Gutter cleaning in Post Green
Cleared by hand and proved with water. On the older buildings we tell you what a conservation area actually controls, and what it does not.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Clearing a gutter is never controlled, whatever the building. Taking a cast iron one down and putting plastic up in its place can be, and around here that is a question worth asking before anybody quotes.
Most of what we do on this side of the Sherford is ordinary: a run full of leaf and moss, an outlet packed solid, a downpipe that has not taken water properly for two winters. The difference is the mix of buildings. A modern estate house and a rendered cottage on the old road need the same clearing and completely different decisions about anything beyond it.
So the free site visit covers both halves of the job. We survey every run, clear it by hand, flush each downpipe and watch it at the shoe. Then, if something is broken rather than blocked, you get a written itemised quote that says what the sensible repair is and whether the address is one where the material matters.
The work
Plastic, cast iron and the lead-lined valley
Sorting the work by what the gutter is actually made of is the quickest way to explain it.
Plastic, on most of the housing. Half-round or square PVCu on brackets. It is quick to clear and quick to repair. The failures are always the same three: a hardened union seal that weeps, a bracket that has let go, leaving a sagging length holding standing water, and an outlet packed with sludge that has to be scooped out rather than flushed. We refix and realign to a fall, re-hang a dropped length and change a union rather than replace a run that is sound. Rotten fascias behind the brackets get photographed rather than covered over.
Cast iron, on the older buildings. It rusts from the inside and from the back, where nobody can see it, and the bolted joints go before the metal does. Clearing it out, wire brushing the inside and getting a coating back on the bare metal adds years for very little money. Where a length has rusted through we replace that length in matching profile rather than strip a whole elevation. A cast iron run is heavy, so the brackets and the timber behind them get checked at the same time.
Valley and parapet gutters. Anywhere two roof slopes meet, or a roof sits behind a parapet, the water is funnelled into one lead-lined channel with nowhere else to go. A valley gutter or a box gutter fills with leaf and moss faster than an eaves run and it does not overflow harmlessly over a front edge: it starts backing up under the tiles and comes through a ceiling. These get cleared carefully, by hand, with nobody walking on the lead.
Downpipes, hoppers and shoes. Every downpipe is run through and watched at the bottom. Older properties often have a hopper head collecting a first floor run and an overflow from somewhere else, and a hopper collects everything. A missing shoe at the bottom throws water straight at the brickwork, which is how a wall picks up staining and how a soffit and its fascia start to rot.
Access. Ladder with a stand-off for most of it. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where the ground will not take a ladder foot. A tower for a tall gable or a valley. A scaffold is not something this work normally needs.
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 needs no permission at all: no planning application, nothing for building control. Replacement is where it changes. Part of this parish sits in the Lytchett Minster Conservation Area, and there are eighteen listed entries nearby, Post Green House among them. On a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric, so swapping cast iron for plastic needs listed building consent before anything comes down. We check an address first, every time.
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 rendered cottage with a low eaves and cast iron on the front, a 1970s bungalow with four downpipes, and a barn conversion with a valley down the middle are three different half days. 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 a valley or a parapet that is holding water, ring rather than wait, because that one comes through a ceiling instead of over an edge. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In the conservation area it is the replacement that is controlled
People assume a conservation area designation means they need to ask permission before anyone touches the outside of the house. For gutter work that is not the case, and the distinction is simple and worth knowing.
Clearing, flushing, refixing a bracket, changing a union, repainting cast iron in the colour it already is: all of that is maintenance and none of it is controlled anywhere. What the designation bites on is a change of appearance. Taking a cast iron half-round off a frontage and putting a square white plastic one up in its place changes how the building looks from the road, and in a conservation area or on a listed building that is a planning question rather than a decorating one.
The practical advice: if the run is sound, clear it and keep it. Cast iron that is cleared, brushed out and coated on a seasonal cycle lasts a very long time. If a length has genuinely failed, ask for a like for like replacement in the same profile before anybody offers you plastic, and let us check the address against the council's mapping first. It costs nothing and it saves the conversation you do not want to be having afterwards.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Post Green, Lytchett Minster, Upton, Lytchett Matravers, Sandford and across into Wareham and 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
Post Green questions we get asked
Do we need consent to have our gutters cleared here?
No. Clearing and repair are maintenance and no consent is needed anywhere, on any building. What can need consent is a change of appearance, which means a different material or profile on a listed building or in the conservation area. We check the address as part of the free visit.
Is cast iron worth keeping, or should we just replace it?
If it is sound, keep it. Cast iron outlasts plastic by a wide margin when it is cleared out and coated, and on an older frontage it looks right in a way plastic does not. Replace it only where a length has genuinely rusted through, and then match the profile.
What happens if a valley gutter blocks?
It backs up under the tiles rather than spilling over an edge, so the first sign is usually a damp patch on a bedroom ceiling rather than anything visible outside. That is why we clear valleys by hand and check them on every visit rather than leave them to a hose.
How long does a typical clear take?
An ordinary house is under an hour. Add time for a long run behind a hedge, for a valley, and for anything cast iron, since that is checked as well as cleared. On frequency, an annual visit after the leaves are down suits most properties, with a spring visit as well where there is heavy autumn fall.
Can you paint the cast iron while it is cleared out?
Yes, and it is the right moment to do it, since the inside of the gutter is the part that rusts and it is only accessible once the debris is out. It needs dry weather to go on properly, so occasionally that part waits a few days while the clearing does not.
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Gutter cleaning near Post Green
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Have every run on the property looked at
Thomas surveys the lot, checks the address against the council mapping and sends a written itemised quote. The visit is free.