Do I need new fascias?

auntymabel

I would be very grateful for some advice please. I had a leaking gutter (cast iron) at the back of the house a couple of years ago and when it was replaced (with UVPC) the fascia was also replaced.

I now have to have the rest of the guttering replaced and have had 2 people come to give me a quote but I'm wondering if I also need to get the fascias replaced. Both of them just looked at the guttering from the ground and didn't mention the fascias.

Will whoever does the job tell me when they get up there? Would it be best to have them done anyway as they are bound to need replacing sometime anyway and then the new guttering would have to be removed first. The house was built in 1929 and has cast iron guttering.

Please don't tell me to get up a ladder and look :eek: I wouldn't know what I was looking for anyway.

phill99

The cost differential in having just your gutters done and having the facias done as well is pretty minimal, so its worth having it all done at once.

keystone

The house was built in 1029...........

My thats lasted well then.

Seriously though many properties built at that time are still fine today because they knew how to build then. You'll probably find your fascias and soffits are still fine. My house is 1935 and the fascias are in much better nick even now than properties that were built 30 or 40 years later.

HTH

Cheers

Party_Animal

It isn't always necessary to replace the fascias, and you may or may not have soffets below. The point is if your'e going to pay for scaffolding and intend staying where you are then I'd certainly consider it and get prices for both, preferably from 3 different companies.

ormus

1029!
im pretty sure the cast iron guttering is not an original feature then.

auntymabel

Thanks for all your replies. I've just discovered the existing fascia is asbestos. Does this make a difference?

Also, have edited date in original post.

keystone

auntymabel wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies. I've just discovered the existing fascia is asbestos.

How have you discovered this?

Cheers

auntymabel

Next door neighbour - adjoining semi - told me

jackieb

phill99 wrote: »

The cost differential in having just your gutters done and having the facias done as well is pretty minimal, so its worth having it all done at once.

Not necessarily. I got several quotes ranging from £3500 to £5000 for replacing my soffits and guttering. I'm pretty sure just to replace the guttering wouldn't come to anywhere near that amount.

jackieb

andrew-b wrote: »

£3.5-5k ...ouch that's alot..how much roofline for ?

We paid £1750 for 2-bed semi-bungalow (roughly £50 /metre of roofline)...i haggled price down slightly and got ogee-style guttering rather than round/squareline at no extra cost . Local company rather than a national. Strip out old, trim/pad roof timbers, jack -up sagging external corners, eavesboard to replace rotten sarking felt, soffit and fascias with above fascia ventilation with birdcomb.

The trouble is if you pay for guttering now and then decide later to replace soffits/fascias it has to all come off and most installers won't reuse it. Previous owner of our place had replaced just the gutters when they should really have done both...they were binned.
Also the true extent of the rot in our fascias didn't come apparent until they started peeling layers off. Hidden under the tiles and behind the gutter they were rotten through..i was quite shocked how bad they were as being a bungalow i'd had a close look and jabbed at them with my trusty swiss army knife!

Our gutters are fine. It would be daft not to replace them at the same time as the soffits though as they're over 30 years old and plastic. I can't remember how much it is we need - it's been a couple of years since we got a quote. It's a 4 bedroom detached house with a roof with a very steep pitch, and also has a single storey extension - so there's quite a bit. All our quotes were from local companies

auntymabel, if you're getting your soffits replaced with upvc make sure that the company will remove your old wooden ones and not just put the upvc cladding on top of it.

auntymabel

Thanks again for all the advice. I think I'll probably get the fascias done aswell. As Andrew-b says if they need doing in the future having just the guttering done now will be wasted.