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.
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 rather than to the person looking at the overflow.
It causes a lot of wasted afternoons. 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.
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 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
Houses, converted town centre buildings and blocks, and they are not the same job.
Ordinary houses. Debris out by hand into a bag rather than 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 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 run that has lost its fall gets re-hung and realigned to the outlet, a weeping joint gets a new union seal, brackets that have pulled out are refixed into sound material and a cracked shoe or bowed length is replaced. Cast iron on the older buildings is emptied gently and its joints re-bedded rather than 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 wall is the sign, and it dates how long the outlet has been blocked.
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 and like for like repair are maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control unless the rainwater drainage itself is altered, which sits under Approved Document H. Fordingbridge has no conservation area of its own, but there are a great many listed entries through the older parts of the town, and on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric so changing cast iron for plastic needs consent. New Forest District Council is the authority, and in a block the freeholder's agreement comes before any of that.
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 town house with the run over a footway, a converted building with several flats sharing one hopper, and a bungalow on the edge of town with a long rear length are three different jobs 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 a communal run, tell us who the managing agent is when you ring, because getting permission usually takes longer than the work does. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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 here, none of this applies and you can simply book it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Fordingbridge, Sandleheath, Alderholt, Hyde and across towards Ringwood, broadly SP6, under New Forest District 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
Fordingbridge questions we get asked
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.
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Get the whole system surveyed and priced
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run, and sends a written itemised quote with communal and individual work on separate lines. The visit is free.