upvc cladding quotes

bennyboy3

I live in a 1960's 4 bedroom detached house in lanarkshire.

I am currently looking for a company to replace the existing wooden fascias and soffits on my house and garage with upvc.

I have had four companies who have given me estimates which range from £3500 - £14000. Strangely, the companies that provided the lower estimates ie £3500 and £7500 will remove the existing wood and replace with upvc wheras the companies providing the more expensive estimates £8500 and £14000 will clad the existing wood which is rotten in places with i would imagine a thinner upvc. The companies that are cladding over the existing wood did say they will remove any rotten wood before cladding.

As the estimates vary dramatically I am unsure as to what a fair price is.

The other problem i have is that I am unsure of the correct way of how the job should be done ie clad over existing timber or remove existing timber and use a thicker upvc.Each of the companies also do the jobs in different ways ie one of them will remove the existing row of edge tiles and cut back any rotten joist timber and replace with new treated timber before cladding with upvc.

All i am really looking for is a reasonable job for a reasonable price.

I live in Lanarkshire and would be grateful if anyone could recommend a local or a national company who will not rip me off and do a good job. Or alternatively suggest a way that i can work out a reasonable price. i would also be grateful if anyone can inform me of how the job should be done properly.

thanks

HugoSP

I have a feeling of Deja-vouz......

I don't know how big your house is so I can't give you an idea on the exact price you should be paying but DONT go for cladding the existing fascia boards - that process ought to be banned by the building regs - so much damage can be done by rotting boards etc.

People usually have the job done because the existing board are rotting, so there's no sense in not replacing them.

If your windows are rotting do you just build new upvc windows over them? Of course not, so there's no reason why you should do this with fascia board.

If anyone is going to rip out and replace rotten timber, they may as well rip out the whole lot and replace with upvc.

The way I do it is to remove the old timber piece by piece. I find that using a cordless jigsaw to cut the timber into small pieces between each rafter works well. This way it makes it safe and easy to remove without damaging the roof, and the timber is cut into handy lengths for firewood

The soffits (horizontal ply or whatever that butts up to the fascias) are usually held in by the fascias and battens screwed to the outside wall. However I have come accross one job that had them nailed to the underside of the rafters at an angle. These get prized off and binned but in safe lenghts.

The tiles will tend to stay up on the roof as there are the roofing battons (2x1) that will hold them in place. If I am unsure of the situation I may squeeze some 2x1 timber under the tiles at the base of the rafters just to stabalise them as a temporary measure.

If the property is exposed to wind then I may do one side or roof section at a time. This will hopefully reduce any through drafts going through the loft. Wind can do a lot of damage, but if you lived in north London I should not need to tell you that.

When it's time for the new stuff to go up you can trim the width of and nail the new soffits up and tack them to the bottom of the rafters in the correct position to accomodate the new fascias. This will make it easier to mange wide soffits. the full replacement fascias have a lip at the bottom and a groove to accomodate the soffits when they go up so ultimately the fascias support the soffits.

The fascias are usually nailed on with white or brown capped STAINLESS STEEL nails between 50 and 65mm long. The Soffits are nailed with smaller capped stainless steel screws. The colour of the capping matches the colour of the fascia that's going up. I usually do 2 per rafter.

It is imperitive that vented soffits go up at the base of the roof, or vents are installed in the soffits. Vented soffit is not essential in the gable ends but I tend to put it in anyway. It means I'm providing maximum ventilation in a building and I'm also carrying fewer stock items when I do the job so there is less waste.

Any rotten joists and other roof timbers are cut out and replaced. The biggest problem is usually at the corners. The repair is not difficult but can be time consuming. On a job that I quoted £2800 for I had to spend another £450 on repairing 4 corners and strenthening the third gable end (poor roof construction). I then treat the affected areas with woodworm and dry rot solution.

There are a myriad of connecting and joining strips to join soffits and fascias to give a professional finish. Though there is still a skill in doing it properly.

Guttering is probably the easiest part of the job. Running this up takes much less time. The trick here is to make it look as level as poss without impeding the water flow. On a 10 metre run that is an impressive task when you've only got a certain height of fascia board to play with. There are manufacturers who claim that their gutters are tested without a fall. I am not convinced.

Unfortuntely I don't live near you otherwise I could provide a reference from a satisfied client (my next door neighbour), and quote for the job myself .

If the £14k job was to my spec I would have thought that this was expensive. My neighbours house is a large 3 bed detatched bungalow with garage. The cost came in at around £4k. That included the £450 worth of timber repairs. Though the size of fascias and soffits used makes an impact on the cost.

Also, I suspect my suppliers are one of the cheapest in the country.

Jnelhams

That sounds very pricey, but again it is hard to tell without knowing exactly what you are having done. Have you tried Anglia ?

My other suggestion apart from as said already, never ever overclad. is to ring back and say "X company has quoted me ..... (less £500) could you match that, as I would prefer the date you gave etc..." then ring "Y" company and call as above, you should with a bit of hard pushing and I'll think about it....and ignoring letters for a week or two manage to get the price down.