Guttering/soffits etc

roxalana

Hi,

The guttering on our house is pretty old but still functioning apart from two sections. The soffits are asbestos (though I am told the non dangerous kind!). The fascias need painting but are ok except for a small section where the gutter is leaking. It is a bog standard end of terrace.

I am not able to get up the ladder to do any DIY with this and know no one else who can.

I don't want to spend money for no reason but I don't want to have to keep fixing different bits and am tempted to have the most maintenance free option for piece of mind.

I'm thinking of replacing the guttering and thinking it would be good to replace the soffits/fascias with PVC at the same time.

I've contacted 6 local firms. 3 didn't reply, one came out but wasn't able to do the work due to family commitments and we got two quotes.

The first was for overboarding, bargeboards and new guttering and downpipes and was £1250.

The second was replacement for the same and was £1750.

The chap who couldn't do it said he wouldn't normally recommend overboarding but in our case was fine, as it hadn't rotted in so long.

Opinions please!

woodbutcher_2

My opinion is that one is ripping you off and the other one is seriously ripping you off.

I'm always amazed how much people pay to have some bozo come and nail bits of PVC to their house.

I doubt there is more than a couple of hundred quids worth of materials there and it will easily be done in a day. Good money if you are unscrupulous.

The bit about overboarding because the rot hasn't set in is a big warning sign not to go with him. If you are to have it done, make sure all the old fascias and barge boards are removed and rafter ends checked and replaced where necessary. New eaves boards should also be fitted under your roofing felt and the fascia used should be the proper thick stuff, not the cappit board.

There is much scope (and profit) for ripping off the unwary with fascias and soffits

keystone

Agree with all of post 2 if its being done off ladders or an access tower owned by the company concerned.

If, however, both quotes have had to include include hire/provision of some additional access equipment such as scaffolding then the prices might just be reasonable.

Cheers

justjohn

keystone wrote: »

Agree with all of post 2 if its being done off ladders or an access tower owned by the company concerned.

If, however, both quotes have had to include include hire/provision of some additional access equipment such as scaffolding then the prices might just be reasonable.

Cheers

Hate people in building trade that hire scaffolding.
Cost a fortune. Some of them have not even got a boss tower.

thebaldwindowfitter

justjohn wrote: »

Hate people in building trade that hire scaffolding.
Cost a fortune. Some of them have not even got a boss tower.

have you ever priced up a tower system and all the configurations needed for various jobs we use easi dec for most of our instalations and dont have scaffolding done it before got it nicked along with the tool store shipping container it was in .

southcoastrgi

justjohn wrote: »

Hate people in building trade that hire scaffolding.
Cost a fortune. Some of them have not even got a boss tower.

really !!

so as a plumber i could be fitting guttering or a boiler flue at high level & according to you i should drag a scaffolding along with me behind the van, so if you are correct you have just made every scaffoding co in the country go bust cause now every trade has their own, please, give me a break & just for KS that was the polite reply.

keystone

@JJ and A6

Its entirely down to each company how it conducts its risk assessments in order to comply with the Working At Height Regs. It may well be that in the case of the OP that the ground is so uneven and or sloping that scaffolding it is the only option. For most town houses it is the only option anyway. Now I'm not saying that this is the case but overgeneralising like you are seems a tad foolhardy.

Take a chill pill SC.

Cheers

roxalana

All 3 of the people that came out to quote said scaffolding wasn't required (I asked!)

I had suspected it was high, but we don't know anyone to get personal recomendations from so am relying on checkatrade (and checking here!).

It's just frustrating that so many just don't even reply! And it seems the ones that do are on the high side!

What sort of ballpark should we be looking at?
And is it ALWAYS the case that they should be replaced not overboarded? I had thought that was the case, but given one of the trades said it was fine and he wasn't going to be able to do the work, it made me unsure (as he didn't have a vested interest).

southcoastrgi

justjohn wrote: »

Hate people in building trade that hire scaffolding.
Cost a fortune. Some of them have not even got a boss tower.

I hope you are going to be wearing all the correct PPE & have done the correct risk assesment & are conforming to the correct health & safety req when you dig the trench & replace your soil & vent pipe ?

Oh no sorry you are getting someone in "the building trade" to do that for you :T

Gra76

roxalana wrote: »

All 3 of the people that came out to quote said scaffolding wasn't required (I asked!)

I had suspected it was high, but we don't know anyone to get personal recomendations from so am relying on checkatrade (and checking here!).

It's just frustrating that so many just don't even reply! And it seems the ones that do are on the high side!

What sort of ballpark should we be looking at?
And is it ALWAYS the case that they should be replaced not overboarded? I had thought that was the case, but given one of the trades said it was fine and he wasn't going to be able to do the work, it made me unsure (as he didn't have a vested interest).

It's difficult to give a ballpark figure without knowing a few things, such as the size of the house and the layout. Do you have any extensions on the property that will need doing? Are you doing just the soffits/fascias at the front and back or are you getting the gable end done at the same time? What is the ground like around the property? Is it level enough to have a tower scaffold on it or not?

We always remove the original fascias and soffits but I've known people to overboard them, my neighbours overboarded theirs and although it looks ok I've always been dubious about overboarding.

To give you some kind of idea, we had our fascias, soffits and guttering done at our house 2 months or so back by our uPVC subcontractor. Our house is a 3 bedroom semi detached of very average size (approx 5.5m-6m across the front elevation) with a single storey extension on the back of it. The fascias, soffits and guttering were all removed and disposed of and replaced with new. The gable end was done too. The extension on the back of the house is about 3m in length and only needed 2 sides of it doing.

I paid our subcontractor £1,100 for this. He did say that he did this all 'at cost' (one of the perks of working at a builders and knowing the right people). If it had been anyone else he'd have been charging £1,600+ and he used his own tower rig rather than hiring one in. It was all done in 2 days.

Hope that helps a bit.

roxalana

Not had chance to measure size of house yet.
Another quote in:
Remove guttering, fascias, Soffits
Inspect rafter ends treat/replace
INsert DPC membrane under roof felt
Fix tanalised timber (backing board)
INstall upvc soffit and fascia
INstall standard guttering/downpipes
clear waste
10year company & 20 yr product guarantee
Incl All Labour and materials =£1380

I thought bargeboards were the bits on the pointy gable end - am I right in saying this quote doesn't include this?