Brockenhurst gutter cleaning, twice a year
Under Forest oak and beech one visit a year does not hold. We clear the runs and the valleys, and tell you honestly how often this house needs it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
One clear a year is not enough under Forest oak and beech. The leaf fall here runs from September well into December, and the moss keeps coming down off the tiles all winter, so the pattern that actually works is a proper clear in late autumn and a check in spring.
Nearly everyone who rings has already had the gutters done at some point and been surprised how quickly they filled again. That is not a bad clean. It is a house with mature trees over it, and it needs a maintenance interval rather than a one-off.
What we do is the same either way. Every run emptied by hand into a bag, every valley cleared, the outlets picked out and water put through each downpipe until it comes out at the shoe. Then a straight word about how often this particular house needs it, based on what came out and what is growing over it. The site visit and the written itemised quote are free, and repairs are always shown separately from clearing.
The work
What comes off Forest trees, and where it stops
Big detached houses, mature trees and a lot of gutter between them.
What comes off Forest trees. Oak and beech drop heavily and late, and beech leaf in particular mats down into a dense wet layer that will not wash along a run. Behind it comes the moss off the tiles, a handful at a time all winter, and under all of it the fine silt that sets like soil. It is dug out and lifted into a bag rather than flushed, because a flush through a full gutter drives the whole lot into the outlet and packs it solid.
Where it actually stops. The outlet, the swan neck at the top of the downpipe and the shoe at the bottom, in that order. Each is cleared by hand, then water goes in at the far end of each run and we watch it leave. Where a pipe is boxed in or runs behind planting, a camera settles it. A house under trees will often have a perfectly clean length of gutter and a solid plug at the one outlet serving it.
Valleys and the awkward corners. The older houses here are large and complicated: gables, bays, rear outshuts and dormers, which means valleys, short return runs and hidden lengths behind a projection. Valleys take water off two slopes at once and block quietly, and when one backs up it goes under the tile lap and shows as a ceiling stain rather than anything visible outside. Those are cleared by hand and flushed.
Weight, falls and brackets. A run full of wet beech leaf is heavy, and cast iron on old brackets or plastic on tired ones will drop under it. A length that has lost its fall holds water, drips over the front edge and stays green inside all year. That gets re-hung: brackets off, line realigned to a fall towards the outlet, run refixed. Weeping joints get a new union seal.
What the overflow reaches. Fascia, soffit, then brickwork or render, then damp inside. Green staining down a wall under one joint is the usual first sign and we photograph it, because it tells you how many autumns this has been going on.
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 like for like are maintenance, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control, unless the rainwater drainage is new or altered, which sits under Approved Document H. Appearance is the controlled part. Brockenhurst has its own conservation area covering much of the older village, and there are listed buildings within it, so on those changing cast iron rainwater goods for plastic needs consent first and the National Park keeps 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 large detached house with gables and a valley on each side, a village cottage with a low eaves run under a beech, and a bungalow 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. Tell us if it started after a windy night, because a single storm under these trees can fill an outlet that was clear the week before. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Under these trees the interval is the decision
Brockenhurst sits inside the Forest rather than beside it, and most of the older houses have mature oak, beech and holly close enough to drop straight into the gutter. That does not make the job harder. It makes the frequency the decision. A house on an open plot in a town might genuinely be fine on a clear every two years. A house here with two big trees over the roof will fill an outlet in a single autumn, and the second half of the leaf fall arrives after most people have stopped thinking about it.
So the sensible pattern is a full clear in late November or early December, once the beech has finished, and a shorter check in spring for anything that has come down over the winter along with the moss. Ask any quote whether it covers the valleys as well as the eaves, because on the larger houses here the valleys are where the expensive failures happen and they cannot be judged from the ground. Doing both in the same visit while the access is already there is the cheapest way to run it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Brockenhurst, Sway, Boldre, Lyndhurst and down into Lymington, broadly SO42, 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
Brockenhurst questions we get asked
How often do gutters need doing with trees over the house?
Twice a year for most properties here: a full clear once the beech has finished dropping, and a lighter check in spring. Under heavy oak and holly some houses want more than that, and we will tell you what came out rather than sell you a schedule.
We had them cleared in October and they are full again. What happened?
Beech and oak here carry on dropping well into December, so an October clean catches maybe half of it. That is the single commonest reason people think a clean did not work. Late autumn is the visit worth having if you only have one.
Can the moss coming off the roof be stopped from filling the gutter?
Not entirely, and it is a bigger share of what we take out than most people think. Moss arrives a tile at a time all winter and settles under the leaf, holding water like a sponge. It is one of the reasons a run under trees fills again even in a light year.
Do the valleys get done as part of it?
On the bigger houses here they need to be, and we price them as a separate line. A valley takes the water off two slopes and blocks silently. When it backs up it runs under the tiles, so the first sign is a mark on a ceiling with nothing wrong outside.
Does the conservation area stop us changing the gutters?
Not by itself. Clearing and like for like repair are always fine. Where it bites is a change of appearance on a listed building, where cast iron is protected fabric. We check the address before anything other than maintenance is done.
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Get the runs and the valleys cleared together
Thomas comes out, clears every run and valley by hand, proves each downpipe and sends a written itemised quote with any repair on its own line. Free.