Fordingbridge gutter cleaning, and who can book it
In a flat the gutter is rarely yours to instruct. We tell you who has to arrange it, then clear and prove the whole system in one visit.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Work out who owns the gutter before you collect quotes. Around one home in six in Fordingbridge is a flat or a maisonette, and on those the roof, the gutters and the downpipes belong to the freeholder, not to the person looking at the overflow.
It causes a lot of wasted afternoons in Fordingbridge. Somebody watches water pour off the same corner for two winters, gets three prices, and then finds the managing agent will not let anybody on site. Meanwhile the run stays blocked and the wall below it keeps getting wet. If you own the house and a run is pouring over in a downpour right now, ring 07435 839745; if it is a flat, ring us and the agent.
So on the visit we say plainly which parts of the building you can instruct and which have to go through somebody else. Then the work in Fordingbridge is the same as anywhere: every run emptied by hand into a bag, the outlets picked clear, water put through each downpipe until it comes out at the shoe, and the joints and brackets checked while somebody is up there. Communal runs and individual lengths are priced on separate lines. The site visit and the written itemised quote are free.
The work
Houses, conversions and communal runs
Fordingbridge houses, converted town centre buildings and blocks, and they are not the same job. Ordinary houses. Debris out by hand into a bag, not flushed along the run, the outlet and swan neck picked clear, and water put through until it arrives at the shoe. Leaf litter, moss off the tiles and the fine silt underneath all come out, and anything that needs more than clearing is photographed and priced separately.
Converted and subdivided buildings. The older properties in the town centre are often split into flats now, and the rainwater system was designed for one household rather than four. That usually means several runs collecting into a single hopper head and one downpipe doing all the work, sometimes boxed into the building. The hopper silts up first and overflows down one strip of wall. Everything is emptied by hand and then the pipe below it is proved with water, with a camera where nobody can see into it.
Communal runs on a block. A Fordingbridge block usually has one continuous gutter serving several dwellings, a rear elevation nobody has looked at in years, and access that has to be arranged rather than assumed. We survey the whole system, clear it in one visit, and give the agent a written record of what came out of each run and what needs attention.
Repairs on either. A weeping joint gets a new union seal and a loose bracket is refixed on the visit. A run that has lost its fall and needs re-hanging, or a bowed length, is gutter repair in Fordingbridge, priced separately. Cast iron on the older buildings is emptied gently and its joints re-bedded, not swapped.
Where the damage shows. Fascia and soffit take it first, then brickwork or render, then damp on an inside wall and staining on a ceiling below a hidden run. Green down one strip of a Fordingbridge wall is the sign, and it dates how long the outlet has been blocked.
How it runs
What happens when we come to clear your gutters
Thomas comes out first and looks along each run, at the outlets and at where every downpipe ends up. The written quote then covers the platform, how many metres of gutter, how many outlets and downpipes, any repairs, and taking the waste away. Pricing and clearing both come under that single written quote.
On the day, the muck is scooped out by hand into bags rather than blown across your garden, each downpipe is rodded or flushed, and a hose is run along the gutter to show it drains. Bungalows, of which the town has plenty, are done from a ladder or with a pole at the eaves. A two storey estate house needs a ladder with a stand-off, and a three storey town house or a valley between two roofs needs a tower. For a block of flats the freeholder or agent books us. A cracked joint or a broken bracket found along the way is photographed and priced, and only mended if you say so.
Clearing and like for like repair need no consent and nothing for building control. A change to the rainwater drainage itself comes under Approved Document H. On a listed building the cast iron rainwater goods are protected fabric, so replacing them with plastic needs consent. The town centre is also a conservation area, and New Forest District Council is the authority for both. In a block, the freeholder agrees the work first.
Cost
Outlets, moss and trees: what decides a gutter clearing price
We do not charge by the metre, because a gutter under an overhanging conifer fills far faster than one on an open gable.
How high, and what is below. A bungalow is a quick ladder or pole job. With a conservatory below the rear gutter of a two storey semi, the ladder has to stand clear of the glass. A three storey Fordingbridge town centre building or a valley gutter needs a tower, and the work at height rules set which platform is used, with its own price.
What is in there. Autumn leaves from garden trees fill a gutter quickly. Moss from Fordingbridge concrete tiles of the estate era packs the outlets into a wet plug that has to be dug out by hand. Silt in a long run under a hedge is the slowest of all to shift.
Clearing, or repairing. A joint that drips once water flows, a plastic run sagging between brackets, or a downpipe choked at the shoe is repair, and turns a short visit into a long one.
Shared buildings. On a block with shared hoppers, getting the agent's go-ahead and access is part of the work.
Ask anyone else pricing a Fordingbridge job whether the downpipes will be cleared as well as the gutters, whether every outlet and hopper will be checked, and who carts the waste off.
If it is overflowing now
Gutters spilling over in a downpour
When a downpour sends water over the front edge, usually because one outlet is blocked, it runs down the face of the house into the brickwork and can show up as a damp patch indoors after a few storms. Leave the ladder where it is while everything is wet.
Phone us rather than using the form, and if it is a communal run on a block, give us the managing agent's name so we can get their say-so. At the first visit we clear the blockage, flush the downpipe and pour water through to check it runs. If the real problem is a split joint, we will say so. Booked work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Should the phone ring out, we will return the call as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
In a flat the outside is not yours to book
Around seventeen in every hundred homes in Fordingbridge are flats or maisonettes, and in the older parts of the town the figure is higher than that. If you are a leaseholder, the roof, the gutters, the downpipes and usually the outside walls are retained by the freeholder and maintained out of the service charge you already pay.
You cannot instruct a contractor to work on them however badly they need doing, and that is the single most common reason a blocked run in this town stays blocked for years.
There is a rule that works in your favour, though. Where a landlord carries out works that will cost any one leaseholder more than the threshold set in the Act, section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 require the leaseholders to be consulted first, which means you can ask to see the estimates and you can put a contractor forward to be asked for one. So the practical route is not to book us, it is to get the block's rainwater system onto the agent's list and ask that we are invited to price it. If you own a house in Fordingbridge, none of this applies and you can simply book it.
Who you are dealing with
The gutter people, and how you can look them up
From our base in Boscombe to Fordingbridge is 14.1 miles. We clear gutters in the town and round about, in Sandleheath, Alderholt and Hyde and across towards Ringwood, and the town itself falls under New Forest District Council.
The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719 on the register of companies in England and Wales. It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who comes round to see the gutters and gives you the price himself. We have a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade from a verified customer. Looking at the job and putting the itemised quote in writing are both free. Before you book a visit in Fordingbridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Fordingbridge?
Most repairs in Fordingbridge need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Fordingbridge |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Fordingbridge. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Fordingbridge Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Fordingbridge. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Fordingbridge. |
Questions
Questions about gutter cleaning in Fordingbridge
We rent a flat and the gutter is overflowing. Who do we tell?
The landlord or the managing agent, and in writing. The outside of a flat is almost always retained by the freeholder and maintained through the service charge, so a tenant or a leaseholder cannot instruct the work directly however obvious the problem is.
Will you quote a residents company or a management company?
Yes, and we prefer to survey the whole system rather than one elevation. You get a written record of what came out of each run, what was blocked and what needs attention, which is something a committee or an agent can actually work from.
Several flats share one downpipe. Is that a problem?
It is a common one in converted buildings. Two or three runs collect into a single hopper head and one pipe, so the hopper silts up first and then overflows down one strip of wall. Both get emptied by hand and the pipe proved with water afterwards.
How long does the access take to arrange on a block?
Usually longer than the clearing does. Notice to residents, keys for a rear yard and sometimes parking all have to be sorted first. Starting that conversation early is what stops an autumn job turning into a spring one.
Can you do the whole street of a terrace in one visit?
If everybody agrees, and it works out better for each house than separate visits. A continuous run wants clearing through to the outlet anyway, and getting the fall right along the whole length is only possible when the full run is available.
Nearby, and next door
Gutter cleaning near Fordingbridge
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Get the whole system surveyed and priced
We come out, clear and prove every run, and send a written itemised quote with communal and individual work on separate lines. The visit is free.