Gutter cleaning in Corfe Mullen
Cleared by hand, then water run through every outlet and downpipe so you can see it goes. We tell you if it is a blockage or a broken joint.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
If the gutter runs fine in drizzle and comes over the front edge in a downpour, the blockage is almost always at the outlet rather than along the run. That is half an hour to clear and a much bigger job to ignore.
People here ring for one of three reasons. A curtain of water off the front of the house whenever it rains hard. A green stripe down the render or the brickwork under one joint. Or a fascia gone soft and dark, and somebody has finally looked up.
All three come back to the same thing: rainwater that is not being caught and taken away. The free site visit is a survey of every run on the property, garage and porch included. We clear it by hand, then run water through the outlets and downpipes so you can see it goes. Water down a wall ends up as staining outside and damp on a ceiling inside, so if what you have is a broken joint rather than a blockage, we say so.
The work
Clearing, outlets and the joints that drip
A small job that stops an expensive one. Here is what it involves.
Clearing the run. Leaf litter, seed, moss off the tiles and the fine grit that comes off an ageing concrete tile all end up in the same place. Wet moss sets into a mat of sludge that has to be scooped out rather than flushed, because flushing only moves the problem into the downpipe. The debris goes in a bag and the bag leaves with us.
The outlets, and the downpipes under them. The outlet is a hole a couple of inches across at the end of a run fifteen metres long, so it is where everything packs. We clear it, run water through and watch it come out at the shoe, and rod the downpipe if it is backing up. Any hopper head is checked too, because a hopper collects everything the gutter carries and nobody ever looks in one.
Overflowing, when the gutter is not blocked. Water going over the front edge in heavy rain, on a run you can see is clear, is usually a fall problem. A gutter needs a gentle fall toward the outlet, and a bracket pulled out of soft fascia, or a length sagging between brackets, puts a dip in it. Silt settles in the standing water and it blocks again a month after clearing. Realigning the brackets to a line fixes the cause, and beats a decision to replace the whole run.
Joints, unions and the drip on the windowsill. Much of the plastic guttering here went up with the houses, and the rubber seal inside a union goes hard and shrinks. You get a steady drip in one spot, a green stain on the wall below and, in time, a wet patch inside. A union is a five minute change once somebody is up there, and replacing a run for one perished seal is money nobody needs to spend.
Brackets, and the fascia behind them. Where the fascia has gone soft the screws have nothing to hold, the run sags visibly, and clearing on its own stops being the answer. We refix and re-hang into sound timber where there is sound timber, and tell you straight when there is not.
How we reach it. Most of this comes off a ladder with a stand-off, so nothing rests on the gutter itself. Where a ladder cannot be footed safely we use a gutter vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head, so you see inside the run on a screen. Rotten soffit and fascias get photographed rather than covered over.
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 needs nobody's permission: no planning application, nothing for building control. Replacing can be different, because on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric and need listed building consent. There is one listed entry in the parish and no conservation area, 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 single storey bungalow off the Wareham Road, a two storey semi with a conservatory in the way, and a chalet with a dormer over the front door are three different afternoons before anyone opens a ladder. 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 is coming over above a doorway or a bay, say so when you ring, because that is the one that soaks a wall fastest. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The whole estate got its guttering in the same decade
Around six in ten homes here were built between 1945 and 1982, and the busiest stretch by far was the 1970s and early 1980s. That matters for gutters more than for most trades: a whole road got the same rainwater system, from the same supplier, in the same few years. They do not fail one at a time. They fail as a street.
What we see over and over is original plastic guttering that has done forty odd years outdoors. The plastic itself is usually sound. What has gone is everything rubber and everything screwed: the union seals have hardened so the joints weep, the brackets have worked loose in fascia timber that is no longer solid, and the runs have taken a dip between fixings. The honest answer on a house of that age is usually a clean plus half a dozen small repairs, done off the same ladder on the same visit.
The practical bit: if a neighbour has just had theirs done and perished unions turned up, yours are the same age. Ask us to check the joints while we are clearing, rather than book a second visit in November when it is already raining.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Corfe Mullen, Broadstone, Merley, Lytchett Matravers and across into Wimborne and Upton, broadly BH21 and BH16, under Dorset 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
Corfe Mullen questions we get asked
What sort of interval should we be booking this at?
An annual clear suits most properties here, done after the leaves are down rather than mid autumn so you are not doing it twice. Anything overhanging the roof doubles that seasonal frequency: once in late spring, once in early winter. As for how long it takes, an ordinary house is under an hour.
Can you tell whether it is blocked or broken before you come out?
Not reliably from a photograph, and we would rather not guess it. Water coming over evenly along a length means the run is full. Water off one spot, or a drip carrying on after the rain stops, means a joint or a dip. The visit sorts it out, free.
Does the quote cover flushing the pipes underneath?
Both, and we prove it. There is no point lifting debris out and leaving the outlet packed underneath, so we flush every downpipe and watch it come out at the shoe. A blocked one gets rodded, and if the blockage is below ground at the gully we tell you what that needs.
Are gutter guards or brushes worth fitting?
Honestly, usually not. They keep big leaves out and let the fine stuff through, so the run still silts up, only now it is harder to see and to clear. A mesh over the outlet alone can help. We would rather clear it once a year than sell you something that hides the problem.
Will you work on it in the winter?
Yes, and winter is when most people notice they need it. We only stop for wind, ice underfoot or anything that makes a ladder unsafe. Clearing does not need dry weather. Sealing a union does, so occasionally that part waits a few days.
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Get the gutters looked at before the wet weather
Thomas comes out, walks the whole property, and sends a written itemised quote with the access shown as its own line. Free.