Guttering, fascias & soffits in Wylde Green

Every 1930s semi in Wylde Green has the same fascia story. The boards are original timber. They have been painted, and repainted, and repainted, by successive owners for the better part of a century, and each coat has sealed in a bit more moisture. From the pavement they look tired but fine. Put a ladder up and push a screwdriver into the bottom edge and it will often go straight in.

The quick trade answer to that is capping: screw a UPVC board straight over the rotten timber, cap the ends, and stand back to admire the clean white line. It takes a day, it looks finished, and it is one of the worst things you can do to one of these houses. The rot is now sealed in against the rafter feet with no ventilation, and it carries on. Five years later the problem is structural instead of cosmetic and the plastic board is hiding it.

We take the old boards off. That is the whole difference. With them off we can see the rafter feet — which on a Wylde Green semi are the exact place we expect to find soft timber, because the gutter above them has been overflowing quietly for years — and we splice anything that has gone. Then the new board goes onto sound timber and the gutter goes back on a proper line so it actually falls to the outlet.

While we are up there we will look at the bay. On these houses the small lead-covered roof over the front bay is the single most common source of a damp patch in the front bedroom, and it sits right next to the guttering we are already working on. If it needs doing it is dramatically cheaper to do it now than to pay for the same access twice.