Gutter cleaning in Longham, under the river trees

Leaf litter is the easy part. It is what happens to leaf litter after six months in water that costs money.

Autumn leaf clearing. Whole leaves lift out by hand in minutes and go into a bag, never over the border. That is the job at its cheapest, and doing it after the leaves are down, not in the middle of the fall, is the difference between one visit and two.

What we find when nobody has been for years. Leaves break down into a black sludge, that silt mixes with moss and roofing grit off the tiles, and the whole run turns into a wet mat that holds water like a sponge. It is heavy. It pulls a plastic gutter out of level between brackets and reverses the fall, so the run overflows at the middle instead of draining to the end. That comes out by hand, scoop by scoop, or with a vacuum on a reach pole where a border stops a ladder going in, and either way it is slow.

Outlets, downpipes and hoppers. Seed, catkins and small twigs get past a leaf guard and pack solid at an outlet. Every outlet is cleared, every downpipe is flushed through while you watch, and anything that will not take it is rodded or looked at with a camera. A hopper at high level collects everything the gutter sends it and is usually worse than the run above.

Valley gutters. Where two roof slopes meet, the valley concentrates everything that lands on both of them. Under Longham trees that fills fast, and a blocked valley puts water under the tiles rather than over the front of a gutter, so the first sign is a stain on a ceiling. Those get cleared and checked whenever a property has one.

What the overflow leaves behind. A run that has been backing up for a couple of autumns puts water down the same strip of wall every time it rains. Green first, then staining across the render or the brickwork, then damp on the inside face, with the fascias and soffit under the run soft by the end of it. That is the cost of skipping a year, and it is a good deal more than the clearing would have been.

The repairs that follow a bad year. Sagging between brackets, a union whose seal has been forced open by ice on top of packed debris, a bracket pulled out of a wet fascia. We photograph it and price it. A seal or a bracket is a quick fix, and re-hanging or replacing a run is gutter repair in Longham, done only once you have said yes.

How high, and what is underneath. A bungalow on an open plot is quick. A two storey house with a conservatory under the back run, or a hedge hard against the side wall, is slower, and a valley gutter needs a proper platform. The height and what is in the way decide the kit, and the kit is a line on the quote, set by the HSE rules for roofwork.

What has built up. Dry leaves lift out fast. Moss washed down off concrete interlocking tiles packs into a heavy wet mat, and plenty of Longham roofs of that age grow a thick crop of it. Silt in a long run is slower still. Outlets matter more than length, because that is where it packs solid.

Downpipes and gullies. A blocked shoe at the foot of a downpipe, or a gully full of silt, adds time. It is worth doing in Longham, because the ground is clay that shrinks and swells, and a gutter that overflows at one corner keeps soaking the soil by that footing. Approved Document H is the standard for where roof water should go.

Clean or repair. A weeping joint or a sagging length is a repair, and it is priced separately so you can decide.

When you compare quotes, ask: are the downpipes flushed or just the gutter scooped? Is the debris taken away? Are the joints watched for drips while the water runs?

The standard advice is twice a year, and in Longham, along this stretch of the Stour valley, it is right for once. Broadleaf trees fill a gutter twice, six months apart. In October and November the leaves come down, and a run under a canopy can fill in a fortnight.

Then in April and May the same trees drop blossom, seed cases and catkins, and those are small enough to wash straight past a leaf guard and lodge in an outlet where nothing will move them.

So be specific about it. Book the main clear for late autumn, once the leaves are actually down, not while they are still falling, because doing it in October means doing it again in December. Add a short spring visit for the outlets and downpipes only, which is quicker and cheaper than a full clear. And where limbs overhang the roof itself, ask whoever owns the tree about crown lifting: a metre of clearance over the ridge saves more gutter work than any guard sold. Frequency is a property question, not a seasonal habit, and an annual clear on the wrong house is money for nothing.

Longham is 4.7 miles from our Boscombe base, and we cover it with Hampreston, West Parley, Ferndown and Bearwood across the river. Dorset Council is the local authority. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, and its company number 15471719 is on the public register. Before you book a visit in Longham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns the firm and comes to price a gutter clear himself. A verified Checkatrade customer gave the work 10 out of 10. There is no charge for coming out to look, or for the itemised written quote.

Most repairs in Longham 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.