Gutter cleaning in Barton on Sea, wind and salt
On the clifftop side, fixings corrode before gutters do and wind puts rain over the front edge of a clear run. We check both.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A mile from the cliff top, a gutter can be perfectly clear and still put water down the wall. Wind drives rain across a shallow roof and over the front edge faster than an outlet can take it, so in Barton on Sea the first question is whether you have a blockage at all.
Three calls come from this stretch more than any other. Water sheeting off the front edge in a gale. A downpipe that has started to leak at a joint and left a green stripe down the render behind it. And a length that has dropped at one end because the screw holding its bracket corroded away.
The site visit is free. We go along every run, scoop out the leaf, moss, grit and silt by hand or lift it on a vacuum, clear each outlet and shoe, then run water through the whole length so you can watch where it goes. What comes out leaves with us, and the written itemised quote keeps clearing and repair on separate lines.
The work
The seaward runs, and what the wind puts in them
What actually fills a gutter here. Less leaf than inland and a great deal more of everything else. Fine sand and grit come off the cliff top and settle in the bottom of a run, where they turn to a heavy sludge that will not float out. Moss washes off the concrete tiles most of these bungalows are roofed with. Add gull feathers and the odd nest and you have debris that must be lifted rather than rinsed. It is scooped into a bucket and taken away, not flushed down the outlet into your drain.
Outlets, downpipes and the shoe. The blockage is nearly always at the outlet or in the bend behind the fascia, which is why the overflow appears at one corner and nowhere else. Each outlet is cleared by hand, the downpipe run through from the top and rodded from the shoe where water is backing up, and hoppers on the older houses emptied. Then we run water through every run in front of you.
Fixings, which is where the salt does its work. The bungalows and chalets along this coast are low, so the gutter is easy to reach and easy to neglect. What we find most often is not a blocked run but a corroded fixing: a screw through a fascia bracket rusted to nothing, a union whose seal has hardened and drips, or a length sagging between brackets so water stands in the dip. Brackets are refixed in stainless, we realign and re-hang the length to its fall, and a union gets a new seal or is replaced.
Where the roof shape works against you. Bungalow roofs here carry a lot of hip and verge for the floor area, so there is more gutter per house than on a two storey property and more joints to fail. Where two ranges meet, or a flat roofed extension meets the main roof, there is a valley gutter or a box gutter nobody can see from the ground. Those flood inwards, so the first sign is a damp ceiling rather than a stain outside. Where the angle is awkward a camera goes up on a pole so you see it too.
What it does to the building. Water over the front edge soaks the brickwork and render underneath and keeps it wet all winter, which is where the green comes from. Water behind the gutter rots the fascia and runs along the soffit. Soft fascias and any staining get photographed and reported.
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.
None of this needs permission. Clearing and repairing rainwater goods is maintenance, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off. There is no conservation area over this part of the coast and only a couple of listed entries, so on the great majority of properties here you can simply have the work done.
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 detached bungalow with a conservatory on the back, a chalet with a dormer in the front slope, and a two storey house on a corner plot taking the wind on two sides are three different afternoons, and only the last of them is ever likely to want a scaffold. 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. Tell us if it only overflows in a strong south westerly, because that points at wind rather than a blockage and the answer is a different one. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Salt and wind change what you are actually buying
The sea is about three quarters of a mile away with nothing between it and these roofs. That matters twice. First, salt in the air keeps metal damp between showers and eats steel inwards from any cut edge, so here the fixings fail years before the gutter does. A screw rusted through drops a length onto a path and takes the fascia with it, and it is minutes to change while somebody is already up there. Ask for the survey to cover the brackets, not just the run.
Second, a shallow pitched roof in a gale sheds water sideways. Rain arrives faster than the outlet can swallow it and comes over the front edge even when the gutter is spotless, which is why some houses along here overflow in a westerly and behave perfectly in ordinary rain. Clearing it again next month will not help. What helps is the right fall, an outlet genuinely clear to the shoe, and sometimes a second outlet on a long run. We will tell you which of those you have rather than sell you another clean.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Barton on Sea, New Milton, Milford on Sea, Hordle and along to Highcliffe, broadly BH25, under New Forest District 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
Barton on Sea questions we get asked
Our gutter only overflows in a strong wind. Is it blocked?
Often not. On an exposed shallow roof the wind drives rain across the tiles faster than the outlet can take it, so a clear gutter still spills over the front edge in a gale and behaves in ordinary rain. The fix is the fall, a clear outlet, and sometimes a second outlet.
Is once a year enough for a house on this stretch?
Once a year is enough on most properties along here, because there is less leaf than inland, and the moment for it is autumn, after the leaves are down. Frequency is not really the issue on this coast. What needs a seasonal look is the fixings, so an annual clear with the brackets and joints checked beats two clears and no inspection.
Why have the screws holding our gutter rusted through?
Salt air. It keeps metal damp between showers and corrodes steel inwards from any cut edge, so an ordinary screw in a fascia bracket has a far shorter life here than a few miles inland. Replacements go back in stainless while the access is already up.
Is a bungalow gutter cheaper to clear than a house?
The access is cheaper, because a single storey run comes off a ladder or a reach pole with no tower to put up. The gutter itself is often longer, since a bungalow has more hip and verge per household, so the saving is on getting there rather than on the clearing. How long it takes is set by the access as much as by the run.
Do you look at the flat roof extension gutter as well?
Yes. Where a flat roof meets the main roof there is usually a box gutter or a valley nobody can see from the ground, and it fills before anything else. It floods inwards, so it is the one most likely to show up first as a damp patch on a ceiling.
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Get the seaward runs cleared and the fixings checked
Thomas comes out, clears every run, outlet and downpipe, proves them with water and prices any repair on its own line. Free.