Bere Regis gutter cleaning, before the wall suffers
On a soft old wall the gutter is the cheap repair. We clear the runs, prove the pipes and photograph what the overflow has already done below.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The gutter is the cheap repair and the wall is the expensive one. In a village of old brick, flint and lime mortar a single overflowing joint will soften a stripe of pointing in two or three winters, so clearing the run is what stops the bill that follows it.
Most people here do not ring about a gutter at all. They ring because the mortar has gone crumbly in one narrow band down an elevation, or a wall stays dark for a week after rain while everything either side of it dries. Look up and there is grass growing out of the gutter directly above.
So the visit looks at both. Every run emptied by hand into a bag, the outlets picked clear, water put through each downpipe until it comes out at the shoe, and then a proper look at the wall underneath with photographs of anything already damaged. You get a written itemised quote with clearing and repair on separate lines, and an honest word about whether the wall now needs attention as well. The site visit is free.
The work
Clearing the run, and reading the wall under it
Clearing first, then reading what the water has been doing.
Emptying the run. Out comes leaf litter, moss washed down off the tiles and the dense silt underneath, by hand into a bag rather than flushed along, because a flush through a full gutter drives everything into the outlet. Old cast iron gets a light touch: the sockets are brittle, the bolts through the joints are usually seized, and nobody leans a ladder against the run itself.
Outlets, hoppers and pipes. The blockage is nearly always at the outlet, in the swan neck or in a hopper head collecting two runs into one pipe. Each gets emptied by hand, then water goes in at the top of every run and we watch it come out at the shoe. Where a pipe is boxed in or discharges into a gully, a camera or a lifted grate settles whether the fault is above ground at all.
Reading the wall underneath. This is the part that belongs to a village built of soft brick, flint and lime. A modern cavity wall sheds a soaking and dries. An old solid wall takes it in and lets it evaporate back out through the joint, so a wall that is repeatedly wetted from above never gets the chance. What you see is a vertical band of dark brickwork under one joint, mortar you can rake with a finger, green staining the height of the elevation, and eventually damp on the inside face. We photograph all of it so the cause and the damage sit on the same page.
Repairs to the rainwater goods. A run that has dropped is re-hung and realigned to a fall towards the outlet rather than left holding water. A weeping joint gets a new union seal or a re-bedded socket. Brackets that have pulled out of soft masonry are refixed into sound material rather than back into the same hole, and a cracked shoe or a missing length is replaced.
Fascia, soffit and what is behind them. Timber behind a gutter that has been overflowing for years is usually soft, and it is far cheaper to find that on a clearing visit than after it has taken the gutter with it.
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 like for like repair are maintenance, so there is no planning application and nothing goes to building control unless the rainwater drainage itself is new or altered, which sits under Approved Document H. Bere Regis has no conservation area of its own, but there are more than forty listed entries in and around the village. On a listed building the rainwater goods count as part of the fabric, so changing cast iron for plastic needs listed building consent first. Dorset Council is the authority and we check an address before anything is altered.
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 brick and flint cottage on the street with a low eaves run, a semi with the downpipe on the party line, and a bungalow with a long rear length into one gully are three different set-ups before anybody starts. 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. Say if the mortar under it has already started to crumble, because that changes what we look at when we get there. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Do the gutter before you do the pointing
Nearly every old wall we are asked to look at in this village has one narrow strip that is worse than the rest of it, and that strip is almost always directly under a gutter joint, a hopper or a downpipe. It is not a coincidence and it is not bad brickwork. Solid walls of soft brick, flint and lime mortar work by letting water evaporate back out through the joint, and a wall being soaked from above every time it rains never dries enough for that to happen. The mortar goes first, then the brick face behind it.
Which is why the order of work matters more here than the work itself. Repointing a wall while the gutter above it is still overflowing means paying for the same metre twice, and a good many people do exactly that. Get the rainwater system cleared, proved and repaired first, let the wall dry through a summer, and then decide what the masonry actually needs. Very often it needs a great deal less than it looked like it did in February.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bere Regis, Winterborne Kingston, Briantspuddle, Wool and across towards Wareham, broadly BH20, 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
Bere Regis questions we get asked
The mortar has gone soft in one strip. Is the gutter to blame?
Very often, yes. A narrow vertical band of damage under a joint, a hopper or a downpipe is the classic pattern. Water coming over the same spot in every shower keeps that strip saturated, and lime mortar that never dries out gives up before anything either side of it does.
Should we repoint the wall or fix the gutter first?
The gutter, every time, and then wait. Repointing under a run that is still overflowing means paying for the same metre again in a few years. Let the wall dry through a summer once the water has stopped arriving, and it usually needs far less than it looked like it did.
How do you clear an old cast iron gutter safely?
By hand, and without leaning anything on it. The sockets are brittle and the bolts through the joints seize, so debris is lifted out rather than scraped hard, and the brackets get tested before any weight goes near them. Anything cracked is photographed rather than made worse.
There is a hopper head on the wall. Does that get emptied?
It does, by hand, and then the pipe below it is proved with water. A hopper takes everything the runs above send it and holds it, so it silts up faster than the gutter does and it overflows straight down one strip of wall.
Is once a year enough on a village cottage?
For most, yes, in autumn once the leaves are down. Anything with a mature tree over it or a tall hedge along the back earns a second look in spring, because those outlets can pack in a single season and an old wall does not forgive a wet winter.
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Stop the water before it reaches the mortar
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run, photographs the wall underneath and sends a written itemised quote with repairs shown separately. Free.