Wareham gutter cleaning, top and bottom

The runs themselves. Terraced streets make up close to a third of the housing in Wareham, and a terrace usually carries one continuous gutter over several properties with a couple of outlets serving the lot. Everything travels along the fall to those outlets, so one house takes the trouble for the row. We work the full length from both ends, scoop out leaf, moss, silt and sludge, never flushing it towards the hole, and take it away.

Outlets, hoppers and downpipes. Outlets are dug out by hand, the pipe is run through from the top and rodded from the shoe where water is backing up, and the hopper heads on the older houses are emptied, because a hopper fills quietly and gives no warning. Then every downpipe is proved with water while you watch it.

The gully, which nobody quotes for. A downpipe on Wareham's low ground often ends in a gully at the back of a pavement or in a yard, and a silted gully holds a full pipe of water. The pressure then finds every joint on the way down, which is why a clear downpipe still leaks. We lift the grating, clear the trap and run water again. Where the pipe goes to a soakaway instead, and this ground does not always take it, we say so rather than leaving you the same problem.

Cast iron and the old fabric. The town carries a great many listed buildings and much of the old part still runs cast iron. It is emptied by hand and never jetted, the bolt through each joint is checked, and the brackets are looked at, because cast iron gives way at its fixings. On the postwar housing the plastic faults are the ordinary ones: a bracket that has let go, a length sagging so water stands in the dip, a union whose seal has hardened and drips. A fresh union seal comes with the visit, while a sagging length that wants re-hanging is gutter repair in Wareham, with its own price.

Hidden runs, and what overflowing costs. Rear outshuts and extensions make valley gutters and box gutters that cannot be seen from the ground and flood inwards, so the first sign is a damp ceiling, and a camera on a reach pole is how you get to see one. Outside, water over the front edge keeps brickwork and render wet all winter and brings the green with it, and water behind the gutter takes the fascia and runs along the soffit. Soft fascias, staining and anything else are photographed and reported.

Length is the least useful measure. The number of outlets, what is packed into them and how awkward they are to reach matter far more.

Reaching the gutter. A bungalow on the later estates comes off a ladder or a long pole, quickly. A three storey house in the old streets of Wareham wants a tower, and a Georgian front often hides a parapet gutter behind the wall top, reached only from the roof. A valley between two ranges at the back is a job for a proper platform. The work at height rules decide which, and that is priced as access.

What is in there. Dry leaves lift out fast. Moss washed down from an old tile roof sets into a wet mat, and years of silt in a long run is heavy and slow. It packs at the outlets and in the swan neck, so that is where the time goes.

Clean or repair. A joint that leaks once water flows again, a downpipe blocked solid at the shoe, or a plastic run sagging between brackets is repair work, and it is quoted as that, not hidden in the clean.

Before you choose, ask whether the downpipes are rodded through or only the gutter scooped out, whether the hoppers are checked, and whether the debris leaves with them.

From our base in Boscombe we cover Wareham, 12.5 miles away, plus Stoborough, Sandford, Ridge, Wool and across Purbeck to Corfe Castle, all under Dorset Council. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it is Thomas Hannen's own business. Before you book a visit in Wareham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

He looks at your gutters and works out the price in person. One verified customer on Checkatrade gave us 10 out of 10. Nothing is charged for coming out or for the itemised quote in writing.

Most repairs in Wareham 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.