Gutter cleaning in Holt
The outbuilding gutters are the ones nobody clears, and the ones that rot timber. We survey every roof on the plot, not just the house.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a plot with outbuildings, the gutter that does the damage is almost never the one on the house. It is the one on the garage, the store or the stable, because nobody has looked at it in ten years.
The house gutters get noticed. Somebody sees water sheeting past a window, or a drip landing on the porch roof, and rings. The garage at the bottom of the drive has been quietly running over onto its own wall since before they moved in.
So we survey the whole plot rather than the house, and that is what the free site visit is. Every run, every outlet, every downpipe, on every building with a roof on it. We clear by hand, run water through and watch it come out at the shoe, and the written itemised quote lists each building separately so you can decide what to do and in what order.
The work
Every building on the plot, not just the one you live in
Working around the plot, because out here a property is usually more than one roof.
The house. The ordinary job. Leaf litter, seed, moss washed off the tiles and the grit an ageing tile sheds settle in the bottom of the run as a wet sludge and get scooped out by hand and bagged. The outlet is cleared, water is run through and watched at the shoe, and any downpipe backing up is rodded and flushed. Hoppers are looked in, because a hopper catches everything.
The garage and the car port. Usually a short run into a single downpipe with no shoe on it, discharging onto hard standing or straight against the wall. When it blocks, water goes over the front edge onto the brickwork all winter, and the timber behind the fascia goes long before anyone notices. Clearing takes minutes.
Stores, stables and workshops. Often the oldest roofs on the plot, sometimes with cast iron or with a gutter hung off a timber that has moved. These are the runs where we find a length sagging visibly, brackets that have let go entirely, and a joint that has been open for years. We refix, realign and re-hang to a fall rather than replace a run that is sound, and tell you plainly where it is not.
Where two roofs meet. An extension or a lean-to against the main house often puts a valley gutter or a short box gutter between them, and those fill faster than any eaves run. When one blocks it backs up under the tiles rather than spilling over an edge, and the first sign is damp on a ceiling.
Repairs worth doing on the same visit. A union whose seal has hardened and drips. A missing shoe throwing water at the brickwork and leaving green staining down the render. Small items, all cheaper than the rotten soffit and fascias that follow.
Access. Ladder with a stand-off on most buildings here, boards under the feet where the ground is soft, a vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where a ladder cannot stand, and a tower for a tall gable. Scaffold almost never on work this size.
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 repairing rainwater goods is maintenance, so there is no planning application in it and nothing for building control to sign off. There is no conservation area covering the village. There are thirteen listed entries in the area, and on a listed building, or a barn or outbuilding within its curtilage, the gutters count as protected fabric and a change of material needs listed building consent. That catches people out on outbuildings more often than on houses, so we check the address first.
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 house with a detached garage and a store, a cottage with a lean-to along the back, and a single roof with clear ground all round are three different visits before anybody counts the metres. 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 a run is coming over onto a track or a yard that vehicles use, mention it, because in a frost that becomes a different problem overnight. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The outbuilding gutters are the ones that cost money
Almost every property we visit around here has more than one roof on it, and there is a consistent pattern in what we find. The house gutters are in reasonable order because somebody has had them done at some point. The outbuilding gutters have never been touched.
That matters because of what sits behind them. A garage, a stable or a store is usually a simpler bit of building than a house: a timber wall plate, a fascia board, rafter feet coming down to it, often no cavity and no felt. Water coming over the back edge of a blocked gutter runs straight onto that timber and stays there. Give it a few winters and the fascia is soft, the wall plate is going, and what would have been a ten minute clear turns into carpentry.
The practical suggestion is simple: when you book the house, add the outbuildings. They are quick, they go on the quote as their own lines so you can see exactly what each one costs, and they are the part of the plot where clearing genuinely prevents a repair rather than just keeping things tidy. An annual clear in autumn after the leaves are down covers most plots here, and a spring visit as well where the trees are close.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Holt, Furzehill, Colehill, Wimborne Minster, Verwood and across into Cranborne, 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
Holt questions we get asked
Do you charge extra for the garage and the shed?
They go on the quote as their own lines, so you see what each costs and can leave any of them out. In practice they add very little when we are already on site with the ladders up, and they are usually the runs in the worst condition.
Nobody has cleared the stable gutter in years. Is it worth doing now?
Yes, and it is worth looking at the timber behind it at the same time. If the fascia is still firm, clearing it stops the damage there. If it has already gone soft we will photograph it and tell you, rather than clear the gutter and let you find out the following winter.
Can you get down to the buildings at the bottom of the plot?
Almost always. We carry boards for soft ground and we would rather walk the kit down than drive over a lawn. If access is genuinely tight, tell us when you ring and we will plan it, because arriving with the wrong ladder is a wasted morning for both of us.
What is the right frequency out here?
Once a year for most plots, and twice where there are mature trees close to a roof. The seasonal timing matters more than the count: clearing before the leaves have finished falling means doing it again, so we would rather come in December than in October.
How long does a plot with several buildings take?
A morning, usually. The house is under an hour. Each outbuilding is minutes once the ladders are out, and the time goes on running water through every downpipe and checking joints rather than on the clearing itself.
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Have the whole plot surveyed, outbuildings included
Thomas walks every roof on the property and sends a written itemised quote with each building on its own line. Free.