Gutter cleaning in Thorney Hill
On open ground the wind loosens the brackets and delivers a season of leaf in one afternoon. We clear the run and check what is holding it up.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Up on this ground a gutter often overflows in the wind rather than in the rain. Driven rain arrives at the roof faster and at an angle, so a run that copes all year can go over the front edge in a single squall.
Two calls come from here. One is somebody whose gutters were cleared in the autumn and who watched water pour off the front in a February gale anyway. The other has found a length of guttering lying in the garden after a storm.
Exposure is the common factor. The free site visit surveys every run, outlet and downpipe, and on open ground it is as much about how the run is fixed as what is in it. We clear by hand, run water through and watch it at the shoe, and photograph anything that has moved rather than simply blocked.
The work
What a gale does to a rainwater system
Grouped by what actually happens on an exposed plot, because it is not the same list as a sheltered one.
Debris arrives all at once. A still autumn drops leaves gently over six weeks. A south westerly strips a tree in an afternoon and puts the lot on the roof and in the gutter at the same time. So a run here is clear one week and packed the next, and the timing matters: after the leaves are down, not while they are coming down.
Wind lifts a run rather than filling it. Guttering hung on brackets at wide centres flexes in a gust. Over years the screws work loose in the fascia, a length starts sagging, and eventually a section unclips. We check every bracket by hand, refix into sound timber and realign and re-hang the length to a fall rather than nurse one dropped section.
Overflowing without a blockage. Rain driven at an angle onto a steep slope arrives at the eaves faster than the same rain falling straight down. A narrow gutter, or a long run with one outlet, cannot take it, and it comes over the front edge while the run behind is clean. That is capacity, not cleaning, and we would rather tell you than sell you another clear.
The ordinary clearing. Leaf, seed, moss off the tiles and the fine grit an ageing tile sheds, scooped out by hand as a wet sludge and bagged. The outlet is cleared, the downpipe is run through and watched, and anything backing up is rodded and flushed. A hopper head is checked because a hopper collects everything. A union whose seal has hardened gets changed while we are there, since the drip off one joint is what leaves green staining on the render and takes the soffit and fascias with it.
Older roofs. Around two in ten homes here predate 1919, so cast iron runs and lead valleys are still about. A valley gutter blocks faster than an eaves run and backs up under the tiles rather than spilling over, which shows as damp on a ceiling. Cleared by hand, with nobody standing on the lead.
Access. Ladder with a stand-off for most of it, a vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where the ground will not take a ladder, a tower for a tall gable. Wind decides the day: nobody goes up in a gale, so we move the visit rather than pretend otherwise. A scaffold is rare on work this size.
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 is maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control. Two local points. There are three listed entries here, the Church of All Saints among them, and on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric and a change of material needs consent first. The village also sits inside the New Forest National Park rather than under the district council, so design scrutiny on anything visible is tighter than average and the National Park keeps the heritage list. There is no conservation area covering the housing.
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 detached house on open ground with a steep front slope, a cottage with low eaves and a hedge tight to the wall, and a bungalow tucked behind a belt of trees are three different mornings. 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 a length has come away in a storm, ring rather than wait, because the run either side of it will be taking weight it was never meant to. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Exposure changes the fixings, not just the frequency
The most exposed elevation on almost every property up here faces south west, and wind and driven rain do their work at the edges and openings rather than across the middle of a roof. For rainwater goods that has two consequences and only one of them is obvious.
The obvious one is debris. A gale delivers a season's worth of leaf in an afternoon, so there is no gradual filling and no warning. The less obvious one is movement. A gutter hung on brackets is a long flexible thing bolted to a fascia, and every gust works it. On a sheltered plot the screws stay put for thirty years. Up here they loosen, the run drops a few millimetres at one bracket, silt settles in the standing water, and by the following winter that stretch blocks whatever anybody does.
So the useful thing to ask for here is not more visits. It is that the brackets get checked and refixed while the run is cleared, into sound timber and at sensible centres. That turns a recurring annual complaint into a job that stays fixed. If it comes over in a storm rather than in ordinary rain, ask about capacity too.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Thorney Hill, Bransgore, Burley, Sopley, Highcliffe and across into Christchurch, broadly BH23, under the New Forest National Park Authority. 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
Thorney Hill questions we get asked
Why does ours overflow in a storm but not in ordinary rain?
Because driven rain arrives at the eaves faster than rain falling straight down, so for a few minutes the run has more water than it can carry. If it is clean and correctly hung and still comes over in a blow, that is capacity rather than debris, and a deeper section or an extra outlet is the fix.
A section blew off in the last gale. Can it just be clipped back on?
Sometimes, but we would want to know why it let go first. Usually the brackets have worked loose in the fascia over several winters, so clipping it back on sets up the next failure. Refixing the whole run into sound timber is not much more work.
When should we book it here?
After the leaves are down rather than during, which on this ground can mean December, because a gale strips the trees in one go. Two visits suit a wooded plot, one in spring and one in early winter, and that seasonal frequency covers almost everybody. As for how long, an ordinary house is under an hour.
Does National Park status change anything for rainwater goods?
You are, and it makes no difference to clearing or repair, which are maintenance and need no consent from anyone. Where it does matter is a visible change of material or profile, and on a listed building the gutters are protected fabric. We check an address before quoting a replacement.
Will you still come out in bad weather?
For clearing, yes, rain is not a problem. Wind is. Nobody goes up a ladder or a tower in a gale, so if a storm is forecast we will move the visit and tell you why rather than turn up and take a chance with it.
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Have the run cleared and the fixings checked together
Thomas checks every bracket along the run, photographs anything that has moved and sends a written itemised quote. Free.