Gutter cleaning in West Lulworth

Clearing, then proving it. Out by hand into a bucket where there is safe standing, with a scoop for the silt and sludge that packs down in a long run. Where a ladder cannot be footed properly it comes out on a gutter vacuum with a camera on the reach pole, which also gives an absent owner something to look at. Then every downpipe is flushed and the run proved with water at the shoe.

Salt on the fixings. The coast is very close and the air carries it. The gutter may be plastic and perfectly happy, while the screws holding it, the metal cored brackets and the downpipe clips corrode from the edges in. With the run empty we go along the fixings and say which have years left and which are done. A run that has dropped at one end has usually lost a bracket rather than failed as a gutter.

Wind driven rain. On the exposed southwest elevations the rain does not arrive from above, it arrives sideways at some speed. Water can carry past a shallow gutter or blow back behind it and down the fascia, which rots the timber and the soffit without ever showing as an overflow. That is a bracket line problem more often than a gutter size problem, and it is worth diagnosing rather than guessing.

Valleys and hoppers. Where two pitches meet there is a valley gutter, and on the older cottages a hopper head takes two runs into one pipe. Both are out of sight from the ground and both back up rather than spill, so a blockage shows as damp staining on a ceiling instead of a stripe on the brickwork. They are cleared by hand.

Repairs that turn up. A dripping union that wants a new seal, a sagging length to re-hang to level, a bracket to refix into sound timber, a clip renewed. Small money, and it is far cheaper than the redecoration an overflow causes over a winter nobody watched.

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 cottage on the village street, a modern bungalow above the village and a holiday let with parking a walk away are three different jobs before anybody opens a ladder. 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.

Rainwater faults are almost always reported by somebody standing there when it rains. That is the whole diagnostic system for most houses: you look out of the window during a downpour, see the water coming off the front edge instead of going down the pipe, and you ring somebody. Take the person out of the house and that system stops working entirely. A blocked outlet in an empty cottage keeps going all winter, and the first anybody knows is a damp band on the wall or a stain on a ceiling in the spring.

So for a let or a second home the sensible approach is a booked visit rather than a reaction. Once a year late in the autumn puts the run into winter empty and costs the same whether or not anything was wrong. What we do differently for owners who are not here is report it properly: photographs of each run before and after, a note of anything found on the fixings or the fascia, and the repair priced separately so nothing gets done on an assumption. If you are letting the property, we can work to a changeover day rather than turn up in the middle of a stay, and a key holder or a neighbour with access is usually all that is needed since none of the work is inside.

We cover West Lulworth, East Lulworth, Wool, Winfrith Newburgh and the Purbeck coast villages, broadly BH20, 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.