Ridge gutter cleaning, outlets first
Out on the heath it is needle rather than leaf, and it blocks the outlet while the gutter still looks clear. We clear both, and prove it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Out on the heath the stuff that blocks a gutter is not leaf, it is pine needle. Needles are small enough to travel the whole length of a run, and they knit together at the outlet into a plug that water will not shift.
That is why gutters around Ridge behave oddly. They look almost clean when you put a ladder against them, and they still overflow in the first heavy shower of the autumn, because everything has already collected in the one place you cannot see from the ground.
The site visit is free and the survey takes in every run from both ends. We work them, scoop out needle, moss, grit and sludge by hand or lift it on a vacuum, dig the outlet out properly, then run water through each downpipe so you can watch it clear. Nothing is flushed down into the drain and everything that comes out leaves with us. A written itemised quote follows.
The work
Needles, silt and the outlet that stops taking
Clearing what the heath drops. Scots pine and the odd stand of birch sit close to most of the houses out here, and pine needle behaves nothing like oak leaf. Leaf sits on top and lifts out in one go. Needles work down into the bottom of the run, mix with the moss and grit that washes off the tiles and set into a dense wet mat. It has to be dug out and scooped into a bucket, and rinsing a run like that just carries the whole lot down to the outlet.
The outlet, the swan neck and the shoe. This is where the money is on an exposed plot. Needles bridge across an outlet and pack into the bend behind the fascia, so the gutter stays half empty while the downpipe is solid. Every outlet is cleared by hand, the pipe is run through from the top and rodded from the shoe where water is backing up, and any gully at the bottom is checked so the pipe is not discharging into a blockage. Then each run is proved with water in front of you.
Guards and mesh, honestly. People out here ask about covers more than anywhere else, and the honest answer is that most mesh stops leaf and lets needle straight through. What it then does is hide the problem, because you cannot see the run filling and you cannot easily clear it without taking the guard off. Where a tree genuinely overhangs a roof we will say whether a guard is worth it on that one run, and more often we say it is not.
Joints, brackets and a length out of fall. Open ground means wind, and wind works on a gutter every winter. The usual faults are a bracket that has let go, a length sagging between fixings so water stands in the dip, and a union whose seal has hardened and started to drip. Brackets get refixed, we realign and re-hang the length to its fall, and a union gets a new seal or is replaced. On the older properties with cast iron, it is emptied by hand rather than jetted and the bolts through the joints are checked.
Why it matters more on an exposed plot. Water over the front edge is driven into the brickwork or render here rather than falling clear, so the wall stays wet and goes green. Water behind the gutter rots the fascia and runs along the soffit. And where a rear range makes a valley gutter, or a flat roofed extension makes a box gutter, the overflow goes to a ceiling instead. Those get looked at with a camera on a reach pole where the angle is awkward, and soft fascias and damp staining are photographed and reported.
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 and repairing gutters is maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off, and there is no conservation area over the houses here. The listed entries nearby are concentrated in Wareham rather than out on the heath, and on one of those a change of rainwater goods rather than a repair would need listed building consent.
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 single storey cottage with pines right over the roof, a detached house with a rear range and a valley between them, and a bungalow with a long garage run down one side are three different afternoons, and none of them needs 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. If the gutter looks clear from a ladder and still runs over, that is the outlet packed with needle and it is worth saying so when you ring. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Pine needle is a different job from leaf
Almost everything written about gutter clearing assumes deciduous trees: a big drop in autumn, one clear after the leaves are down, and quiet until spring. On the heath that advice does not fit. Pine sheds a little all year with a heavier flush in late summer and again after a gale, so a run collects steadily rather than in one go, and there is no single week that is obviously the right one to book.
What works better here is an annual clear that is genuinely thorough at the outlets, and a look at the downpipes rather than the gutters when something goes wrong in between. A run half full of needle usually keeps working. An outlet with a plug of needle in it stops dead, and it does so in the first heavy rain rather than gradually. So the useful question to ask anyone quoting is not how often they will come, it is whether they clear and prove every downpipe or only empty the gutter. We do the downpipes, and you see the water go.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ridge, Stoborough, Wareham, Arne, Holton Heath and across to Sandford, broadly BH20, 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
Ridge questions we get asked
The gutter looks clear but it still overflows. What is going on?
Almost always a packed outlet. Pine needle travels the whole length of a run and knits together at the hole, so the gutter looks tidy from a ladder while the downpipe below is solid. Clearing the run without digging out the outlet achieves nothing.
Are gutter guards worth fitting under pine trees?
Usually not. Most mesh stops leaf and lets needle straight through, then hides the run so you cannot see it filling or clear it without taking the cover off. Where a tree overhangs one run we will say whether a guard helps there, and usually it does not.
How often should gutters be cleared on an exposed plot out here?
An annual clear that is thorough at the outlets suits most properties. Pine sheds all year rather than in one autumn drop, so there is no perfect week to book, and and a seasonal pattern matters less than whether every downpipe is cleared and proved rather than just the gutter emptied. How long it takes depends on the outlets, not the length of run.
Do you check the gully at the bottom of the downpipe?
Yes. A pipe can be perfectly clear and still back up if the gully it discharges into is silted or full of needle, and water then finds its way out of the joints on the way down. It takes a couple of minutes and it saves a return visit.
Will clearing the gutters make a mess of the ground underneath?
No. Everything is scooped into a bucket and taken away rather than dropped or washed down the outlet, the ground under the run is sheeted where there is planting, and the site is swept before we leave.
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Get the outlets dug out, not just the gutters emptied
Thomas comes out, clears every run and outlet, rods and proves each downpipe and prices any repair on its own line. Free.