Gutter cleaning in Winterborne Stickland
One long run, one outlet and one blockage that takes the whole elevation out. Cleared by hand, proved with water, and the fall checked while it is empty.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Rainwater in the Winterborne valley
Count the downpipes before you blame the gutter
On the long cottage frontages here the whole elevation often drains through one downpipe. Block that single outlet and every metre of the run goes out of action at once, which is why it looks like a catastrophic failure and is usually a handful of wet leaves.
Two calls dominate. Water coming over the front edge of a long run in a way that seems out of all proportion to the rain, and water standing in the middle of a gutter that never quite empties even in a dry week. They look alike from the ground and they are not the same problem.
The free site visit sorts them out. We clear enough to see, sight the fall along each run from the end, prove every downpipe with water, and give you a written itemised quote with the clearing on one line and any repair on another. Photographs of anything we are asking you to spend money on.
What we do here
Long frontages, deep eaves and a single outlet at one end
Clearing. Out by hand into a bucket wherever there is safe standing beside the run, with a scoop for the silt and sludge that packs into the bottom of a long length. Where a ladder cannot be footed properly it comes out on a gutter vacuum with a camera on the reach pole. Everything is bagged and leaves with us. Then each downpipe is flushed and the run proved with water until it goes at the shoe.
The fall, sighted from the end. A long run has to lose height steadily along its whole length to get water to one outlet, and there is very little height to play with. Lose a bracket in the middle and the run flattens or dips, and from that day it holds water however clean it is. With the gutter empty we sight it end to end, mark the low spots and re-hang them to level. That is a fraction of the cost of a replacement run and it is the actual fault far more often than debris is.
Downpipes and gullies. A downpipe blocks at a bend or right at the shoe. On the older properties a hopper head may be taking two runs into one pipe, and that chokes at the spigot. We rod and flush from the top and check that the gully or the soakaway below is taking it, because clearing a pipe into a blocked gully only moves the puddle.
Deep eaves. A good deal of the older building here has a deep overhang, which puts the gutter well out from the wall and out of easy reach, and some of it was never given a gutter at all. We will say honestly where fitting one is worth doing and where the better answer is the ground below.
Repairs we find. A dripping union that wants a new seal, a bracket to refix into sound timber, a fascia and soffit gone soft under a joint that has leaked for years, a clip that has let a downpipe swing off the wall and stain the brickwork behind it. Small work against the damp and the green growth it prevents.
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 and repairing gutters needs no permission and building control has nothing to say about it. Appearance does have a control. Winterborne Stickland has its own conservation area and 25 listed entries, so like for like maintenance is fine while changing the material or the position of a run on a visible elevation is a planning matter, and on a listed building the rainwater goods are protected fabric needing listed building consent.
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 long thatched or tiled cottage on the street, a farmhouse with a first floor hopper and a modern house on the edge of the village 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.
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. Say if the whole elevation is running over rather than one corner, because that usually means the single outlet has gone and the entire run is backing up. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
One outlet for forty feet of gutter is the weak point
The village street here is lined with long, low frontages, and a lot of them were built with a single downpipe at one end doing the work for the whole elevation. That was a perfectly reasonable way to build. It does, though, put every metre of roof on that frontage through one hole about the size of a fist, and it means the system has no redundancy in it at all. A leaf mat over that outlet does not slow the gutter down, it stops it, and the water then finds the lowest point of the run and comes over there.
Two things follow that are worth acting on. The first is that a long run should be cleared before winter as a matter of routine rather than when it complains, because the consequence of one blockage is the whole frontage rather than a corner of it. The second is that where a run is genuinely too long for one outlet, and some of these are, adding a second downpipe is a small job with a permanent effect. It halves the length each outlet has to serve, gives the run somewhere to go when one end packs up, and lets you take some height out of the fall so the gutter sits straighter. In a conservation area the position of a new downpipe is worth checking first, and a gable or a return beats the middle of a front elevation anyway.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Whitechurch, Winterborne Clenston, Blandford Forum and the Winterborne valley, broadly DT11, 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
Winterborne Stickland questions we get asked
Why does the whole gutter overflow when only one end is blocked?
Because on a long frontage there is usually only one downpipe. The run falls along its whole length to that single outlet, so a blockage there takes the entire elevation out at once. It looks dramatic and it is often ten minutes of work to clear.
Should we add a second downpipe?
Sometimes, and on a very long run it is money well spent. It shortens the length each outlet serves and lets the gutter sit with less of a slope. We would look at where it can go discreetly rather than put a pipe down the front of the cottage.
Our gutter holds water in the middle even when clean. What is that?
A lost fall. Long runs have very little height to lose along their length, so one failed bracket flattens or dips the middle and it holds water from then on. Re-hanging that section to level cures it, and it is far cheaper than the new gutter people are often quoted.
Our cottage has no gutter over part of it. Is that a problem?
Not necessarily. Some old buildings were never given one, and adding a gutter to a deep thatch or a low outshot is not always possible or wise. Where that is the case the useful work is on the ground below, keeping the splash off the base of the wall, and we will say so rather than sell you a gutter.
How long does a long frontage take to clear?
A morning for most, and the length is less of a factor than the number of outlets and how much is packed into them. We put a time on the quote, and if it turns out worse than it looked you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Nearby, and next door
Gutter cleaning near Winterborne Stickland
Gutter cleaning nearby
Our other trades in Winterborne Stickland
Everything we do in Blandford Forum Gutter cleaning, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the long runs cleared and the falls checked before winter
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run, sights the falls and sends a written itemised quote with clearing and repair kept apart. Free.