Gutter cleaning in Lilliput

Gutters. Leaves, moss washed off the roof, silt and the odd tennis ball collect at the low points and around each outlet. We scoop out the debris and the sludge by hand where we can reach safely from a ladder or tower, or lift it out with a gutter vacuum on a reach pole from the ground. Everything goes into bags and leaves with us.

Downpipes. A gutter that has been cleared but still overflows usually has a blocked downpipe. We clear the hopper and the swan neck at the top, rod or flush the pipe, and check the shoe at the bottom and the gully it runs into. If it will not clear, a camera down the pipe shows us where the blockage is.

Valley gutters and box gutters. Where two roof slopes meet, or behind a parapet, debris collects in a valley gutter or a box gutter that you cannot see from the ground. They are the ones that overflow into the house, not onto the path, so we check them every time.

After clearing. We run water through each gutter and watch it. A joint that drips, a section that sags so water sits in it, or a gutter with no fall back to its outlet will overflow again however clean it is. Small repairs such as resealing a joint, replacing a union or refixing a bracket we can usually do on the same visit, with a price first. A roofline that needs replacing is a different job, and our fascia and guttering work in Lilliput covers it.

Salt on the fittings. Near the harbour, salt air rusts the metal that holds a gutter up well before the plastic itself fails: plated screws, steel brackets and the clips on cast iron or aluminium runs. While we are up, we look at every bracket on the side that faces the water, and where one has rusted through we say so and price a stainless replacement.

How often. Most Lilliput houses need it once a year, late in the autumn once the leaves are down. Big garden trees over the roof can mean a spring clear too. We tell you what came out, so you can judge the frequency instead of guessing.

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 Lilliput bungalow with a clear path round it takes a fraction of the time of a three storey house on a slope, and a frontage on Sandbanks Road has a busy pavement to work around. 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.

We cover Lilliput and all of BH14, along Sandbanks Road and Lilliput Road from Whitecliff to Evening Hill and Salterns, and on to Canford Cliffs and Penn Hill. BCP Council covers the area, and our base in Boscombe is about five miles away.

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. Before you book a visit in Lilliput, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lilliput need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.