Gutter cleaning in Three Legged Cross
On newer estates the run is sound and the outlet is packed. We clear it by hand and run water through so you can see the difference.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A newer house does not mean a clear gutter. On the estates built here since the 1980s the run is usually sound and the outlet is usually the problem, because the trees planted with the houses have grown up over the roofs.
People with a house barely forty years old are often surprised to be told they need the gutters doing at all. Then a wet January arrives, water comes over the front edge above the porch, and the render underneath starts to go green.
It is rarely the guttering that has failed. The free site visit is a survey of every run, outlet and downpipe on the property, and on newer stock what we usually find is a sound length of plastic with a packed outlet at one end. We clear it by hand, run water through and watch it at the shoe, and the written itemised quote separates the clearing from any repair so you can see which you are buying.
The work
Newer runs, older trees, and the outlet in between
Two halves to the village, and they want slightly different things.
On the newer stock. Around four in ten homes here went up between 1983 and 2008, with sealed PVCu unions and brackets at close centres. That is a good system and it rarely fails as a system. What it does is silt up: moss off the tiles, seed, and the fine grit an ageing tile sheds settle into the bottom of the run and pack at the outlet. It is scooped out by hand as a wet sludge and bagged rather than flushed toward the downpipe.
Why the outlet, and not the run. A modern estate house often has a long unbroken length feeding a single outlet at one end. Everything the roof sheds travels the whole way to that one point. So the gutter is genuinely clear for most of its length and completely packed where it matters, which is why people look up, see nothing, and cannot understand the overflow.
On the older half. The pre-1980s housing runs to earlier narrow half-round guttering on brackets at wider centres, and there the faults are the familiar ones: a hardened union seal that drips, a bracket that has let go leaving a sagging length holding standing water, a missing shoe throwing water at the brickwork. We refix, realign and re-hang to a fall rather than replace a run that is sound.
Downpipes and hoppers. Every downpipe is run through and watched at the bottom, and anything backing up is rodded and flushed. Where there is a hopper head it is checked, because a hopper collects everything above it.
What it saves. Water going over the front edge soaks a wall all winter. That shows first as staining and green growth on the render or brickwork, then as damp inside, then as a soffit and fascias that are soft to the touch. Clearing is the cheapest work on this page by a distance.
Access. Ladder with a stand-off on nearly everything here, so no weight rests on the gutter. A vacuum on a reach pole with a camera head where a conservatory or soft ground rules a ladder out, and a tower for a tall gable. A scaffold is not something clearing needs.
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.
Nothing about this needs consent. Clearing and repairing rainwater goods is maintenance, so no planning application and nothing for building control, and there is no conservation area covering the village. There is one listed entry in the wider parish, and on a listed building the gutters are protected fabric, so a change of material would need listed building consent. For everyone else the size, profile and colour are your decision.
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 modern detached with one long front run and a single outlet, a 1970s bungalow with four downpipes, and a terrace with a shared length across three houses 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 going over above a front door or a porch, say so, because that is the spot where the water reaches the wall quickest. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The houses got newer, the trees got bigger
Four in ten homes here were built between 1983 and 2008, which by the standards of our patch is very recent. People with a house of that age often assume gutter clearing is something that happens to old properties. The guttering agrees with them. The trees do not.
An estate laid out in the 1980s came with saplings in the verges and in the front gardens, and forty years later those are full grown, standing over roofs they were nowhere near when they were planted. Add the boundary hedges and conifers that people put in when they moved in, and a run that had nothing above it for its first fifteen years now catches everything. The system has not deteriorated. What is landing in it has changed completely.
The practical version: judge the frequency by what is above the roof rather than by the age of the house. If there is anything overhanging, an annual clear in autumn after the leaves are down, and a seasonal second visit in spring where the fall is heavy. If it is genuinely clear above, you can often go two years and just have the outlets checked. And if you have a single outlet on a long front run, ask about a second one, because splitting the run halves how far everything has to travel to block it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Three Legged Cross, Verwood, West Moors, Ashley Heath, Woodlands and across into Ringwood, broadly BH21 and BH24, 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
Three Legged Cross questions we get asked
Our house is only thirty years old. Do the gutters really need doing?
The guttering itself is probably fine. What has changed is what lands in it, because the planting that went in with the estate is now above the roof. We would rather check and tell you it can wait than clear something that did not need it, and the check is free.
We can see nothing in the run, yet it pours over the front. Why?
Because on a long run with one outlet, the length is clear and the outlet is packed. You cannot see the outlet from the ground and that is where the whole roof drains through. It is a ten minute job once somebody is up there with the right tools.
Would a second downpipe stop it happening?
Often, yes. Splitting a long run so it drains at two points halves the distance the water and the debris have to travel, so it takes far longer to choke and it copes better in a downpour. It is proper work with a proper price, and we only suggest it where it genuinely applies.
Do we need to move the car or clear the drive?
Just enough room for the ladder feet and somewhere to stand, which is usually a car's width. We work off boards on soft ground, keep off borders and sweep up before we leave. Tell us about anything awkward when you ring and we will plan around it.
How long will it take and will you take the mess away?
Under an hour on most houses here, and yes, all of it leaves with us in bags. Wet moss and leaf out of a gutter stains a patio and kills a lawn, so it does not get tipped in the garden, and the ground under the ladder is swept before we go.
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Have the outlets checked before the winter
Thomas surveys every run and outlet on the property and sends a written itemised quote. The visit and the quote cost nothing.