Gutter cleaning in Swanage
Older terraces carry their rainwater in cast iron and in gutters you cannot see from the street. We clear both, and price the access openly.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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On a three storey Victorian terrace the gutter is thirty feet up, it is cast iron, and half of it drains into a box gutter you cannot see from the street. That is why the access matters more in Swanage than the clearing does.
Swanage gutter problems depend on who owns the building and how tall it is. An owner of an older terrace watching water sheet past a second floor window. A leaseholder in a converted building who has looked at a damp wall for two winters and cannot get anyone to act. And somebody with a bungalow up the hill who wants the moss out before winter. If water is sheeting past a window in a downpour right now, ring 07435 839745 and tell us how many storeys up it is.
Each needs a different answer, so we start by walking the building. The free site visit is a survey of every run, outlet and downpipe, front and back, and the access is shown as its own line on the written itemised quote. We clear by hand, run water through and watch it at the shoe, and photograph anything broken as well as anything blocked.
The work
Cast iron, hidden gutters and thirty feet of terrace
Roughly three in ten homes in the town predate 1919, which is a lot of older fabric, and older fabric carries its rainwater differently.
Cast iron at eaves level. Still in place on a great many of the older buildings in Swanage and worth keeping when it is sound. It rusts from the inside and from the back where nobody looks, and the bolted joints go before the metal does. Cleared out, wire brushed and coated, a cast iron run lasts decades. Where a length has rusted right through, replacing it in the same profile is a separate job with its own price. It is heavy, so the brackets and the timber behind are checked too.
Box and parapet gutters. Behind a parapet or between two roof slopes the water runs in a lead-lined channel with nowhere to go but the outlet. A box gutter or a valley gutter fills faster than an eaves run, and when it blocks it does not spill over a front edge. It backs up under the slates and comes through a ceiling. Cleared by hand, with nobody standing on the lead, and it is the first thing we look at on an older building.
Hoppers and long downpipes. Older Swanage terraces collect first floor and rear runs into a hopper head and drop them down one pipe, often on a shared wall. A hopper catches everything. Every downpipe is run through and watched at the bottom, and anything backing up is rodded and flushed.
The ordinary clearing. Leaf, seed, moss off the slates and salt-laden grit, all scooped out by hand as a wet sludge and bagged. Nothing is hosed along a run into somebody else's outlet, and nothing is left to run down a wall and leave green staining on the render below.
Repairs on plastic runs. On the post-war housing the faults are the familiar plastic ones: a hardened union seal that drips, a bracket that has let go leaving a sagging dip, and an outlet packed with sludge. A seal or a bracket is sorted on the visit, a sagging dip that needs re-hanging is gutter repair in Swanage, and rotten soffit and fascias are photographed, not covered over.
Access, which is the real variable. A Swanage bungalow is ladder work with a stand-off. A three storey terrace is a tower, and a rear elevation reached only through the house may be a scaffold. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head covers much of the middle ground and lets you see inside the run yourself.
How it runs
Clearing gutters on terraces and converted villas
Tell us the address and whether you own the house or a flat in it. In a converted villa the gutters usually belong to the freeholder, so we price the whole building for the agent or residents' association rather than one flat's share. Thomas comes out, looks at each run and every downpipe from the ground, and gives you the price himself. The work is then done to that price.
The quote itemises access, the length of each run, the number of outlets and downpipes, any valley or box gutter, repairs, and taking the debris away. On a three storey terrace we work off a tower, and where the rear is only reached through the hall, sheets go down before anything is carried through. Debris is bagged as we go, never tipped into your border, and the paths are swept before we leave. Water goes through every outlet at the end to prove it drains. A failed joint or a broken bracket gets photographed and priced for you, and nothing is repaired until you agree.
Clearing is maintenance, with nothing to apply for anywhere. Replacing is a different matter. On a listed building, cast iron is protected fabric, so swapping it needs listed building consent first, and inside the Swanage conservation area it is worth asking Dorset Council before a new run in a different material goes on the front.
Cost
Why one gutter clean takes longer than another
Length of gutter tells you little. A run behind a conifer and a run on an open gable are not the same work, so there is no rate per metre.
Height and the route in. A three storey terrace with a rear yard reached through the house, a communal run across four flats, and a post-war bungalow up the hill are three separate days. A bungalow comes off a ladder or a pole, a tall gable wants a tower, and a valley between two roofs needs a platform. Work at height rules set which, and access is a line on the quote.
What has collected. Leaves lift out quickly. Moss washed off the roof sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out, and a box gutter behind a parapet holds silt that has been building for years. Outlets matter more than length, because that is where it packs.
A clean or a repair. A joint that drips once water runs, a downpipe choked at the shoe, a sagging plastic length or a cracked cast iron section is repair work. That is the part that turns an hour's visit into half a day.
Ask any other quote whether the downpipes are rodded through, whether valley and box gutters are included, whether water is run through to prove the outlets, and who takes the debris away.
If it is overflowing now
Water pouring over a blocked gutter
If water is coming over the front of the gutter in heavy rain, ring rather than using the form. A wall that stays soaked lets damp through to the plaster, and a box gutter or valley holding water ends up coming through a ceiling instead of over the edge.
The first visit clears the blockage, runs water through to prove the outlet, and tells you straight if what you really have is a broken joint or a cracked hopper. Soaked brickwork dries out once the water stops. Booked work is done Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Something urgent is a phone call, and if the line is busy we call you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Three storeys changes the sum, not the job
Almost three in ten homes in Swanage were built before 1919 and a good many of those are two and three storey terraces, often on a slope, often with a yard behind that you can only reach through the house. Clearing one of those takes no longer than a bungalow. Getting a person safely up to it takes most of the morning.
That is why we price the access as its own line. We do not bury it. A tower has to be brought in, built, moved along the frontage and taken down. With no side access it may go through the property in pieces, or become a small scaffold where there is nowhere level to stand. Nearly four in ten homes in Swanage are flats, many in converted older buildings, and there the run is communal, so the freeholder or managing agent instructs the work.
So do the whole Swanage building in one visit, front, back, the box gutter and every downpipe, because the access is the expensive part and it is already standing. And if you are a leaseholder, start with the agent rather than with quotes. We price for freeholders and residents associations, separating the communal run from anything individual so everyone can see what belongs to whom.
Who you are dealing with
Gutters cleared across Swanage and the isle
Swanage is 10 miles from our Boscombe base. We clear gutters across the town, Herston and Durlston, and out to Langton Matravers, Corfe Castle, Studland and Harmans Cross, all under Dorset Council. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Swanage, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Thomas Hannen runs it and prices every clear himself after a look at the building. On Checkatrade you will find a verified customer's score of 10 out of 10. Your visit is free, and so is the itemised quote we put in writing.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Swanage?
Most repairs in Swanage 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.
| Question | In Swanage |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Swanage. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Swanage Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Swanage. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about gutter cleaning in Swanage
Can a three storey terrace be done off a ladder?
A three storey Swanage terrace cannot be cleared properly off a ladder. Clearing a gutter means working with both hands for a sustained period, which is exactly what a ladder is not for at that height. It is tower work, and on a rear elevation with no side access it can be a small scaffold. That is why the access is a separate line on the quote.
Is our old cast iron guttering worth hanging on to?
Keep it if it is sound. Cast iron that is cleared out, brushed and coated outlasts plastic comfortably, and on an older frontage it looks right. If the address is listed the question is settled anyway: the gutters are protected fabric and a change of material needs consent first.
There is no visible guttering on the front. Where does the water go?
It is a gutter hidden behind a parapet or between two roof slopes, not hung on the eaves. If you cannot see guttering from the street on an older building, you probably have one. They are the ones that matter most, because a blockage there comes through a ceiling rather than over a front edge.
We are leaseholders. Can we just book it?
Usually not: in a converted building the roof, the outside walls and the rainwater goods are normally retained by the freeholder and maintained through the service charge. Ask the agent what is demised to you, then ask that we are invited to price the block. There is no charge to quote.
How long does an older terraced house take?
Allow a morning, most of it access. The clearing itself, front and back, is an hour. On frequency, an annual visit in autumn after the leaves are down suits most buildings in Swanage, and a seasonal second clear in spring only where there are trees over the roof.
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Have the whole building surveyed in one visit
Thomas walks front and back, checks the hidden gutters and sends a written itemised quote with the access on its own line. Free.