Gutter cleaning in Winfrith Newburgh
Gutters cleared and proved running, outlets and downpipes checked, and the outfall followed to the end. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A gutter here has to get its water away from the house and into something that will still take it in February, and on the low ground near the Win that second half is the harder half of the job.
Three calls come out of this village more than any other. Water sheeting over the front edge in a downpour. A downpipe that gurgles and leaves a wet patch at the foot of the brickwork. And a dark stripe under the eaves in one spot, which is usually a joint that has parted rather than a blockage.
The order is the same every time. The run is cleared by hand, every outlet opened up, then water goes down each downpipe and somebody stands at the bottom to watch it arrive. The free site visit covers the outfalls as well as the gutter, and the written itemised quote puts clearing, repair and access on separate lines.
The work
Clearing a run, and proving it goes
Getting the run empty. Leaf, moss and the grit off an old tile end up as the same wet sludge in the bottom of a gutter. It comes out by hand, or off a reach pole with a vacuum head where a ladder cannot be footed safely, and it leaves with us. A scoop lifts a wet mat out in one piece; a jet pushes it to the next outlet, where it packs harder than it was.
Proving it, not just clearing it. An empty gutter still has to be watched running. We flush each length, run water through every downpipe and stand at the shoe to see it come out. If nothing arrives, the pipe is backing up below the eaves, and a rod or a camera settles where.
Outlets, hoppers and shoes. Length is not what blocks a gutter. Outlets are, and so are hoppers where an upper roof discharges into a lower run. A hopper packs quietly then overflows down the back of the pipe, so the wall gets wet where nobody looks. A shoe full of silt holds water against the brickwork.
Valleys and parapets. Where two roofs meet, or a parapet runs across an older range, the water is in a lined channel rather than a plastic gutter. A valley gutter or a box gutter silts faster than the eaves, has nowhere to overflow except into the roof, and wants a platform under you rather than a ladder over the edge.
The repairs that turn up. A good share of what gets reported as a blockage is not one. A union that has lost its seal drips in the same spot whenever it rains. A sagging length between two brackets holds a puddle and goes green. A gutter with the fall running away from the outlet overflows however clean it is. We refix a bracket, replace a union, re-hang or realign a length, and say plainly when a run is past saving.
What it does to the building. Water over the front edge lands on the soffits and fascias first, then on the wall. On render it shows as a green stripe, on brickwork as a dark band that never dries, and inside as damp at the head of a wall or staining on a ceiling. Anything already rotted gets photographed so you can see it.
How often, and when. Frequency is set by what hangs over the roof, not by a calendar. The useful annual visit is late autumn, after the leaves are down, because clearing in September only means doing it again in November. Under heavy cover, a second seasonal look in spring catches the blossom and seed that came down since.
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.
Clearing a gutter needs nobody's permission and nothing from building control. A change of appearance can. The village has its own conservation area and fifty eight entries on the national list, so swapping a cast iron gutter for plastic on a front elevation is a planning question rather than upkeep, and on a listed building it needs listed building consent first. We check an address before anybody starts.
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 single storey cottage on the lane, a two storey house with an extension under the run, and a long range with a valley against it are three different set ups, and only the last is likely to want a scaffold rather than a tower. 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. On the low ground near the river the foot of a wall is wet all winter anyway, so an overflow shows here faster than it would on drier ground. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Where the downpipe puts the water matters as much as the gutter
Parts of the village sit in flood zone 2 and flood zone 3 with the Win running close by, and that changes the second half of a rainwater system rather than the first. Clearing the gutter is the same job here as anywhere. What is not the same is what happens once the water is in the downpipe. A soakaway in ground already saturated by January has nothing left to take, so the pipe stands full, the shoe sits in water and the bottom of the wall never dries.
So we follow the water to the end rather than stopping at the eaves. A downpipe into a gully gets the gully checked and rodded. One that goes into the ground, we want to know where and whether it still works, because a drowned soakaway presents as a gutter problem when it is nothing of the kind. Approved Document H sets out where roof water is allowed to go, and where the ground will not take it the honest answer is an outfall into a ditch or a surface water drain rather than another year of clearing a gutter that was never at fault.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, West Lulworth, Chaldon Herring and the villages either side of the A352, broadly DT2, 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
Winfrith Newburgh questions we get asked
Our downpipes disappear into the ground. Do you check those too?
Yes, as far as we can see. Water goes down each pipe and we watch for it at the gully. If it does not arrive, the run is rodded and we look at where it was meant to go. On this ground a soakaway that has stopped taking water is a common answer, and clearing the gutter will not fix it.
The gutter looks clear from the ground but it still comes over. Why?
Usually the fall or the outlet rather than debris. A run that has dropped between brackets holds water in the middle and spills there, and an outlet packed at the throat backs the whole length up while the gutter above looks empty. We put water through and watch where it stops.
Can we swap the cast iron guttering for plastic?
On an unlisted house outside the conservation area, yes. Inside it, or on a listed building, it is a change of appearance rather than upkeep, so it goes to the council first. Cast iron can usually be cleared, descaled and re-hung instead, and that route needs no consent at all.
How long does a clear take on a house this size?
Most houses here are a morning, including flushing the downpipes and checking the outfalls. A long range with a valley gutter takes longer, because the access eats as much time as the clearing does. We tell you which it is at the free visit, not on the day.
Do you take the mess away?
All of it. Leaf, moss and silt come out into buckets and go in the van, and the paths underneath are cleared down. Nothing goes over the hedge or into a gully, because a gully full of the moss off your roof is simply the next blockage.
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Get the gutters cleared and the outfalls checked
Thomas comes out, looks at every run, outlet and downpipe, follows the water to where it ends up and sends a written itemised quote. Free.