Gutter cleaning in Bearwood, only when it needs it

Nearly nine in ten homes here are houses rather than flats, and most of them are two storey with a straightforward eaves line. That makes this an easy, quick job on a lot of addresses.

Clearing. Out by hand from a ladder where there is a footing, or with a vacuum pole where there is not. Leaves, roofing grit, moss and the silt they turn into, into a bag and away with us, with the brickwork and the paths below sheeted where the run comes out wet. On a house nobody has cleared for a decade the run comes out as a wet mat rather than as debris, and that mat is heavy enough to pull plastic out of level.

Outlets and downpipes. The blockage is nearly always at the outlet, so each one gets cleared, each downpipe gets rodded or vacuumed if it will not run, and then water goes through the whole system while you watch. A pipe that gurgles and backs up at the shoe is usually blocked at the bottom rather than the top, and that is a five minute job if somebody bothers to look.

Terraces and semis. Nearly three in ten homes here are terraced, so the gutter is often one continuous run over more than one house. A single blocked outlet backs the whole length up and it overflows above whichever front door is lowest. Clear the full run rather than your share of it, and tell the neighbour, because two half jobs cost more between you than one whole one.

The repairs that go with it. Sagging between brackets, a union that has lost its seal, a bracket screwed into a soft fascia, a downpipe clipped back on badly after somebody painted. All of it is small, none of it is clearing, and all of it is photographed and priced before we touch it. Where a length has to be replaced we realign the fall and refix the brackets into sound timber rather than back into the same soft holes.

Conservatories and garages. The short run over a conservatory or a lean-to is the one that gets forgotten, and it is the one where an overflow lands straight onto glass or on a door frame. It gets cleared with everything else, along with the run above a porch, where a season of overflow leaves staining down the brickwork and damp showing on the ceiling inside.

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 mid terrace with a shared run, a detached house with a conservatory under the back gutter, and a bungalow with a garage alongside 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.

The standard advice is twice a year, and on this estate it is usually wrong. Twice a year is written for a house under broadleaf trees, where the run fills in October and again with catkins and seed in spring. Almost none of the housing here is that. It went up in the second half of the last century on open ground, the planting is young or low, and the roofs are interlocking concrete tile that sheds far less into a gutter than an old plain tile does. Frequency is a property question, not a seasonal habit.

So look at what is above the roof. If nothing overhangs it, have it cleared after the leaves are down and then leave it two years. If one mature tree sits on the boundary, do that elevation annually and the rest of the house every other year: nothing says the whole property has to be done at once. And whatever the interval, look at it in a downpour rather than on a dry day, because a gutter tells you everything in thirty seconds of heavy rain and nothing at all when it is not raining. Water over the front edge, a downpipe running down the wall, or a stripe of green under one joint are the three worth ringing about, because each ends as damp in a soffit or a stain on a ceiling.

We cover Bearwood, Kinson, Canford Heath, Merley and across into Poole and Wimborne, broadly BH11 and BH21, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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.