Gutter cleaning in Sixpenny Handley

Clearing. Moss does not lift like leaf. It comes off the slope in the first heavy rain after a dry spell and sets in the bottom of the run as a wet mat of sludge that will not float and will not flush. It has to be dug out, by hand into a bucket where there is safe standing, or on a gutter vacuum with a camera on the reach pole where there is not. Everything is bagged and leaves with us.

Grit, and what it means. The other thing we take out is roof grit, the granular surface coming off ageing tiles or off a felt covering on a garage. A gutter with an inch of grit in it is telling you something about the roof above, and we will say so rather than just take it away. It also packs harder than leaf litter around an outlet, so a run can block without ever looking full.

Proving it. Every downpipe is flushed from the top and water run through the whole length until it comes out at the shoe. Then we check the gully or the soakaway below is actually taking it. A gutter that looks empty and a gutter that drains are two different things, and the only honest way to tell them apart is to put water in.

Wind, and water going the wrong way. Out here the rain rarely falls straight down. On an exposed elevation it comes at the roof at an angle, runs off the tiles with some speed and can carry past a shallow gutter altogether or blow back behind it. Where that is happening, the answer is usually a gutter hung a little differently or a bracket adjusted rather than a bigger gutter, and it is worth diagnosing before anybody buys anything.

Repairs we find. A dripping union that wants a new seal, a sagging length to re-hang to level, a bracket to refix into sound timber, a downpipe clip that has let a pipe swing off the wall. Small work, and cheap against the damp, the staining and the green growth it stops on the brickwork and the render below.

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 chalk cottage on the village street, a modern detached house on the edge of the settlement and a long agricultural range are three different jobs before anybody opens a ladder. 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.

The commonest thing we get told up here is that the gutters cannot need doing, because there is nothing overhanging them. It is a fair assumption and it is wrong. An open, windy site with a lot of sky over it is exactly the sort of place where a roof surface grows moss and lichen, particularly on a north slope, and every heavy shower after a dry week washes some of that into the gutter. Add the grit that comes off an ageing tile and you have a run filling steadily with material that is heavier than leaf and does not blow out again.

That changes the advice in two useful ways. First, an annual clear still makes sense, but the timing is less critical than it is under trees, because the filling is not seasonal. You are not waiting for the leaves to finish. Any settled spell works. Second, if the run is filling with moss and grit faster than seems reasonable, look up rather than along. That material is coming off the covering, and a roof shedding a lot of surface is worth a look in its own right. We will tell you what we can see from the ladder, at no charge, rather than clear it every year and say nothing.

We cover Sixpenny Handley, Pentridge, Cranborne, Tollard Royal and the Chase villages, broadly SP5, 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.