Gutter cleaning in Iwerne Minster
Eaves runs cleared by hand, hopper heads opened and checked, and every downpipe proved running to the bottom.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On the older houses here the thing that fails quietly is the hopper head at the top of the downpipe. It fills, overflows down the back of the pipe and wets the wall behind it, and nothing shows from the ground until the plaster inside goes.
Most enquiries start with something visible. Water sheeting over the front edge in a downpour, a downpipe that has stopped taking anything, or a joint dripping until the timber underneath goes soft. Then there is the other sort, where nothing looks wrong outside and there is damp inside on a wall that should be dry.
Either way the method is the same. Everything comes out by hand, every outlet and head is opened, and water goes down each downpipe with somebody at the bottom watching for it. The free site visit surveys the whole rainwater system rather than the length above the front door, and the written itemised quote separates the clearing, any repair and the access.
What we do here
Runs, heads and the pipes underneath them
The clear. Leaf, moss off the tiles and the grit that a weathered roof sheds settle into one wet sludge along the bottom of the run. A scoop lifts 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. Washing it along moves it to the outlet, where it sets harder.
Every head opened. Older properties run a lot of their water into open hopper heads rather than straight from gutter to pipe, and a head has to be reached into and emptied rather than looked at. They collect leaf off the roof above, and on many houses take a waste or an overflow as well, so they silt from two directions. That is the part most often skipped by a quick clear.
Proving the pipe. Each length is flushed and each downpipe has water run through it while somebody stands at the shoe. If nothing comes out, the pipe is backing up somewhere below and a rod or a camera says where. On old cast iron the swan neck under the eaves is the usual answer, and it cannot be seen from a ladder.
Valleys and the joins. Where two pitches meet, or a range runs behind a parapet, the water sits in a lined channel. A valley gutter or a box gutter takes debris off both slopes, silts faster than the eaves and has nowhere to overflow except into the roof, so it is cleared by hand off a tower.
Repairs. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same place whenever it rains. A sagging length between two brackets holds a puddle and goes green. A run hung with the fall 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 plainly when a run is past saving rather than clearing it twice a year for ever.
What it does, and how often. 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. An annual clear late in autumn after the leaves are down suits most of the village, with a second seasonal visit in spring where a valley or a shared head is in the system.
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 needs no permission and nothing from building control. Changing what a building looks like can. The village has its own conservation area and forty entries on the national list, so a cast iron head or a run of iron gutter replaced in plastic on a visible elevation is a planning question rather than upkeep, and on a listed building it needs listed building consent 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 cottage on the street with the run at eaves height, a two storey house with a head and pipe on the flank wall, and a long estate range with a valley behind it are three different platforms, and only the last is likely to want a tower or 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.
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. A head overflowing behind its own downpipe gives no sign outside, so if damp has appeared on an inside wall with nothing visible on the elevation, mention it when you ring. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A hopper head fails without telling anybody
A rainwater head, or hopper, is the open box at the top of a downpipe. On the older housing here they are everywhere, because that was how water from more than one direction was gathered before it went down a single pipe: an upper roof, a valley outlet, sometimes a waste from inside. They are good at their job and they have one weakness, which is that they are open at the top and nobody ever looks in them.
What happens when one silts up is the awkward part. It does not spill forward into the garden where you would see it. It fills and then runs down the back of the head, which is fixed hard against the wall, so the water goes straight into the masonry behind the pipe. From the ground everything looks fine, the gutter above is running, and the only symptom is damp or blown plaster on the inside face of that wall, often a floor down from the head itself. People chase it as a rising damp problem for years. So on any property with heads we open and empty every one, run water through afterwards to see where it goes, and photograph the back of the head if there is anything to see. It takes minutes and it is the most useful thing anybody does on an old house here.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Iwerne Minster, Fontmell Magna, Child Okeford, Shroton and the villages under the Chase, broadly DT11, 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
Iwerne Minster questions we get asked
What is a hopper head and why does it matter?
It is the open box at the top of a downpipe that gathers water from more than one source. It matters because when it silts up it overflows down the back, against the wall, where nothing is visible from the ground. Damp inside with a dry looking elevation outside is the classic sign.
We have damp on an inside wall but nothing shows outside. Where do we look?
Above it, at the head and the pipe on that elevation. If the head is packed, or the pipe behind it has a split at a joint, the water goes into the wall rather than down the front of it. It is the first thing we check on an older property and it is often the whole answer.
Do heads need clearing as often as the gutters?
At least as often, and they get missed far more. A head is small, it takes the debris that came over the outlet above it, and on some houses a waste pipe as well. We open every one on the property at each visit rather than treating them as an extra.
Can an old cast iron head be repaired?
Usually. They are cleared, wire brushed, painted inside and re-fixed, and a split at the outlet can often be made good rather than replaced. On a listed building or a street elevation that is also the route that avoids a consent application, so it is worth trying before anything is taken down.
How long does a house with several heads take?
Longer than a modern one, because each head is its own small job and the access moves around the building. Most are still comfortably a day. We price the heads as a separate line so you can see what that part of the work costs.
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Get the heads opened as well as the gutters cleared
Thomas comes out, empties every head and run, proves each downpipe, photographs what he finds and sends a written itemised quote. Free.