Gutter cleaning in Crossways
Straightforward plastic runs cleared and proved, on houses where the honest question is how often rather than how difficult.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
There is nothing awkward about the guttering on most houses here. It is plastic, it is reachable, and it goes wrong for one reason only, which is that nobody has looked at it since it was hung.
The calls are the ordinary ones. A run coming over the front edge in a downpour. A downpipe that gurgles and then stops taking water at all. A joint dripping in the same spot until the fascia under it stains. And people who have just moved in and have no idea when the gutters were last touched.
None of that is difficult work here. Everything comes out by hand, every outlet is opened and checked, and water goes down each downpipe with somebody watching it come out at the shoe. The free site visit surveys every run on the property, and the written itemised quote puts clearing, any repair and the access on separate lines.
What we take on
Clearing plastic runs, and the repairs they eventually want
The clear. Leaf, moss off the tiles and the grit that comes with it settle into a wet sludge along the bottom of the run. A scoop lifts it out in a piece, into a bucket and then the van, or off a reach pole with a vacuum head where a ladder cannot be footed. Flushing it along the gutter moves it to the outlet, where it packs hard and stays.
Proving it. Each length is flushed and each downpipe has water run through it while somebody stands at the shoe to watch it arrive. If it does not, the pipe is backing up below the eaves and a rod or a camera says where. On a modern system the usual stopping point is the offset bend that takes the pipe past the eaves overhang.
Outlets, hoppers and shoes. A run blocks at its outlets rather than along its length, so the number of them matters more than the metres. Where a garage roof or a porch discharges into a lower run there is often a hopper, and a hopper packs quietly then overflows down the back of the pipe onto the wall. A shoe filled with silt holds water against the brickwork.
Valleys and extensions. Where a house has picked up a rear extension or a conservatory, the join between the two pitches makes a valley. A valley gutter collects off both slopes, silts faster than the eaves and has nowhere to overflow except into the roof, so it goes on the list even where the front of the house is clean.
Repairs, and when a run is finished. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same place whenever it rains. A sagging length between two brackets holds a puddle and goes green inside. Plastic that has been up for forty years goes brittle at the clips and distorts where water has stood in it. We refix a bracket, replace a union, re-hang or realign a length, and we tell you honestly when a run has reached the end and clearing it again is money wasted.
What it does if it is left. Water over the edge takes the soffits and fascias first, then shows as a green stripe on render, a dark band on brickwork, damp at the head of a wall and staining on a ceiling. On this stock the fascias are usually the first thing to go, and replacing a run of board and gutter costs a great deal more than the visits that would have prevented 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 gutters needs no permission and nothing from building control, and here that is the whole answer. There is no conservation area and nothing listed in the village, so replacing rainwater goods or changing their colour is your decision under the ordinary permitted development rules rather than the council's. That is genuinely unusual on this patch and it is worth knowing before you get quotes.
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 with an open drive on both sides, a semi with a garage between it and the boundary, and a bungalow with a long unbroken run are three different set ups, and none of them normally needs anything more than a ladder or a tower. 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. Plots here are open and the runs are easy to get to, so an overflow reported in the morning can usually be looked at without waiting for a platform to be organised. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The honest question here is how often, not how hard
Most of the housing in the village went up from the nineteen seventies onwards, on open plots, with plastic guttering hung on straightforward eaves and downpipes that run into a gully you can see. There are no valleys buried behind parapets, little cast iron, no heritage constraint and almost nothing that needs a scaffold. We will not be selling anybody a complicated job here.
What it also means is that the only variable left is frequency, and that is where most of the trouble on these estates comes from. A run that is cleared every year or two never causes anybody a problem. A run that has not been touched since the house was built silts up slowly, holds water, sags between clips, splits a joint seal and quietly rots the fascia behind it, and by then you are buying board and guttering rather than a morning's work. The other thing worth knowing is that gutters here fill from the whole street rather than from your own garden, because the plots are open and the wind carries leaf across them, so having no tree of your own is not a reason to skip it. Once every year or two, and a look after any real gale, is the whole of the maintenance this stock needs.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Crossways, Moreton, Warmwell, Woodsford and the villages along the Frome valley, broadly DT2, 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
Crossways questions we get asked
How often does a house on this estate actually need it?
Once a year for most, and every other year for a plot with nothing overhanging it. The visit that matters is after the leaves are down. What we would not recommend is leaving it until something overflows, because by then the outlet is solid and the fascia behind the gutter has usually taken some water.
We have no trees in the garden. Can we skip it?
You can stretch it, not skip it. The plots here are open, so leaf blows across from the whole street and settles on whatever roof is in its way, and moss off your own tiles ends up in the run regardless. Every other year keeps most of these houses out of trouble.
The guttering is original. Is it worth replacing?
Only when it has actually failed. Plastic goes brittle at the clips and distorts where water has stood, and a run in that state will not hold a fall however often it is cleared. We will show you a photograph and say which it is, because clearing a finished run twice a year is money thrown away.
Do we need permission to change the guttering here?
No. There is no conservation area in the village and nothing on the national list, so the colour, the material and the profile are your choice. That is not the case in most of the surrounding villages, which is why people assume they have to ask.
How long does it take on a standard house?
A morning covers most of them, including the garage, the porch and a flush through every downpipe. Access is easy on these plots, so there is no waiting around for equipment and no separate scaffold line on the quote to argue about.
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Get it on a sensible interval rather than an emergency
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run, tells you honestly how often yours needs doing and sends a written itemised quote. Free.