Gutter cleaning in Broadstone, and what it uncovers

Empty it, then look at it properly. You cannot judge a gutter you cannot see the bottom of. The clearing itself. Leaves, moss off the tiles, roofing grit and the black sludge all of that becomes, scooped out by hand from a ladder and bagged.

Where a border or a conservatory blocks a ladder pitch we lift it with a vacuum on a reach pole from the ground instead. Then every outlet is cleared and every downpipe is flushed through with water while you watch, and a pipe that will not take it gets rodded or a camera put down it.

What sixty years does to plastic. Early plastic rainwater goods go chalky and brittle in ultraviolet light, so the material loses its spring. A brittle run cracks at the bracket instead of flexing, the seals in the unions harden and stop sealing, and the whole thing sags between supports until the fall runs the wrong way. That is why so many gutters around Broadstone drip after a clean: the debris was never the problem.

Cast iron, where it survives. Some of the older Broadstone houses still have theirs, and sound cast iron will outlast anything you replace it with. It wants clearing, wire brushing at the joints and painting, not a skip. A weeping cast iron joint can usually be taken apart, cleaned back, re-bedded and drawn up again, and we say so rather than sell you a replacement.

Repairs on the same visit. Refixing a bracket into sound timber or renewing a union seal is small work, done while the access is already there. Re-hanging a run that has dropped, or replacing a cracked length, is gutter repair in Broadstone, priced on its own line.

The wall underneath. A run that has been overflowing for a couple of winters leaves green first, then staining down the brickwork or the render, then damp on the inside face, with the fascias and soffit under it soft by the end. Clearing stops that. Leaving it does not.

Length is a poor guide to price. A long run that is only lightly dusted with leaves is quicker than a short one packed solid.

What is in it. Dry leaf litter lifts out in minutes. Moss washed down off the tiles is a different matter: it sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out, and it packs hardest at the outlets. On the older concrete tiled roofs in Broadstone, moss is the usual load, so the number of outlets matters more than the length.

Getting to it. A bungalow is mostly pole or ladder work from the ground. A chalet with a dormer, or a two storey detached, wants a tower on the higher side, and a valley gutter between two roofs needs a proper platform. The work at height rules decide which, and that is why access is priced on its own.

Clean or repair. A joint that leaks once water runs again, a downpipe blocked at the shoe, or a plastic length sagging between brackets is repair, not clearing. On Broadstone clay, it also matters where the water finally goes, and Approved Document H is the standard if a new discharge is needed.

Ask any other quote whether the downpipes are rodded through or just the gutter cleared, whether the outlets and hoppers are checked, and who takes the debris away.

Housing that goes up together wears out together. Around six in ten homes in Broadstone date from the three decades after the war, with the busiest years in the late fifties and early sixties, and unless somebody has changed them the gutters and downpipes are as old as the houses.

So the faults arrive in clusters: a road that has been quiet for years can turn up the same fault on several houses in one winter, because the same material has reached the same age at the same time.

What to do with that is straightforward. Ask for the run to be judged once it is empty, not from the ground, because chalky, brittle plastic and a hardened union seal look perfectly fine from a garden. Most of a run is usually sound, and anything that is not goes on the quote as its own line, apart from the clearing.

From Boscombe it is 7.3 miles to Broadstone. We clear gutters right across BH18 and into BH17 and BH21, from Dunyeats to Canford Heath and out to Merley, all under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, and on to Corfe Mullen, which is Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and Thomas Hannen is the owner. Before you book a visit in Broadstone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

He comes round, looks at the gutters with you and gives you the figure himself. A verified Checkatrade customer gave us 10 out of 10. Neither the visit nor the itemised written quote costs you anything.

Most repairs in Broadstone 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.