Gutter cleaning in Holton Heath
We follow the water all the way down, from the tiles to the gully, because a clear gutter over a blocked soakaway solves nothing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A gutter is only half the system. If the downpipe empties into a gully that has silted up, or a soakaway that has stopped taking water, clearing the gutter changes nothing and the water still ends up against the wall.
The complaint that brings people here is usually the puddle. Water standing at the bottom of a downpipe after every shower, a dark band low on the brickwork, or a shoe throwing water across a path. The gutter above it is often perfectly clear.
That is why we follow the water all the way down rather than stopping at the eaves. The free site visit is a survey of every run, outlet and downpipe, and then of what happens at the bottom of each one. We clear by hand, run water through and watch where it actually goes, and the written itemised quote separates the clearing from anything below ground.
The work
Following the water from the tiles to the ground
Taking it in the order the rain does.
Off the roof and into the run. Moss growing in the laps of the tiles washes down in every heavy shower and sets into a mat of sludge in the bottom of the gutter. Add leaf, seed and the fine grit an ageing tile sheds, and the run silts up from the bottom rather than from a single blockage. It is scooped out by hand and bagged, never hosed along toward the outlet.
Into the outlet. A run of fifteen metres empties through a hole a couple of inches across, so that is where everything packs and where a gutter starts backing up over the front edge. Cleared by hand, then water is run through and watched.
Down the pipe. Every downpipe gets water put through it and watched at the bottom. A pipe that gurgles and then stops is blocked, usually at a bend or at the shoe, and it gets rodded and flushed. Where there is a hopper head it is checked, because a hopper collects everything above it.
At the bottom, which is the part most quotes skip. A downpipe here ends in one of three things: a shoe discharging onto hard standing, a back inlet gully, or a pipe going straight into the ground to a soakaway. A gully silts up and stops taking water. A soakaway in sandy ground can work for thirty years and then stop when the surrounding material clogs. Either way the symptom is the same, a puddle and a wet wall, and neither is a gutter problem. We clear a gully, tell you honestly when a soakaway has failed, and point you at what {ADH} expects rainwater drainage to do.
Repairs on the way past. A union with a hardened seal that drips. A bracket that has let go leaving a sagging length that holds standing water. A missing shoe throwing water at the render and leaving green staining and damp behind it. We refix, realign and re-hang to a fall rather than replace a sound run, and rotten soffit and fascias are photographed rather than covered over.
Access. Ladder with a stand-off on nearly everything here, a vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where the ground rules a ladder out, a tower for a tall gable, and no scaffold 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 gutters and downpipes is maintenance: no planning application, nothing for building control, and no conservation area covering the housing here. There are five listed entries nearby, and on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric, so a change of material needs listed building consent. Where a soakaway has to be dug or a new connection made, that is genuine drainage work rather than clearing, and we would say so before quoting it.
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 1980s detached with four downpipes to gullies, a bungalow whose pipes go straight into the ground, and a semi with a rear extension at a lower level are three different afternoons. 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 the water is standing against the house rather than draining away, tell us, because that is the version that gets into a wall fastest. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Below the shoe, where nobody looks
The ground here is sandy and free draining, and a lot of the housing was built in the 1980s, when it was normal to take rainwater from a downpipe straight into a soakaway rather than into a public sewer. That is a sensible arrangement and it works well for a long time. What it does not do is announce when it has stopped working.
A soakaway is a pit or a crate filled with material that lets water disperse into the ground around it. Over the years fine silt washed down from the roof fills the gaps, the surrounding sand takes less, and eventually the pit fills faster than it empties. The water then comes back up the pipe and out at the ground, right against the wall of the house, which is the one place you do not want it. People assume this is a blocked gutter and pay for the gutter to be cleared, sometimes twice.
How you can tell: if the puddle appears at the bottom of the downpipe rather than under the eaves, and if it appears even when the gutter is running clear, the problem is below ground. We will always run water through and show you where it stops, so you know which job you are buying before you buy it. Clearing the gutters annually, after the leaves are down, also slows the silting that causes it in the first place.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Holton Heath, Sandford, Lytchett Minster, Wareham, Upton and across into Poole, broadly BH16 and BH20, 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
Holton Heath questions we get asked
There is a puddle by the wall after every shower. Is that the gutter?
Usually not. If it puddles at the base while the gutter above is running clear, the blockage is at the gully or in the soakaway rather than up top. We run water through and watch where it stops, so you can see which it is instead of paying to have the gutter done twice.
Do you clear gullies as well as downpipes?
Yes, a silted gully is part of the same journey and it gets lifted, cleared and flushed. What we do not do is pretend a failed soakaway is a cleaning job. If the water has nowhere to go once it is down there, we say so and explain what the actual fix involves.
How do we know if the soakaway has failed?
The giveaway is water backing up at ground level after rain and taking a long time to drain, in a spot that used to be fine. Age matters too: a soakaway that has taken roof water for thirty years has had a lot of silt through it. Running water down the pipe and timing it tells us a great deal.
Does clearing the gutters help the drainage below?
It genuinely does. Most of what silts a gully or a soakaway is the fine grit and moss that washes off the roof, and if it is lifted out of the gutter it never gets down there. That is the strongest practical argument for an annual autumn clear on this ground, with a spring visit where the seasonal frequency calls for one.
How long does a visit take?
Under an hour for the gutters on an ordinary house, plus time to run each downpipe through and check what happens at the bottom. It is the second part that makes the difference, and it is included rather than an extra.
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Find out where the water actually stops
Thomas runs water through every downpipe and shows you where it goes, then sends a written itemised quote. The visit is free.