Boldre gutter cleaning, cleared and re-hung

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, so nobody has to guess.

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.

Once the line has gone. A weeping joint gets a new union seal on the day, but resetting the brackets on a bowed run, or replacing a length gone brittle, is gutter repair work in Boldre, priced as its own 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.

We do not charge by the metre, because a metre of gutter under an oak holds far more than a metre on an open gable.

The trees. A lot of houses in Boldre have trees reaching right over the eaves. Oak and beech leaves fill a gutter by the end of autumn, and pine needles knit into mats that will not flush. A roof under trees takes longer, and usually wants a seasonal clear in autumn after the leaves are down, with a spring look at the outlets as well.

Moss off the roof. The concrete interlocking tiles on post-war and eighties houses grow moss on the shaded slope. It washes into the gutter as a heavy, wet mat that has to be scooped out, and it silts the downpipes too.

Access. A bungalow is a pole job from the ground. A two storey terrace is a ladder job. A valley gutter or a high gable needs a tower, and under the work at height rules that is costed separately.

Outlets. Debris packs at the outlets and in the swan necks, so the number of outlets adds more time than the length does.

Repair or clean. A gutter that still drips once it is clear may need a joint resealed or a bracket reset so the run has its fall back. That is a repair and is priced as one.

Ask another quote whether the downpipes are being tested, whether the outlets are flushed, and whether the debris is taken away or left in your bin.

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.

In Boldre 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.

Gutters in Boldre are a thirteen mile run from our base in Boscombe. Along with the village we clear them in Pilley, Bull Hill, Norleywood and East Boldre, and in Sway, Brockenhurst and Lymington.

Any change to the rainwater goods on a listed house goes to the New Forest National Park Authority. The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at the roof and the trees before he sets a price. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave us a 10 out of 10. Neither the visit nor the written, itemised quote costs you a penny. Before you book a visit in Boldre, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Boldre need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.