Gutter cleaning in Ashmore

Getting it out of an Ashmore gutter is slow work. Moss and the grit that comes off a weathered tile do not sit loose in a gutter the way leaf does. They soak, settle and set into a dense sludge that fills the bottom of the run and holds water in it.

A scoop cuts it and lifts it out in pieces, into a bucket and then the van, or off a reach pole with a vacuum head where a ladder cannot be footed. Jetting a set mat does not clear it, it slides it to the outlet.

Proving it runs. Every length is flushed and every downpipe has water put through it while somebody stands at the shoe to watch it come out. If nothing arrives, the pipe is backing up below the eaves and a rod or a camera settles where. On old iron in Ashmore the swan neck under the eaves is the usual place for it to stop.

Outlets, hoppers and shoes. Outlets are where a run blocks, not the middle of it. Where an upper roof discharges into a lower one there is usually a hopper, and a hopper packs quietly then overflows down the back of the pipe onto the wall. A shoe filled with grit holds water against the brickwork at ground level all winter.

Valleys and old ranges. Where two pitches meet, or a length runs behind a parapet, the water is carried in a lined channel. A valley gutter or a box gutter takes the wash off both slopes at once, so on a mossy Ashmore roof it silts faster than anything on the eaves, and it has nowhere to overflow except into the roof. That is work off a tower.

Repairs, not just clearing. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same place whenever it rains, and a new seal or a refixed bracket is part of the visit. A sagging length, or a run hung with the fall away from the outlet, needs re-hanging, which is gutter repair in Ashmore, priced separately.

What it does, and when to do it. Water over the edge takes the soffits and fascias, then shows as a green stripe on render, a dark band on brickwork, damp at the head of a wall and staining on a ceiling. Timing in Ashmore is not the usual autumn answer. See the note below, because on this ground the annual visit is better placed at the other end of the winter.

A gutter clear is not charged by the metre. An exposed gable and a run tucked behind a hedge or a conifer are different work.

What has collected. Leaves come out quickly. Moss off the roof sets into a heavy, wet mat, and silt that has built up along a long run is slower again. Outlets matter more than length, because that is where it packs solid.

Reach. A cottage with the gutter at head height is ladder or pole work. A two storey house open to the weather all round, or a barn with a valley gutter against it, can need a tower or scaffold, and the work at height rules mean that is priced separately.

Mending as well as clearing. A union that leaks as soon as water runs through it, a choked shoe at the foot of a downpipe, or cast iron brackets rusted thin are repairs, priced on their own so you can decide.

Where the water lands. On clay that shrinks and swells, a downpipe that has come out of its gully puts water straight on the footing. That is worth sorting while we are there, as its own item.

Check with anyone else whether they flush the downpipes or only scoop the gutter, whether they look at every outlet and hopper, and who takes the debris away.

The standard advice everywhere is to clear gutters once the leaves are down. On this ground that advice is half right at best. The village sits high and open on the chalk with little hanging over most of the roofs, so the leaf actually landing in a run is modest.

What does land in it is the roof itself: moss growing in the laps and on the north slopes, and the fine grit that a weathered clay or concrete tile sheds year after year.

That material comes off on a different schedule from leaf. Moss grows through the damp months, then frost lifts it and the first heavy rain after a cold spell washes it off the slope in one go. So the run that was clear in November is the one that overflows in February, and the useful annual visit in Ashmore is late winter or early spring, not late autumn. If you are only having it done once, have it done then. It also means a gutter clear and a look at the roof belong together: on a heavily mossed slope, clearing the gutter is a repeat purchase until something is done about what feeds it.

Ashmore sits 19.7 miles from our base in Boscombe, and we clear gutters there and in Tollard Royal, Fontmell Magna, Melbury Abbas and the other villages along the Chase ridge. Dorset Council covers Ashmore, Fontmell Magna and Melbury Abbas, and Tollard Royal falls under Wiltshire Council.

You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd (company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales), and Thomas Hannen, whose business it is, comes up to look at the runs and price them. A verified customer's rating on Checkatrade stands at 10 out of 10. We charge nothing for the visit or the itemised quote, which comes in writing. Before you book a visit in Ashmore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ashmore need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.