Boldre gutter cleaning, cleared and re-hung
Under these trees the weight does the damage. We clear the run, then check the fall, because a gutter holding water will drip however clean it is.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Clearing a gutter that has already dropped will not stop it dripping. Under Forest trees a run carries a wet mat of leaf mould for months at a time, and once it has bowed between its brackets it holds water whether it is clean or not.
That is the call we get most often out of the lanes here. The gutters were done a year or two ago, they still drip long after the rain has stopped, and there is a permanent green line on the wall below one particular length. Nobody has done anything wrong. The run has simply been carrying more weight than its brackets were ever meant to hold.
So the visit does two jobs. Everything comes out by hand into a bag, the outlets are picked clear and water goes through each downpipe until it runs out at the shoe. Then we put a level on the run and find out whether the line is still where it should be. You get told which lengths need re-hanging rather than just clearing, with a photograph, and clearing and repair are priced on separate lines. The site visit is free.
The work
Emptying it, then getting the line back
Empty it first, then find out what the weight has done to it.
Getting it out. Oak, holly and beech drop into these gutters through most of the autumn, and the moss keeps arriving off the tiles all winter. Together they turn into a heavy wet layer that will not travel along a run. It is lifted out by hand into a bag where we can stand safely, and by vacuum on a pole where the eaves sit over planting or a low roof. Flushing a full gutter only moves the blockage to the outlet and packs it tighter.
The outlets and the pipes. The outlet, the swan neck and the shoe are where it stops. Each is cleared by hand, then water goes in at the far end of every run and we watch it leave. If it does not arrive at the bottom, a camera down the pipe finds out where it is sitting rather than anybody guessing.
Finding the sag. A metre of gutter full of wet leaf mould is surprisingly heavy, and the brackets on a plastic system are usually at about a metre apart. Carry that load through several winters and the run bows between the fixings, the fall flattens, and water stands in the low point. A standing puddle grows moss of its own, drips over the front edge in cold weather and keeps one strip of wall permanently wet. You can spot it from the ground once you know what to look for: a shallow dip in an otherwise straight line, and a green stripe directly under it.
Re-hanging rather than replacing. Most sagged runs do not need a new gutter. The brackets come off, the line is set again to a proper fall towards the outlet, extra brackets go in where the spacing was too generous, and the run is refixed. Weeping joints get a new union seal. Where a length has bowed permanently or gone brittle it is replaced, and that is the only part of it that is a materials job.
What is behind and below. Fascia and soffit take the overflow first, then brickwork or render, then damp on the inside face. We photograph what we find while the access is there.
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 no planning application and nothing for building control unless the rainwater drainage itself is new or altered, which sits under Approved Document H. Boldre has no conservation area of its own, and there are a handful of listed buildings through the parish where the rainwater goods count as protected fabric, so changing cast iron for plastic on one of those needs consent first and the National Park sets the boundaries. The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority.
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 lane cottage with trees directly over the eaves, a terraced house with the run carrying on next door, and a detached house with a long rear length 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. If it drips for hours after the rain has stopped, mention it, because that is a run holding water rather than a blockage and it wants a different visit. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Here the weight does more harm than the blockage
A gutter under Forest trees does not fail the way a gutter on an open plot fails. On an open plot it fills slowly, blocks at the outlet and one day starts pouring over the front edge in a downpour, which is obvious and gets dealt with. Here the run spends half the year loaded with wet leaf mould, and the damage is done by the weight rather than the blockage. The brackets give a little, the fall flattens, and the line ends up with a dip in it that no amount of clearing will take out.
The tell is simple. If a gutter drips steadily for hours after the rain has stopped, it is holding water, and holding water means the fall has gone. That is a re-hang, and it is a fraction of the cost of a new system if it is caught while the gutter itself is still sound. Leave it another few winters and the standing water grows its own moss, the joint under the low point starts to weep and the length has to come off anyway. Ask whoever clears your gutters whether the run is still falling to the outlet, because most people never do.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Boldre, Pilley, Brockenhurst, Sway and down into Lymington, broadly SO41, under the New Forest National Park 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
Boldre questions we get asked
The gutter drips long after it has stopped raining. Why?
Because it is holding water rather than draining it. The run has lost its fall, usually from carrying wet debris for several winters, so a puddle sits in the low point and finds its way out over the front edge or through a joint. Clearing it will not change that.
Can a sagging gutter be put back, or does it need renewing?
Put back, in most cases. The brackets come off, the line is reset to a proper fall, extra brackets go in where the spacing was too wide and the run is refixed. Only a length that has permanently bowed or gone brittle actually needs replacing.
How far apart should the brackets be?
About a metre on a normal plastic run, and closer where the load is heavy or the length is long. A great many houses were fitted at the maximum spacing, which is fine for rainwater and not fine for a winter's worth of wet leaf mould sitting in it.
Is the moss coming off the roof making it worse?
It adds up. Moss washes down a tile at a time all winter and settles under the leaf, and it holds water like a sponge. It is a large part of the weight in a run under trees, and it is why a gutter here fills again even in a year when the trees drop lightly.
Will anybody be walking on our tiles?
No. Everything here is done from a ladder, a tower or the ground with a pole, and nobody walks on tiles to clear a gutter. If a run genuinely cannot be reached safely we will say so and price the right platform rather than improvise.
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Get the run cleared and the fall checked
Thomas comes out, clears every run, proves each downpipe and puts a level on the line, then sends a written itemised quote with re-hanging shown separately. Free.