Gutter cleaning in Bransgore
On the forest edge the leaves come down late, so the date matters as much as the work. Cleared by hand, every downpipe flushed and proved.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Book the clear for after the leaves are down, not while they are coming down. On the forest edge that is usually December rather than October, and getting the date right is the difference between one visit and two.
Two calls in particular bring us out here. One is somebody who had the gutters done in the autumn and is watching them run over in January anyway. The other has never had them done at all and has just noticed a dark patch on a bedroom ceiling.
Both are about timing as much as about debris. The free site visit is a survey of every run, garage and outbuildings included, and the access is shown separately on the quote. We clear by hand, flush every downpipe, and say plainly whether you have a blockage, a sagging length or a joint that has given up.
The work
What ends up in a gutter here, month by month
What lands in a gutter changes through the year, and so does the right way to get it out.
Late spring. Blossom, catkins and the seed off surrounding trees. It is light, it floats, and it packs hard at the outlet where the water turns down. It is what makes a gutter overflow at one end while the rest of the run looks clear. A spring visit is mostly outlet work: clear the mouth, flush the downpipe, watch it at the shoe.
Through the summer. Moss. It grows in the laps of the tiles, dries, and washes down in the first heavy shower. In a gutter it turns to a mat of sludge that has to be scooped out by hand rather than hosed along the run, because hosing simply relocates it into the downpipe.
Autumn and into December. The leaf fall itself. Oak holds on long after everything else has let go, so a clear booked in early November on a wooded plot is one you pay for twice. Wet leaves mat together and lift out in slabs. It is the longest visit of the year and the one worth getting right.
All year round. Silt and grit off ageing tiles, and nests in the corners. Silt is the quiet one: it never blocks a run outright, it fills the bottom so there is less depth for the water, and then one wet week the gutter is backing up over the front edge.
What we fix while we are up there. A dripping union with a hardened seal, a bracket that has let go so the run sags and holds water, a downpipe with a broken shoe throwing water at the brickwork. We realign and refix the brackets to a line and re-hang a dropped length rather than replace a run that is basically sound. All small items, and all far cheaper than the green staining on the render, the damp inside and the rotten soffit and fascias that follow if they are left.
How we get to it. A ladder with a stand-off for most houses, so no weight goes on the gutter. Where a ladder will not stand safely we use a vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head and show you inside the run on a screen. A tower goes up for a three storey gable, a scaffold almost never.
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, nothing for building control, and no consent of any kind on an ordinary house. It changes on the thirteen listed entries in the parish, where the rainwater goods are protected fabric and swapping cast iron for plastic needs listed building consent first. There is no conservation area covering the village itself, so on an ordinary house the profile and colour are your choice.
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 house set back under mature trees, a cottage on the lane with a low eaves and a hedge tight to the wall, and a modern semi with clear ground all round 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.
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 ceiling has already started to stain, tell us when you ring, because that means water has been getting in for a while. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Book it for December, not for October
The single most useful thing we can tell anybody on the edge of the forest is when to have it done. Most people book a gutter clear the moment the first leaves come down, which feels sensible and is usually a month too early.
Oak, beech and holly do not drop together. Beech and birch go first, oak hangs on into December, and a young beech hedge keeps dead leaves until the new buds push them off in spring. A run cleared in late October under oaks fills again before Christmas, and the first winter downpour finds it full. You pay twice and still get an overflow.
What we suggest instead is one properly timed annual visit, after the leaves are down, usually the first half of December. If your plot is genuinely wooded, make it a seasonal pattern of two: one in late spring for the blossom and seed at the outlets, and one in December for the leaf. That frequency covers almost every property here for less than three badly timed visits. If you are not sure which you are, we will look and tell you.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bransgore, Burley, Thorney Hill, Sopley, Highcliffe and across into Christchurch, broadly BH23, under New Forest District 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
Bransgore questions we get asked
Which month should we actually book the clear for?
Early December for most properties, once the oak has finished. Book in October and you will very likely need it again before the winter is out, so people ask how long a properly timed clear lasts: a year. Where a plot is heavily wooded we suggest late spring as well, because blossom and seed block an outlet just as effectively as leaves do.
Does a hedge close to the house make any difference?
A surprising amount. A tall hedge slows the wind against the wall, so what lands on the roof settles in the gutter instead of blowing off. It also holds the run damp, which turns loose leaf litter into a solid mat. A hedge tight to the eaves means doing it more often, not less.
How do we know it needs doing if we cannot see into it?
Look during heavy rain rather than on a dry day. Water coming over the front edge, a downpipe that is silent while the one next to it is roaring, or plants growing out of the run all say it is full. If you would rather not guess, we can put a camera pole up on the free visit and show you.
Are outbuildings included, or priced on their own?
Yes, and please ask, because outbuilding gutters are the ones nobody ever clears. A garage run that has been blocked for years soaks the wall plate and the timber behind it, and the repair costs many times what the clearing would have. It goes on the quote as its own line.
Does anybody walk on our tiles while this is happening?
No. It is done from a ladder, a tower or a pole, and nobody walks on your tiles. Standing on a roof to reach a gutter breaks tiles and is not how the work is done. Where the only safe route is from above, we say so and price the access properly rather than improvise.
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Get the date right and one visit will do it
Thomas looks at every run, the outbuildings included, and sends a written itemised quote. The visit and the quote cost nothing.