Bashley gutters, and how a ladder should be used
Low roofs, long runs and a lot of outbuildings. Every run counted, cleared and proved with water, and the ladder used the way it should be.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Four in ten homes in Bashley are bungalows, so almost every gutter here is within reach of a ladder. That makes the job cheap to get to and easy to do badly, and the difference between the two is mostly about how somebody stands.
The calls are usually straightforward. Water over the front edge at one corner in heavy rain. A downpipe that has stopped taking anything. Or a length that has dropped at one end and now holds a puddle that never drains.
The site visit is free and the survey covers every run on the plot, including the garage and anything at the back. We clear by hand into a bucket or lift it on a vacuum, dig out each outlet and shoe, then run water through every downpipe so you can watch it go. Nothing is flushed into the drain, everything leaves with us, and the written itemised quote keeps clearing and repair on separate lines.
The work
Low roofs, long runs and the ladder question
Clearing a bungalow run. A single storey roof gives you a lot of gutter for the size of the house, because the same floor area spreads across more hip, verge and eaves. What comes out is a mix: leaf and holly off the boundary planting, moss washed off the tiles, and the silt and sludge both turn into after a couple of winters. Loose material is scooped out, packed material dug out, and the run cleaned to the bottom so the fall works rather than skimmed so it looks tidy.
Outlets and downpipes. The gutter is not usually where it blocks. Debris travels along the fall to the outlet and packs there, so the overflow always appears at the same corner. Each outlet is cleared by hand, the pipe is run through from the top and rodded from the shoe where water is backing up, and any gully at the bottom is checked. Where a flat roofed extension meets the main roof there is often a box gutter nobody can see, and a camera on the pole is how you get to look at it.
Everything else on the plot. The properties out here tend to have more than one roof. A detached garage with a short run and a downpipe into a soakaway. A porch. A conservatory whose gutter sits below the main eaves and catches everything that comes off the tiles above it. A workshop or stable at the bottom of the plot. Those short runs are the ones nobody thinks about and the first to block, so they are counted and priced individually rather than lumped in as the gutters.
Repairs while the ladder is there. On a bungalow this is the cheap part, because the access is already paid for. A bracket that has let go gets refixed, a length sagging so water stands in the dip gets a realign and a re-hang to its fall, and a union whose seal has hardened and started to drip gets a new seal or is replaced. A length that has gone brittle in the sun is replaced rather than nursed.
What the overflow does at this height. On a low building the water comes off the front edge close to the wall rather than clear of it, so the brickwork and render underneath stay wet through the winter and go green. Water behind the gutter takes the fascia and runs along the soffit. Soft fascias, staining and any damp reaching a ceiling 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.
Clearing and repairing gutters is maintenance: no planning application, and nothing for building control to sign off. Bashley sits inside the New Forest National Park, which does not affect a clear at all but does mean a change of material on a visible elevation is worth checking against the property map the park authority keeps first. There is no conservation area over the housing here and only a handful of listed entries.
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 and a garage down the side, a chalet with a dormer in the front slope, and a two storey house on one of the newer plots are three different afternoons, and only the last 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. If a run is holding water rather than overflowing, mention it, because a length out of fall does not get better and it takes the fascia with it eventually. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A ladder job done properly does not look rushed
Because the roofs here are low, gutter clearing looks like the easiest work on a building, and that is exactly why it goes wrong. A gutter cannot be cleared one handed. how a ladder is meant to be used is clear enough: a ladder is for getting to a position and for short duration work with three points of contact, not for leaning sideways along a run with a scoop in one hand and a bucket hooked over the rung. What people actually do is over reach, and over reaching is how a ladder slides and how a gutter gets pulled off its brackets on the way down.
Done properly it is slower and it looks it. The ladder is moved along the run rather than leant across it, it stands on a stand off so the weight is on the bracket line rather than the plastic, and on soft ground it goes on a board. A reach pole with a vacuum does the long straight sections from below without touching the gutter at all. If somebody offers to do a whole bungalow from two ladder positions, they are either not clearing it properly or they are over reaching.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bashley, New Milton, Ashley, Sway, Wootton and up towards Burley, broadly BH25, with the New Forest National Park Authority as the planning authority. 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
Bashley questions we get asked
Is a bungalow gutter clean quicker than one on a house?
The access is quicker, because there is no tower to build. The clearing often is not, since a single storey roof spreads the same floor area across more hip, verge and eaves, so there is more gutter per household and more outlets to dig out.
Do you include the garage and conservatory gutters?
Yes, and they are listed separately on the quote so you can see they are in it. Short runs on a garage, porch or conservatory block first and are most often left out, particularly a conservatory gutter under the main eaves catching everything off the tiles above.
Can the whole job really be done off a ladder?
Most of it, if the ladder is used properly: moved along the run rather than leant across it, stood off the fascia so the weight is not on the plastic, and put on a board on soft ground. Long straight sections are often quicker from below with a vacuum on a reach pole.
Why is our gutter holding water in the middle?
A bracket has let go, or the fixings have loosened enough for the length to sag between them. The run is out of fall, water stands in the dip instead of moving to the outlet, and it eventually finds the nearest joint. It is realigned and re-hung while the access is up, and how long that takes depends on the run rather than the fault.
How often do gutters need clearing on a plot with a lot of planting?
An annual clear in autumn, after the leaves are down, suits most properties here, with a second seasonal look in spring where holly or conifer sits over a run. Frequency matters less than whether the outlets are genuinely dug out each time.
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Get every run on the plot counted and cleared
Thomas comes out, walks the house, the garage and anything else with a gutter on it, and sends a written itemised quote run by run. Free.