Gutter cleaning in Stone
On a terrace or a block the run is one system with several owners. We walk the whole length, clear it by hand and show you where the water goes.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Before you book anything, find out whether the gutter is yours to book. On a terrace the run crosses several houses, and in a block it belongs to the freeholder rather than to the person underneath it.
The work itself is simple. Who instructs it is the part that holds people up here. Somebody rings because water is pouring past their bedroom window, gets a price, and then discovers the downpipe serving it is on the neighbour's wall or is communal.
We deal with that every week, so we start by walking the whole run and working out where it goes. The free site visit is a survey of the length, the outlets and the downpipes, and you get a written itemised quote that says plainly which parts you can authorise on your own. We clear by hand, flush every downpipe, and photograph anything already damaged so there is something to show an agent.
The work
Shared runs, and finding out where the water goes
On a joined-up building the gutter is one system with several owners, so the work follows the water rather than the boundary.
Walking the run first. A terrace gutter can run twenty or thirty metres across four houses to a single outlet at one end. One blocked mouth backs the whole length up, and it overflows above the house furthest from the blockage rather than above the cause. We work out which outlet serves which length before anybody opens a ladder, because clearing your own frontage and stopping at the party wall achieves nothing.
Clearing. Leaf, moss off the tiles, silt and grit come out by hand as a wet sludge and go in a bag. Nothing is hosed along a shared run, because that just delivers it to the outlet the next house depends on. Everything is scooped out and the debris leaves with us.
Outlets, hoppers and downpipes. Blocks and converted buildings often take rainwater into a hopper head and then into a pipe that runs down a communal wall. Nobody sees a failure there until damp and staining appear on a ceiling inside, or the render below a hopper turns green. Every downpipe gets water run through it and watched at the shoe, and anything backing up is rodded and flushed.
Repairs on a shared length. A hardened union seal, a bracket that has let go leaving a sagging dip, a length that needs re-hanging to a fall. We realign and refix rather than replace where the run is sound, and rotten soffit and fascias behind the brackets get photographed rather than covered over, so there is something to put in front of whoever has to approve it.
Getting to it. Ladder with a stand-off on a two storey terrace. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where a rear yard, a conservatory or a parking area rules a ladder out. A tower on the taller blocks. A scaffold is not something a clear normally needs, and we would say so if it were.
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.
No permission is needed to clear or repair rainwater goods. There is no planning application, nothing for building control, and no conservation area covering the housing here. The listed entries in this part of the parish are concentrated around the Pamphill estate rather than among the houses, but where an address is listed the gutters are protected fabric and a change of material needs listed building consent. What does need settling first is consent: in a block the freeholder says yes before we book a day.
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 mid terrace with a shared run and a rear yard you can only reach through the house, a top floor flat with a communal downpipe, and a detached house with clear ground all round are three different jobs. 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 is coming over a communal walkway or a stairwell, tell the agent as well as us, because that one has a safety side to it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In a flat, the gutter is not yours to book
Around a third of the homes here are flats or maisonettes, and roughly another quarter are terraced. That means most of the rainwater in this settlement is carried by something more than one household depends on, and it changes who you need to talk to before anything happens.
If you are a leaseholder, the roof, the outside walls, the gutters and the downpipes are almost always retained by the freeholder and maintained out of the service charge you already pay. You cannot instruct a contractor to work on them, however badly they need doing, and people find that out after they have spent an afternoon collecting quotes. Check your lease, or ask the managing agent what is demised to you.
The route that does work is to get the block onto the agent's list and ask that we are invited to price it. We quote to freeholders, management companies and residents associations regularly, and we break the communal run out from anything individual so everybody can see what belongs to whom. On a terrace it is easier: talk to the neighbours, do the whole run in one visit and it costs less per house than four separate calls. If you own a house outright, none of this applies and you can simply book it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Stone, Pamphill, Wimborne Minster, Sturminster Marshall, Corfe Mullen and across into Broadstone, broadly BH21, 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
Stone questions we get asked
Our gutter overflows but the blockage is next door. What happens?
The run is one length, so it has to be cleared as one length. We would rather do the whole thing in a single visit with the neighbours' agreement than clear half of it and leave the cause in place. Split between the households it works out cheaper than one house paying twice.
Will you quote to a managing agent or a residents association?
Yes, regularly, and it is the normal route in on a block. We survey the whole building, price the communal run separately from anything individual, photograph what we find and give the agent something they can put in front of leaseholders. There is no charge for any of that.
The downpipe from our flat runs down the outside of somebody else's wall. Is that a problem?
Not for the work, but it matters for access. We need permission to put a ladder against that wall or to stand a tower on that ground, and it is far better sorted before the day than on it. Tell us when you ring and we will make sure it is arranged.
How often does a shared run need doing?
Once a year for most, done in autumn after the leaves are down, with a spring visit as well where there are trees behind. A shared run is worth doing on a fixed annual pattern rather than when somebody notices, because by the time one household notices, all of them have a full gutter.
How long would a terrace take?
Usually a morning for four houses, sometimes less. The clearing is quick. What takes the time is working out which outlet serves which length, flushing each downpipe properly and checking the joints along the way, and that is the part that stops you calling us back in six weeks.
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Find out what you can actually instruct
Thomas walks the whole run, works out which outlet serves what and sends a written itemised quote. Free, and useful even if you decide not to book.