Gutter cleaning in Westbourne
High eaves on converted villas, internal outlets on blocks and gutters over the shop fronts, cleared and flushed through.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Gutter cleaning in Westbourne is mostly tall converted villas and blocks of flats, so the job is high runs, several downpipes and a freeholder or agent to book it, and we price every run, outlet and pipe separately after a free look.
Who deals with it in Westbourne varies: a leaseholder in a split Victorian villa watching water sheet off the second floor eaves onto the path below. A resident on the top floor of a block who can hear a downpipe gurgling inside the building. A shopkeeper on Poole Road or Seamoor Road with rain dripping onto the pavement from the gutter over the shopfront and the flats above. And now and then a house owner in one of the few whole houses left, who just wants the autumn clear done properly.
If rain is already getting into a flat through a ceiling or a wall, ring 07435 839745 and tell us which floor and which side of the building, and ring your managing agent as well. Otherwise we come and look, and the written quote shows what is communal and what is yours.
The work
Tall villas, blocks and parades: clearing each one
Converted villas. The big late Victorian and Edwardian houses that give Westbourne its character were mostly divided into flats long ago. The roofs are large and complicated: hips, valleys, dormers added for the top flat, and eaves two or three storeys up.
Water off a dormer roof lands in the main gutter, and a valley between two slopes carries everything off both. We clear the eaves runs from a tower or with a vacuum on a reach pole, empty the valleys and dormer gutters by hand, and flush each downpipe from the top. A Westbourne villa is usually most of a day, depending on how many elevations and how many outlets there are.
Purpose-built blocks. Many of the newer Westbourne blocks have a flat roof or a shallow pitch, with outlets that drain into a pipe running inside the building. Silt and moss collect at the outlet grate, and when that blocks, the water ponds and finds a way in instead of over the edge. We clear the outlet, check the grate is in place, and run water through until it drains freely. Getting on the roof needs a safe route: a hatch, a fixed ladder or a tower, agreed with the agent in advance.
Shops with flats above. Along the shopping streets the gutter often sits right over the pavement. We work with the footway coned, bag the debris at the ladder or pole, and plan the time around opening hours.
The odd house. The same job as anywhere else: runs cleared, outlets opened, downpipes flushed and the path swept, usually in a couple of hours.
We run water through every run and pipe before we leave, and watch the joints while it goes. If a run still drips once it is clean, that is a leaking union, a bracket, or a length out of fall. Small fixes are photographed and priced on the day. A run that needs re-hanging or replacing is covered by our fascias, soffits and guttering in Westbourne page and priced separately. And if a gutter on a block does not actually need clearing yet, we say so and do not charge the service charge for it.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. 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 needs no permission. The Westbourne conservation area covers the shopping centre and nearby streets, and there the appearance of the buildings is controlled, so replacing cast iron with plastic on a frontage is a question for the council first; the council keeps the list.
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 three storey converted villa, a block with an internal outlet on a flat roof, and a shop with flats over it and its gutter above the pavement are not the same job at all. 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.
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 is worth a phone call rather than the form.
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. In a Westbourne block, ring the managing agent at the same time as us, since the communal gutters are theirs to authorise. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Salt air and the metal holding your gutter up
Westbourne sits close to the cliffs, a little over a kilometre from the sea, with Alum Chine running down to the beach. Salt carried on the wind settles on everything, and it keeps surfaces damp between showers.
On a gutter, that goes for the metal parts first: steel brackets and screws rust, the bolts at cast iron joints seize and weep, and a bracket that has rusted through lets a length drop out of fall. Then the gutter overflows at that one spot however often it is cleared.
So on a Westbourne clear, we look at the fixings as well as the debris, especially on the elevation that faces the sea and takes the weather. If brackets are rusting, the useful fix is to replace them with stainless or coated ones before the gutter drops, not after. Cast iron wants its joints resealed and a coat of paint kept on it, because once rust has broken the paint it goes fast in salty air. None of that is urgent on the day, but it goes on the quote with a photograph, so you or the freeholder can decide when to do it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We clear gutters across Westbourne, BH4, from the shops on Poole Road and Seamoor Road out to Alum Chine and the edge of Branksome, 2.9 miles from our Boscombe base, with BCP Council as the planning and building control 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. Before you book a visit in Westbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Westbourne?
Most repairs in Westbourne 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.
| Question | In Westbourne |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Westbourne. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Westbourne Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Westbourne. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Westbourne. |
Questions
Questions about gutter cleaning in Westbourne
I live in a flat. Can I book the gutter clean myself?
In most Westbourne buildings, no. The roof and the rainwater goods are normally kept by the freeholder under the lease and paid for through the service charge. Report the problem to your managing agent in writing and ask for us to be invited to quote. We are happy to price it for them.
Do you need scaffold for a three storey villa?
Rarely: a vacuum on a reach pole covers a lot from the ground, and a mobile tower covers most of the rest. Scaffold is only worth it where there is no safe place to stand a tower, and we would tell you before it goes on a quote.
How often should the gutters be cleared?
Once a year in late autumn suits most buildings. A roof with valleys and dormers, or a big tree near it, may need a second clear in spring. On a block we can put it on a date the agent can plan around.
How long does a clear take?
A single house is usually a couple of hours. A converted villa with valleys and dormers is often most of a day, and a block depends on the number of outlets and how we get onto the roof. The time is on the written quote.
Can you work over the pavement outside a shop?
Yes. The footway is coned off, the debris goes straight into bags, and we work around opening hours so customers can still get in.
Nearby, and next door
Gutter cleaning near Westbourne
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Autumn gutter clearing: timing beats frequency Gutter overflows in heavy rain but not light rainEverything we do in Westbourne Gutter cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Have every run and outlet cleared and checked
Thomas comes out, looks at each run, outlet and downpipe, and writes an itemised quote the freeholder or agent can act on. The visit and the quote are free.