Gutter cleaning in Sixpenny Handley

Clearing takes digging. 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 that comes out is roof grit, the granular surface coming off ageing tiles or off a felt covering on a garage. A Sixpenny Handley 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 in Sixpenny Handley 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, not a bigger gutter, and it is worth diagnosing before anybody buys anything.

Repairs we find. A dripping union that wants a new seal, a bracket to refix into sound timber, a downpipe clip that has let a pipe swing off the wall: small work, done on the visit. A sagging length to re-hang is gutter repair in Sixpenny Handley, priced separately. All of it is cheap against the damp, the staining and the green growth it stops on the brickwork and the render below.

You will not get a rate per metre from us. A metre of gutter packed with wet moss and a metre on a bare gable are different jobs.

Height and reach. Single storey eaves can be cleared off a ladder, or by vacuum pole standing on the ground. A tall gable needs a tower, and a valley gutter between two roofs needs a proper platform. The work at height rules decide which, and access is priced as its own line.

What is blocking it. Dry leaves come out in handfuls. Moss off the tiles packs into a heavy wet mat, and years of silt have to be dug out with a trowel. Outlets are where it all collects, so they matter more than the length.

Downpipes and hoppers. A downpipe choked at the shoe, especially one running into an underground drain, can take longer than the gutter. We rod it through.

Where the house sits. A Sixpenny Handley roof on an exposed plot sheds moss and grit into the run every winter, so we will say how often yours is likely to need clearing rather than booking you in for the same clean each year.

Repairs found on the day. A dripping joint, a bracket that has let the run sag, or a split length is repair rather than cleaning, and priced separately.

Ask other quotes whether the downpipes are being cleared or only the gutter, whether water is run through to test for leaks, and who takes the waste away.

The common assumption 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 like Sixpenny Handley, 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, and not clear it every year and say nothing.

Gutter clearing in Sixpenny Handley, Pentridge and Cranborne is done from our base in Boscombe, 17.1 miles away, and Dorset Council covers all of them. The person who looks at your gutters and gives you the figure is Thomas Hannen, who owns and runs Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd.

That company is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade carries a verified customer's 10 out of 10. There is no fee for the visit, and the itemised quote arrives in writing, also at no cost. Before you book a visit in Sixpenny Handley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Sixpenny Handley 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.