and hoppers are checked, whether it is a clear or a clear and a check for leaks, and who takes the debris away. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it is overflowing now
Water coming over the gutter in heavy rain
Ring rather than use the form. Water running down a wall in a downpour soaks the brickwork and finds its way to a ceiling faster than most people expect, so a blocked outlet in a wet week goes to the front of the queue. We clear it, run water through to prove it, and tell you honestly if what you actually have is a broken joint rather than a blockage. If a hose has already been tried and nothing changed, say so, because that usually means a packed outlet rather than a full run. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Guards and brushes are the wrong answer to a pine tree
People here get sold gutter guards more than anywhere else we work, on the reasoning that there is a lot coming off the trees. It is an understandable idea and on this particular ground it usually makes things worse.
A mesh or a brush insert is designed to hold back leaves, which are broad and flat. A pine needle is neither. It drops through a mesh, it threads between the bristles of a brush, and it carries on down to the outlet where it knits into a plug you cannot see and cannot reach through the guard. Meanwhile the guard itself collects a mat of needles and moss on top, so rainwater runs over the front of it instead of into the gutter, and the run underneath stays dry and looks clean while the wall below goes green and damp works its way in.
What actually works is duller: clear it properly and clear it on a sensible frequency. Because pines shed all year rather than in one autumn, we would suggest two visits, one in spring and one after the leaves are down, rather than a single annual clear on a plot with mature conifers. If you already have guards fitted we will lift them, clear underneath and put them back, and give you an honest view on whether they are earning their keep.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ashley Heath, St Leonards, St Ives, Ringwood, Verwood and across into West Moors, broadly BH24 and BH22, 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
Ashley Heath questions we get asked
We hosed the gutter out and it still overflows. Why?
Because the blockage is almost certainly a plug of needles in the outlet, and water pushes it tighter rather than moving it. It has to be dug out from above by hand and the downpipe run through afterwards. Hosing a gutter is the one method that reliably makes a needle blockage worse.
Do pine needles really need more visits than leaves?
They need them spread differently. A broadleaf plot fills in about six weeks and then stops. A conifer plot fills slowly all year. So instead of one big clear after the leaves are down, we suggest a seasonal pattern of one in spring and one in early winter, which is the same work at a better spacing.
Is there anything sensible that keeps needles out?
Not really, and we would rather say so. A cage over the outlet mouth alone is the only thing we have seen do more good than harm, because it stops the plug forming where it matters and it is easy to lift and clean. Full length guards on a conifer plot mostly hide the problem.
Will clearing the gutter stop the green stripe on our wall?
It stops it getting worse. The stripe is algae feeding on water that has been running down the render or the brickwork, so once the water stops, the growth dies back but the staining stays. Cleaning the wall itself is separate work and we would price it separately, honestly, rather than promise the gutter job will do it.
How long will the visit take?
An hour or so for most houses, longer on a plot with mature conifers, because the outlets take the time rather than the length. If there are guards to lift and refit, or a garage and a summerhouse as well, allow a morning. We will tell you which on the free visit.
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Get the outlets dug out properly this time
Thomas looks at every run and every outlet on the plot and sends a written itemised quote. The visit and the quote are free.