Guttering, fascias & soffits

Gutters are the cheapest insurance on a house and the first thing everybody ignores. A blocked gutter overflows against the wall. The wall stays wet. The wet gets into the fascia behind it, the fascia rots, the rot reaches the rafter feet, and now a ninety-pound job is a four-figure job. That sequence is not hypothetical — it is most of what we find at the eaves on older Sutton and Boldmere properties.

Anywhere with mature trees is worse, and that is a lot of this patch. Properties backing onto Sutton Park, the tree-lined roads across the Four Oaks Estate, the older parts of Lichfield — those gutters need clearing every autumn, not every decade. We do it, we do it cheaply, and we would honestly rather you rang us for that than for the damp job it turns into.

On the boards themselves, the question is what is behind them. On a 1930s Wylde Green semi the original timber fascia has usually been painted over so many times that the rot is invisible until a ladder goes up. The quick trade answer is to cap it — screw a UPVC board straight over the rotten timber and let the customer admire the white plastic. That traps the rot, hides it, and lets it carry on into the rafter feet. We take the old boards off. If a rafter foot has gone soft we splice it. Then the new board goes on something solid.

We fit UPVC where it makes sense and we will fit and paint timber where the building calls for it — a Four Oaks Edwardian or a Lichfield period property with fat ornate timber bargeboards should not get a flat plastic board, and it is a mistake you cannot undo cheaply. We will tell you what we think and then do what you decide.