Gutter cleaning in West Moors

Working along a West Moors run, from the tiles down to the gully. What comes off the roof. Moss growing in the laps of a concrete tile washes down every time it rains and settles in the gutter as a wet sludge.

Add leaf litter, seed and the grit an old tile sheds, and a run silts up from the top surface down, not from one single blockage. That is why a gutter can look clear from the ground and still be half full, and why it gets scooped out by hand. A hose only pushes it along.

Corners, and the outlets. A long low roof in West Moors usually means several external corners, and a corner slows the water and catches the debris. The outlets sit at the ends of the longest legs and take the load from all of it. Each one is cleared by hand, then water is run through and watched at the shoe. If it is backing up, the downpipe is rodded and flushed rather than left as somebody else's problem.

Nests, and what to do about them. Sparrows and starlings like the gap behind a gutter and under a tile at the eaves. A nest in the run is a hard blockage, not silt, and there is a season when it should be left alone. We will tell you honestly which you are looking at.

Falls and sagging. A long run with a loose bracket or two dips, holds water and silts up again by spring, so we point it out, and refixing or re-hanging it is gutter repair in West Moors, quoted separately.

Joints, unions and leaks. The seal inside a plastic union hardens and shrinks with age. It shows as a drip carrying on after the rain has stopped, and staining on the render or brickwork below. Changing the union is minutes. Leaving it soaks the wall, brings damp through, and eventually takes the soffit and fascias with it.

Getting to it. Most gutter work in West Moors is ladder work with a stand-off, so nothing rests on the gutter. Over a conservatory, or where the ground will not take a ladder foot, we use a vacuum on a reach pole with a camera on the head so you can see inside the run for yourself.

Gutter length is the least useful measure. The number of outlets, what is packed in them and how easily we can reach them matter much more.

Reach. A detached bungalow is quick from a ladder or a pole. A chalet with a dormer across the front has a short upper gutter that is awkward to get at, and a house with a flat roofed extension along the back may have a gutter set into it. A valley between two roofs needs a proper platform. The work at height rules decide the access, and it is priced as its own line.

What is in it. Loose leaves come out quickly. Pine needles knit into a mat that lets water run over the top, moss washed off concrete tiles sets hard, and silt in a long West Moors bungalow run is heavy. It all builds up at the outlets, and that is where the time goes.

Clearing or mending. A joint that drips once water flows again, a downpipe blocked at the shoe, or a sagging length of plastic between brackets is repair, and it is priced as repair on its own line, not hidden inside the clean.

Ask anyone else whether they run water through the downpipes or just scoop the gutter, whether the gullies are checked, and whether they take the waste away.

From our base in Boscombe we cover West Moors, 7.1 miles away, as well as Ferndown, Three Legged Cross, Verwood and St Leonards, broadly BH22 and BH24, under Dorset Council. Our company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in West Moors, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

It belongs to Thomas Hannen, who comes and looks at the gutters and prices the job in person. One verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. We do not charge for coming out, and the written itemised quote is free.

Most repairs in West Moors 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.