Langton Matravers gutters, iron in salt air

Clearing, on a village that sheds more than leaf. Most of what we lift out of a gutter in this village is moss and grit rather than leaf: moss off stone slate and off north facing tiles, and fine sand blown up from the coast that settles in the bottom of a run and turns to sludge. Loose material is scooped out, packed moss is dug out or lifted on a vacuum, and the run is wiped down rather than skimmed. It goes into a bucket, not over the garden and not flushed down the outlet. Twice a year suits most properties here, one clear in spring and one after the leaves are down in autumn, though an annual clear is enough on an open plot.

Outlets, hoppers and downpipes. Older properties here often have a hopper head at the top of the downpipe, and a hopper is a trap by design: it catches everything and nothing tells you it is full until water comes over the lip and down the wall. We empty every hopper by hand, clear the outlet, run the downpipe through from the top and rod from the shoe where water is backing up. Then each run is proved with water.

Cast iron, treated as cast iron. It is heavy, it is worth keeping, and it should never be jetted or levered at. We clear it by hand, look at the bolt through each joint, check the back of the ogee where rust starts out of sight, and report on the brackets. Cast iron does not end up sagging the way plastic does. It comes away at the fixing, usually because the timber behind it has gone soft, and a bracket screwed into a rotten fascia is the reason most lengths drop.

Valley gutters and the runs between ranges. Plenty of stone properties have an outshut or a rear range, which puts a valley gutter or a box gutter where nothing shows from the ground. Those flood inwards rather than over the front edge, so the first sign is a damp patch on a ceiling. Where the pitch makes it awkward a camera goes up on a pole so you see it too.

Repairs, plastic and otherwise. Where a modern plastic run has been fitted to an extension, the usual faults are a dropped bracket, a length out of fall, and a union whose seal has hardened and started to drip. Brackets get refixed, then we realign and re-hang the length, and a union gets a new seal or is replaced. On cast iron the equivalent is a joint raked out and made good. Water that has been going behind a gutter rather than down it soaks the fascia and runs along the soffit, so soft fascias and any green staining on render or stone get reported.

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 stone cottage tight to the lane with no room for a tower, a detached house with a rear outshut, and a bungalow with a garage run along one side are three different afternoons, and only one of them is ever likely to want 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.

We cover Langton Matravers, Kingston, Worth Matravers, Swanage, Corfe Castle and the villages either side, broadly BH19, 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.