Ridge gutter cleaning, outlets first

Clearing what the heath drops. Scots pine and the odd stand of birch sit close to most of the houses out in Ridge, 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. Covers come up a lot on this kind of plot, 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. A bracket or a union seal is sorted on the visit, and a sagging length that needs re-hanging is gutter repair in Ridge, priced separately. On the older properties with cast iron, it is emptied by hand, never 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 in Ridge, not 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.

We do not charge by the metre, because a metre under a pine and a metre on an open gable are not the same work.

Height and ground. A single storey run is ladder or pole work. A tall gable, or a valley gutter between a house and its rear range, needs a tower, and on wet clay a tower needs boards under it. The work at height rules are why the access is priced on its own line.

What is in it. Dry leaves lift out in minutes. Needles bind together in the outlet, and moss washed down from the tiles sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out. The number of outlets matters more than the length of gutter, because that is where it packs solid.

Clean or repair. A joint that drips once the water runs, a downpipe blocked at the shoe, or a sagging length between brackets is a repair, not a clean. It is also the part that turns an hour into half a day. Where a downpipe spills onto the ground beside the wall on Ridge clay, we tell you, because that is a drainage point under Approved Document H rather than a gutter one.

Before choosing, ask whether each downpipe is flushed or only the gutter cleared, whether leaks are checked with running water, and who takes the debris away.

Ridge is 11.9 miles from Boscombe, where our base is, at 80a Wolverton Road. We clear gutters across Ridge, Stoborough, Wareham and Arne, over to Holton Heath and Sandford, and Dorset Council is the local authority throughout.

Look us up at Companies House as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. Thomas Hannen owns the business and sees the house himself before any price is written. On Checkatrade, one verified customer left a 10 out of 10. Coming out costs you nothing, and the itemised quote is free. Before you book a visit in Ridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ridge need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.