Lytchett Matravers gutters, and the plastic behind them
Cleared by hand, outlets proved with water, and an honest look at plastic that has been in the sun since the house was built.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On most houses in Lytchett Matravers the gutter is the same age as the house, and forty odd years of sun does more to plastic than any amount of leaf does. So a clear here often turns up a second, smaller job underneath.
The calls come in two shapes. Either it is raining and the water is coming over the front edge in a sheet, usually at the same corner every time, or it is dry and somebody has noticed a dark band of green running down the render from one spot under the gutter line.
Both get looked at on the same visit. We go along every run from both ends, lift out what is in it by hand or on a vacuum, clear the outlet properly, then put water down each downpipe so you can see it go. Nothing is flushed through into the drain to become somebody else's blockage.
The site visit and the written itemised quote are free. If the run has dropped between its brackets, or a union has split, you get a photograph of it and a separate price, and you are free to have only the clearing done.
The work
What we clear, and what tends to be underneath it
Getting the run empty. Village gutters fill with a mixture: leaf off the hedgerow oaks and limes, blossom and seed in early summer, and moss washed off the tiles every time it rains hard. Loose leaves come out in handfuls. Moss and old sludge have to be dug out, because they set into a wet mat that holds water along the whole length, and the silt in a run nobody has touched for years is heavier than anybody expects.
Outlets, downpipes and where it really blocks. A gutter with an inch of debris in it still works. An outlet with a single clump over it does not, which is why the overflow is always at the same place. We clear each outlet by hand, run the downpipe through from the top, rod it from the shoe where water is backing up, and check the hopper on anything that has one. Then water goes down every run in front of you.
The plastic itself. A lot of this village went up in the 1970s and early 1980s, and a good share of it still has the rainwater goods it was built with. Ultraviolet makes PVC brittle from the outside in, the clips in the brackets lose their grip, and the run starts to sag between fixings. Water then stands in the dip instead of running to the outlet, and the joint at the low point begins to drip. We refix or replace brackets, re-hang the length back to a proper fall, and renew the seal in a union or change the union. Where a section snaps at the touch, it gets replaced rather than nursed along.
Cast iron, where it is still there. A handful of older properties in the parish still run cast iron, and it is worth keeping. It is emptied by hand rather than jetted and the bolts through the joints get looked at. Cast iron fails at its fixings rather than all at once, and a bracket screwed into a rotten fascia is the usual reason a length comes down.
What it is doing to the building. The staining on the wall is the least of it. Water over the front edge keeps the brickwork wet all winter, and water behind the gutter runs into the fascia and along the soffit until the board goes soft. Once it reaches a ceiling it has stopped being a gutter job.
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 a gutter is maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off. The parish carries fifteen listed entries, the church of St Mary the Virgin among them, and on a listed building the original rainwater goods are protected fabric, so swapping cast iron for plastic needs listed building consent before anything is ordered. We check an address 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 detached house with a garage link and a hedge tight up the side, a chalet bungalow with a dormer over the front door, and a semi with a conservatory across the back are three different jobs before anybody has looked in the gutter. 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 it is running over at a corner where a downpipe comes down, say so when you ring, because that is usually the outlet rather than the length. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The gutter is as old as the house, and it shows
Most of the housing here is 1970s and early 1980s, and that matters more to a gutter than to a roof. Plastic rainwater goods of that generation were half round on fascia brackets about a metre apart, and nobody expected them to sit in full sun for four decades. Ultraviolet takes the flexibility out. The plastic goes chalky on the south facing runs, the bracket clips lose their spring, and the length starts to move instead of being held to a fall.
So on stock of this age, ask for the clean and the condition check together. It is a few minutes more while somebody is up there, and it changes what you do next. A run that is sound gets cleared and left alone for another year. A run that has sagged in the middle gets re-hung, which is an hour, not a replacement. A run where the plastic cracks when a bracket is undone is telling you it has had its life, and it is far cheaper to replace one elevation at a time as it goes than to clear a failing gutter twice a year and pay for the damp wall underneath it as well.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Lytchett Matravers, Lytchett Minster, Upton, Organford and across to Wareham and the edge of Poole, broadly BH16, 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
Lytchett Matravers questions we get asked
Why does our gutter always overflow in the same place?
Because that is where the outlet is. Debris travels along a run until it meets the hole and stops, so water backs up and comes over the front edge at that corner. Clearing the length without clearing the outlet and the downpipe under it fixes nothing.
Can a sagging length of gutter be re-hung, or does it all have to come off?
Usually it can be re-hung. If the plastic is still sound the brackets are refixed or replaced, the length is set back to a fall and the joints resealed, which is an hour rather than a replacement. It only becomes a replacement when the plastic cracks as it is handled.
Do you need to get on the roof to clear our gutters?
No. Gutter work is done from the outside, off a ladder, a tower or a reach pole depending on the property, and nobody needs to walk on your tiles. Standing on a roof to reach a gutter is how tiles get broken.
What do you do with everything that comes out?
It goes into a bucket and into the van. Nothing is dropped into the borders and nothing is washed down the outlet, which only moves the blockage into the drain. The ground under the run is sheeted where there is planting.
How long does a gutter clean take on an average house here?
Most detached and semi-detached properties in the village are a morning, including running water through every downpipe and looking at the joints. A bungalow with a conservatory, or a hedge tight against one elevation, takes longer, because access slows it down rather than the gutter.
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Get the runs cleared and the joints checked together
Thomas comes out, clears every run and outlet, proves it with water and sends a written itemised quote for anything that needs repairing. Free.