Gutter cleaning in Redlynch
Gutters cleared, outlets opened and downpipes proved, on older walls where one wet winter shows on the inside.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a solid wall an overflowing gutter is not a cosmetic problem. There is no cavity behind the brickwork to stop the water, so a run that spills all winter turns up as damp on the inside face of the same wall by spring.
The three calls we take here are a run coming over the front edge in heavy rain, a downpipe that has stopped taking water and left a dark stripe down the wall, and somebody who has found damp inside and been told to look at the gutters before anything else. The third one is usually good advice.
The job itself is straightforward. Everything comes out by hand, every outlet is opened, and water goes down each downpipe with somebody at the bottom watching for it. The free site visit surveys every run on the building, and the written itemised quote separates clearing, repair and access so nothing is hidden inside one figure.
What we do here
Clearing the run, then following the water down the wall
The clear. Leaf, needle, moss off the tiles and the grit that comes with it settle into one wet sludge along the bottom of a run. A scoop lifts it out in a piece, into a bucket and then the van, or we take it off a reach pole with a vacuum head where a ladder cannot be footed. Jetting it along the gutter only relocates it to the outlet, where it packs hard.
Proving it. Each length is flushed and each downpipe has water run through it while somebody watches the shoe. If nothing arrives, the pipe is backing up below the eaves and a rod or a camera settles where. On older properties the pipe often steps back to the wall at a swan neck, and that bend is where a blockage sits.
Outlets, hoppers and shoes. A gutter blocks at its outlets rather than along its length. Where an upper roof or an outshut discharges into a lower run there is usually a hopper, and a hopper packs silently then overflows down the back of the pipe. A shoe full of silt puts the water straight back against the foot of the wall, which on solid brickwork is the worst place it can go.
Valleys and outshuts. A lot of the older housing here has been added to, and every join between two pitches makes a valley. A valley gutter or a box gutter collects off both slopes, silts faster than the eaves and has nowhere to overflow except into the roof, so it wants a tower under you rather than a ladder over the edge.
The repairs. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same place whenever it rains. A sagging length between brackets holds a puddle and goes green. A run hung with the fall away from the outlet overflows however clean it is. We refix a bracket, replace a union, re-hang or realign a length, and we say when a run is past saving rather than clearing it twice a year for ever.
What it does, and how often. Water over the edge takes the soffits and fascias first, then shows as a green stripe on render, a dark band on brickwork and damp or staining on the inside face. Frequency follows the cover overhead. An annual clear late in autumn after the leaves are down does most houses here, with a second seasonal look in spring where a valley or heavy planting is involved.
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 gutters needs no permission and nothing from building control. Changing the appearance of the building can. There is no conservation area of its own here and a small number of listed entries, so on most properties a change of rainwater goods is ordinary permitted work, but on a listed building it is protected fabric and a planning matter before anything comes off the wall. 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 pre war cottage with the run at eaves height, a bungalow with a long unbroken gutter, and a two storey house with an outshut and a valley behind it are three different set ups, and only the last is likely to need a tower or a scaffold. 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. On a solid wall the damage happens quickly, so an overflow that has been running for a fortnight is already worth a visit rather than a note in the diary. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A solid wall has nothing behind it to stop the water
Rather more than a quarter of the housing here predates 1919, which means solid walls rather than cavity ones. That single fact changes how urgent a gutter is. A modern cavity wall can take a certain amount of water on its outer face and shrug it off, because the cavity behind stops the wet from bridging to the inside. A solid wall has no such thing. It relies on the outer face being wetted only briefly and then drying out, and it copes perfectly well with ordinary weather for two hundred years, right up until something keeps one strip of it permanently wet.
An overflowing gutter is exactly that something. It puts a narrow band of water down the same brickwork every time it rains, the wall never gets a chance to dry, and the damp arrives on the inside face in the same position. People then spend money on the inside of the wall, which does nothing, because the cause is fifteen feet up. Approved Document C sets out what a wall is expected to do about ground and rain water, and the practical version is simple: fix the gutter first, let the wall dry through a summer, then look again. It is also why we check where each downpipe discharges, because a shoe standing in a puddle at the foot of an old wall does the same damage from below.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Redlynch, Morgan's Vale, Woodfalls, Downton and the villages towards Salisbury, broadly SP5, under Wiltshire 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
Redlynch questions we get asked
We have damp inside. Could the gutters really be the cause?
On an older solid wall, very often yes, and it is the cheapest thing to rule out. Look for damp that sits in a band in the same position rather than spreading evenly, and look outside for a dark stripe above it. Fix the run, then give the wall a summer to dry before deciding anything else.
Why does it matter more on an old house than a new one?
Because there is no cavity. A cavity wall keeps the wet outer leaf separate from the inner one. A solid wall works by getting wet and then drying, so it copes with rain and does not cope with a gutter that keeps one strip of it soaked from October to March.
The downpipe ends in a puddle. Is that a problem?
It is, and it is easily missed. A shoe discharging onto saturated ground splashes back onto the bottom of the wall and keeps the base of the brickwork wet from below. We check where every pipe ends and tell you if the water needs taking further away or into a gully instead.
How quickly does the damage actually happen?
Faster than most people expect on solid brick. One winter of a run overflowing in the same place is usually enough to show inside by spring. That is why we treat a reported overflow as work to do now rather than something to book for the summer.
Can you clear it without leaning a ladder on the wall?
Yes, and on soft old brick or lime render we would rather not lean anything on it. A standoff keeps the ladder off the face, and where the wall or the ground will not take one we work off a tower or a reach pole instead.
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Get the run cleared before the wall takes another winter
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run and downpipe, checks where the water ends up and sends a written itemised quote. Free.