Gutter cleaning in Sandford, the whole run
On a semi or a terrace the run carries on past your boundary and shares an outlet. We clear the whole length, then prove it with water.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a semi or a terrace the gutter does not stop at your boundary. In Sandford most runs carry on over next door and share an outlet, so a blockage two doors along can put water down your wall.
That is why so many calls here start with somebody saying it only overflows at one end, or that the neighbour has had theirs done and now it is worse. It usually is worse, because the debris has been pushed along the run rather than lifted out of it.
The site visit is free and the survey covers the whole run, not the length in front of your house. Everything is scooped out by hand into a bucket or lifted on a vacuum, the outlet and the shoe are cleared properly, and then we run water through from the far end so you can watch it reach the drain. The written itemised quote keeps clearing and any repair on separate lines.
The work
Estate runs, shared outlets and the joints between
Clearing a run that crosses a boundary. A continuous gutter over a pair of semis or a row of four has one or two outlets serving the lot. Everything that lands anywhere on that roof ends up at those outlets, so the far end can be spotless and the house with the downpipe gets all the trouble. We work the whole length from both ends, lift out leaf, moss, silt and sludge rather than flushing or sweeping it towards the hole, and take it away with us.
Outlets, downpipes and where it really packs. Once an outlet is choked, water stands the length of the run and finds the nearest joint. Each outlet is cleared by hand, the downpipe 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 simply discharging into a blockage. Then every downpipe is proved with water in front of you.
Joints, brackets and a run out of fall. Most of this housing went up between the mid 1940s and the early 1980s, and a good deal of it is on its original plastic. Over that long a run there are a lot of unions, and a union is where a gutter leaks. The seal hardens, the joint starts to drip, and once a bracket lets go the length starts sagging and holds water in the dip instead of moving it. Brackets get refixed, we realign and re-hang the length to a proper fall, and a union gets a new seal or is replaced.
The extensions and the odd corners. Nearly every property on these roads has picked something up along the way: a rear extension, a porch, a conservatory, a garage with its own short run and a downpipe into nothing much. Those short runs are the ones nobody clears, and where a flat roof meets the main roof there is often a box gutter or a valley gutter that cannot be seen from the ground and floods inwards. Where the angle is awkward a camera goes up on a reach pole so you see it too.
What the overflow costs you. Water going over the front edge soaks the brickwork below and keeps it wet through the winter, which is where the green staining on a render panel comes from. Water going behind the gutter rots the fascia and travels along the soffit. On a terrace it rarely stops at one house, so soft fascias and damp patches get photographed and reported whether they are yours or the run's.
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 this housing. Where a run is shared with a neighbour we will tell you plainly which part is on your side of the boundary before anybody starts, and the few listed entries nearby would need listed building consent only for a change of material.
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 semi with a continuous run over both halves, a terrace of four sharing two downpipes, and a detached bungalow with a garage along 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 it only runs over at the end where the downpipe is, tell us, because on a shared run that is the outlet rather than your length of gutter. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Everything on this estate is the same age, including the gutters
Six in ten homes here went up between 1945 and 1982, busiest in the late sixties and early seventies, with whole roads built inside a couple of seasons. That is convenient for a roofer and awkward for a homeowner, because the rainwater goods on your road are not merely similar. They are the same age, the same profile and on the same brackets, and they reach the end of their life together.
Two useful things follow. First, if two or three houses on the road have had a length drop or a union start leaking, yours is worth looking at now rather than after the next gale. Second, on a shared run it is far cheaper to do the whole length in one visit than to do half of it twice, so it is worth asking a neighbour before you book. We are happy to quote a pair or a terrace as one job with each household's share on its own line, so nobody is guessing what they are paying for.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Sandford, Wareham, Holton Heath, Organford, Lytchett Minster and across to Upton, 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
Sandford questions we get asked
Our neighbour had their gutters done and ours got worse. Why?
Because the debris was pushed along the run instead of lifted out of it. On a continuous gutter over a pair or a terrace, anything swept towards the outlet ends up at the house with the downpipe. What we take out goes into a bucket and into the van.
Who is responsible for a gutter that runs over both halves of a semi?
In practice you each look after the length over your own property, but the water does not respect that, so half a clear rarely works. The straightforward answer is one visit for the whole run, split between you, with each household's share on its own line.
Why does it only overflow at one end of the row?
That end has the outlet. Debris travels along the fall until it meets the hole and stops, so the far end can look perfectly clear while the downpipe end takes all the water. Clearing the length without clearing the outlet and the pipe under it changes nothing.
Should the gully at the bottom of the downpipe be checked too?
Yes, and it often is the problem. A downpipe can be completely clear and still back up if the gully it discharges into is silted or full of leaves, and the water then comes out of the joints on the way down. It costs nothing extra and takes no longer, so it is part of the same visit.
How often do gutters on this sort of housing need clearing?
An annual clear suits most properties on these roads, done in autumn after the leaves are down. Where a run is shaded by a hedge or a mature tree it is worth a second seasonal look in spring. Frequency matters less than making sure the outlet is properly clear each time.
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Get the whole run cleared, not just your half
Thomas comes out, works the full length from both ends, clears every outlet and downpipe and prices any repair on its own line. Free.