Spetisbury gutter cleaning, run by run
On a joined house the gutter does not stop at your wall. We clear the whole run, empty the hoppers and prove every downpipe takes water.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a terrace or a semi the gutter does not stop at your wall. More than half the homes in Spetisbury are joined to another one, so clearing your own length and leaving the rest is why the same corner overflows again in the next storm.
What usually starts it is a wet stripe on a wall. Somebody notices a dark band under one joint, or hears water hitting the path in a downpour instead of going down the pipe, and looks up to find grass growing out of the gutter above it.
We clear the run rather than the length. Everything lifted out by hand into a bag, every outlet picked clear, water put through from the far end and watched out of the shoe, and each joint, bracket and downpipe looked at on the way. If the run carries on over next door we will tell you plainly what is sitting the other side of the party wall, so you can decide whether to sort the lot at once. The site visit and the written itemised quote are free.
The work
One gutter, several houses
Most of the work in the village is on joined houses, and that shapes it.
Clearing a continuous run. Where a gutter carries on across two or three houses there is usually one outlet serving the lot, and everything travels towards it. That means the blockage is almost never above the wet patch. We work from the far end towards the outlet, lifting the debris out rather than washing it along, because a flush through a full gutter just packs the outlet harder. Leaf litter, moss off the tiles and the fine silt underneath all come out into a bag, and the bag comes with us.
The outlets, the hoppers and the pipes. On the older cottages the downpipe often takes water from more than one roof, through a hopper head at first floor level, and that hopper is where the sludge sits. It gets emptied by hand. Then water is run through the whole system and we watch where it comes out. A pipe that has been blocked long enough will have been overflowing at the hopper for years, which shows as a stripe of green and damp brickwork below it.
Joints and party lines. A cast iron or plastic gutter over a party wall usually has a joint right at the boundary, and that joint takes the movement of two roofs. It is the one that opens. A drip there soaks the shared wall from the top down and shows inside as damp in an upstairs corner. Replacing a union seal or re-bedding a cast iron socket is quick work, and far cheaper than the plaster it saves.
Sagging and falls. A long run needs a steady fall to its outlet and a bracket at proper centres. After a few winters full of wet debris the middle drops, water stands and the run drips over the front edge even when it is empty. That is a re-hang: brackets off, the line reset and refixed, and any bowed length replaced. We price that separately from the clearing.
What it has already cost you. Overflow runs down fascia, soffit and then brickwork, and old soft brick and lime mortar hold that water rather than shedding it. Green staining, damp inside, and mortar going crumbly under one downpipe are all worth photographing while the ladder is up.
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 gutters needs no permission and nothing goes to building control, though new or altered rainwater drainage does sit under Approved Document H. Spetisbury has no conservation area of its own, and there are eighteen listed entries recorded in and around the village, some of them closer to neighbouring parishes than to the street. On a listed building the rainwater goods are part of the fabric, so we check an address with Dorset Council before anything is changed.
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 terraced cottage where the run carries on over next door, a semi with the downpipe sitting on the party line, and a detached bungalow at the end of a lane are three different jobs before anybody puts a ladder up. 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. Say if the overflow is above a party wall, because that is the one that turns up as a damp patch in somebody else's bedroom before it does in yours. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A shared run is cheaper done together
Roughly one home in four here is terraced and another quarter or so semi-detached, and on those the rainwater system is shared whether or not anybody has ever discussed it. One length of gutter, one fall, often one downpipe, crossing a boundary that only exists indoors. Water does not respect it. A blockage above number three will show as a wet wall at number two, and clearing only the half you own leaves the fall wrong and the outlet still packed.
The practical answer is to ask next door before you book. Doing a whole terrace in one visit is far less per house than three separate visits with a ladder moved each time, and it is the only way to get the fall right along the whole length. We quote each house on its own line so nobody is guessing what they are paying for, and if a neighbour will not join in we still clear through to the outlet and tell you honestly what remains on the other side.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Spetisbury, Charlton Marshall, Sturminster Marshall, Blandford St Mary and up into Blandford Forum, broadly DT11, 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
Spetisbury questions we get asked
Our gutter carries on over next door. Can you still clear ours?
We can, and we will clear through to the outlet so your length actually drains. What we cannot do is work over a neighbour's property without their say so. Most people ask next door once they understand the run is shared, and doing it together works out cheaper per house.
Water is running down the wall between two houses. Whose problem is it?
Usually both, which is why it drags on. The joint over a party wall is the one that opens first because it takes movement from two roofs. It is a small repair and a slow argument, so the cheapest route is to get it looked at and priced before either side spends money on plaster.
There is a hopper head halfway up the wall. Does that need doing too?
Very much so. A hopper collects everything the gutter sends it and holds it, so it silts up faster than the run above. It is emptied by hand and then water is put through the pipe below it to prove the whole thing takes water.
Can you clear a cast iron gutter without breaking it?
Yes, and carefully. Old cast iron is brittle at the sockets and the bolt through the joint is often seized, so it gets emptied by hand rather than scraped hard, and we test the brackets before putting weight anywhere near it. If a section is cracked we photograph it rather than make it worse.
How often does a village terrace need doing?
Once a year is right for most, and the autumn visit after the leaves are down is the one that earns its money. If there is a tall hedge or a mature tree along the back the outlets can pack in a single season, so those runs are worth a second look in spring.
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Get the whole run cleared and proved
Thomas comes out, clears through to the outlet, puts water down every pipe and sends a written itemised quote with any repair on its own line. Free.