Gutter cleaning in East Boldre

Emptying it. Oak and birch leaf, bracken litter, moss off the tiles and the grit that comes with it all end up as one wet sludge in the bottom. A scoop takes 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 on soft ground. Washing it along the gutter only relocates it to the outlet, where it packs hard.

Proving it runs. Every length is flushed and every downpipe has water put through it while somebody watches the shoe at the bottom. If nothing arrives, the pipe is backing up below the eaves and a rod or a camera settles where. A gutter that looks empty from a ladder can still be holding water at the outlet.

Outlets, hoppers and shoes. Outlets are where a gutter actually blocks, not the middle of the run. Where an upper roof discharges into a lower one there is usually a hopper, and a hopper packs silently then overflows down the back of the pipe onto the wall. A shoe full of silt holds water against the brickwork all winter.

Valleys and low outbuildings. Plenty of properties here have grown by extension, and every join makes a valley. A valley gutter or a box gutter collects off two slopes at once, silts faster than the eaves and has nowhere to overflow except into the roof. Stables, stores and garages have their own short runs and shallow footings, and they are the ones nobody thinks to book.

Repairs as well as clearing. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same spot every time it rains. A sagging length between two brackets holds a puddle and turns green. A gutter with the fall running away from the outlet overflows however clean it is. We refix a bracket, replace a union, re-hang or realign a length, and we say when a run is past saving rather than clearing it for ever.

What it costs the building, and when to do it. 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. Frequency here is set by exposure rather than by your own planting. An annual clear works, but the timing matters more than the number: see the note below.

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 Forest cottage on an open plot, a two storey house with a rear extension under the run, and a stable block with its own low gutter are three different set ups, and none of them normally needs a scaffold. 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.

The commonest thing people get wrong here is assuming that a clear plot means clear gutters. It does not. On the open edge of the Forest the leaf arrives on the wind, not off your own boughs. It comes down elsewhere, dries, lifts and travels, and it lands on the roof that is standing in its way. A house with nothing overhanging it at all can carry as much in its runs by December as one under a canopy.

Two practical consequences. The first is timing: because the leaf arrives second hand it keeps coming well after the trees themselves are bare, so a visit booked for late October is often a fortnight too early and has to be done twice. Late in the season is the useful one. The second is where it collects. Wind driven litter does not spread evenly along a run, it piles at the sheltered end and against the outlet, which is why one corner of the house overflows every winter while the rest of the gutter looks fine from the ground. We clear the whole system, but that corner is where we start and it is the one worth a look yourself after a gale.

We cover East Boldre, Beaulieu, Norleywood, Boldre and the lanes across to 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.