Cranborne gutter cleaning, cast iron included
In the conservation area the gutter is part of the building. We clear it, prove it and repair it rather than reaching for a plastic replacement.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In Cranborne the gutter is often part of what is protected. Cast iron rainwater goods on a listed building or in the conservation area are fabric, not fittings, so the job here is to clear them and keep them working rather than to swap them for plastic.
Two things bring people to the phone. Water is spilling over the front edge and washing down a brick or flint elevation that cannot afford to stay wet. Or a length of old cast iron has finally cracked at a socket and is dripping steadily onto a wall in the middle of the village.
Either way we treat the metal as something to keep. Every run emptied by hand into a bag, the outlets picked clear, water put through each downpipe until it runs out at the shoe, and every socket, bracket and bolt looked at properly. You get a written itemised quote with clearing, repair and any renewal shown separately, and a straight word about which parts of it you can simply instruct and which need consent first. The visit costs nothing.
The work
Old iron, hoppers and the valley behind
Old rainwater goods want a lighter hand than modern plastic and a good deal more attention.
Emptying cast iron without damaging it. An old gutter is brittle at the socket and the bolt through each joint is usually seized solid. So the debris comes out by hand and by vacuum rather than being scraped along, and nobody leans a ladder on the run itself. Leaf litter, moss off the tiles and the dense black silt underneath come out into a bag. The silt is what does the damage, because it holds water against the inside of the iron and the rust works outwards.
Proving the outlets, hoppers and pipes. Older houses here send water through a hopper head before it reaches the downpipe, and the hopper is where everything settles. It gets emptied by hand and flushed. Water then goes in at the far end of each run and we watch it leave at the shoe. A pipe that has been part blocked for years shows on the wall below the hopper long before anybody notices it indoors.
Repairs that keep the original. A cracked socket, a perished union seal or a bracket pulling out of soft masonry are all repairable. Joints get raked out and re-bedded, brackets are refixed into sound material rather than back into the same crumbling hole, and a length that has dropped is re-hung and realigned to a proper fall. Where a section really has gone, matching cast iron or a good aluminium copy keeps the appearance.
Valley gutters and lead work. Long ranges and rear outshuts often drain into a valley between two pitches, and a valley that packs with leaves does not overflow tidily over a front edge. It backs up under the tiles and appears as a stain on a ceiling. Valleys are cleared by hand and the lead below looked at while we are there.
What the overflow reaches. Water off a blocked gutter runs down the fascia, over the soffit and then straight onto brickwork, flint or lime render. Old mortar takes that water in rather than shedding it, so one overflowing joint can soften a stripe of pointing in a couple of winters and leave green staining the whole height of the wall. Inside it shows as damp in a corner, or a ceiling mark where a valley has backed up. We photograph all of it.
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 a gutter and repairing one like for like are maintenance, so neither needs a planning application and there is nothing for building control to sign off. Only new or altered rainwater drainage sits under Approved Document H. Changing the appearance is different. Cranborne Conservation Area covers the historic core and there are twenty-five listed entries in and around the village, and on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric, so swapping cast iron for plastic needs listed building consent first. We check an address with Dorset Council before anything is altered.
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 village cottage with a hopper head at first floor level, a long farm range with a valley between two pitches, and a detached house set back off the street 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. If it is running down flint or old lime pointing, ring rather than wait, because that is the wall that takes the water in instead of shedding it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Keeping it working is free, changing it is not
Cranborne has its own conservation area and a long list of listed buildings, and the practical effect on a gutter job is simple: what you can do freely is keep it working, and what needs asking about first is changing how it looks. Clearing, flushing, re-bedding a joint, refixing a bracket and replacing a broken length with the same thing are all upkeep. Taking down cast iron and putting up plastic is a change of appearance, and on a listed building it is a change to protected fabric.
That is worth knowing before anybody quotes you, because the cheap quote in a village like this is often the one that assumes plastic. It also changes the maintenance case. If the iron has to stay, then keeping the wet silt out of it is what makes it last, so an annual autumn clear after the leaves are down is doing structural work rather than tidying, and a house under trees earns a second look in spring. Ask any quote whether it prices repair of the existing run or replacement, and whether whoever wrote it has looked up what the address is.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Cranborne, Alderholt, Wimborne St Giles, Sixpenny Handley and down towards Verwood, broadly BH21, 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
Cranborne questions we get asked
Do we need consent to clear the gutters on a listed cottage?
No. Clearing is maintenance and nobody has to be asked. Consent comes into it when the appearance or the fabric changes, so repairing a cast iron joint is fine and swapping the run for plastic is not. We check the address before anything beyond clearing is done.
Can old cast iron gutter be repaired rather than replaced?
Usually, and it is generally the better answer. Joints can be raked out and re-bedded, brackets refixed into sound masonry and a dropped length realigned. Cast iron that has been kept clear and painted lasts a very long time; it is standing silt that kills it.
There is a stain on the ceiling but the gutters look clear. Why?
Look at the valley. Where two pitches meet, the valley carries a lot of water and blocks quietly, and when it backs up it goes under the tiles rather than over a front edge. That shows inside as a ceiling stain with nothing obvious outside.
What is the hopper on the wall for, and does it block?
It is a collecting head, taking water from more than one gutter into a single downpipe. It blocks readily because everything the runs carry ends up in it, so it is emptied by hand and the pipe below proved with water.
How often should the gutters on an old cottage be done?
Once a year as a baseline, in autumn once the leaves are down. Anything with mature trees over it wants a second visit in spring, and cast iron earns the shorter frequency because standing silt rusts it from the inside. Seasonal clearing costs far less than the pointing it saves.
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Get the iron cleared and properly looked at
Thomas comes out, empties every run and hopper by hand, proves each downpipe and sends a written itemised quote with repair priced separately. Free.