Gutter cleaning in Poole, eaves and parapets

Different roofs need different work, so the first job is finding out which one you have.

Ordinary eaves runs. Leaves, moss off the tiles, roofing grit and the black sludge they become, scooped out by hand from a ladder or lifted with a vacuum on a reach pole where a pavement or a border makes a ladder pitch awkward. Every outlet cleared, every downpipe flushed through with water while you watch, and a camera down anything that will not run.

Parapet and box gutters. On the older town houses and terraces the gutter is a lined channel behind a low wall, falling to an outlet at one end. Debris settles there and stays, because there is nowhere for it to overflow to. Clearing means getting up onto the roof properly rather than working from a ladder, checking the outlet and the leaf grate, and looking at the lining itself while it is empty, since a blocked box gutter that has been ponding often has a split or a lifted seam under the silt.

Hoppers and internal downpipes. Water off a parapet frequently drops into a hopper head at high level and then into a pipe that runs inside the building. Those are cleared and proved with water like anything else, but a failure in one stains a ceiling rather than a wall, so they are worth doing before they need doing.

Valleys. Where two slopes meet on a bigger roof the valley takes everything off both of them. Blocked, it puts water under the tiles. It gets cleared and checked whenever a property has one.

Repairs. Sagging between brackets, a union with a perished seal, a bracket into a soft fascia, a length out of fall. Photographed and priced first, then we refix, realign, re-hang or replace. On cast iron we would rather re-bed a joint and paint the run than replace it.

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 quayside terrace with the run over a pavement, a semi with a conservatory beneath the back gutter, and a three storey house with a parapet all need a different way in. 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.

An ordinary eaves gutter tells you when it has had enough. It pours over the front edge in heavy rain, it splashes on the path, and it leaves a green stripe down the render underneath. You get months of notice. A parapet or box gutter behind a wall does none of that. It is a lined channel with a low wall on the outside of it, so when the outlet blocks the channel simply fills up, and the water finds the lowest point available, which is over the back edge of the lining and into the roof.

So the rule for an older town house is to inspect rather than wait. If your roof has a parapet, a valley behind it, or a hopper head at high level rather than a gutter you can see from the pavement, get somebody up there once a year and after any autumn gale, whatever the run looks like from below. Ask for the outlet and the leaf grate to be checked and for the lining to be looked at while the channel is empty, because a box gutter that has been holding water often has a split seam under the silt. And if there is already a mark on a top floor ceiling, treat that as urgent rather than seasonal. In a block or a converted house, that call goes to the managing agent, since the roof and the rainwater goods belong to the freeholder rather than to you.

We cover Poole town, the quay, Oakdale, Parkstone, Upton and Broadstone, broadly BH15, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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.