Inflated quote for gutter replacement

ThisIsWeird

Sorry, LP is Legal Protection, a ~£25 add-on to your policy which covers issues like contractual breaches and stuff. Really worth while.

For you to have accepted the roofer's new DP setup based on his explanation is, I think, perfectly understandable. As I said, you are a 'layman' and are not 'meant' to know this kind of stuff! 

Tbh, I'm not sure myself, but I am a touch more experienced in such matters, so would have questioned him as soon as he suggested a new DP; "Um, where's the water going to drain to?!". (As well as "Really?! It's worked perfectly well before with the one DP...")

That is not your fault in any sense - you accepted the reasoning and explanation of the 'expert'. 
First thing, I'd suggest finding out - IS having the DP discharge like that an issue?

Where the hell is Section62 when you need him!

Niv

itm2 said:

Yes I was conscious of being seen to quibbling over the "s" in the quote, but it was mentioned in the plural in two places on the written quote, and in my view it was a pretty significant part of it (particularly at £250+VAT a pop):

• “To remove the necessary downpipes”
• “To install new black round UPVC downpipes and fixings where necessary”

There's a more-or-less identical gutter at the back of the house, which we had replaced a few years ago. It had exactly the same issue with the fascia, but on that occasion the roofer just worked around it and there was no additional cost. 

The new downpipe discharges onto our drive, as there's no drain nearby.

Unfortunately (for you), I think that the additional info you have supplied via the bullet points strengthens the contractors case. From what I gather you consider that there was only one downpipe in the first place but the quote states to remove the downpipes, which to my mind indicates that they mean each pipe that makes up the single downpipe run.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

he told us that due to the structure of the space under the roof tiles he would not be able to install something with enough gradient to drain the rainwater along the full length of the gutter - the existing gutter drained away into a drain on our neighbour's side.

Sorry if I missed it but why wasn't a like for like replacement an option?

subjecttocontract

Guttering doesn't need a gradient.....it can be fitted horizontally like 95% of other properties.

Postik

I'm in the process of having my gutter refitted because it's mostly level but with a couple of low spots that overflow.

My understanding is that gutter will drain without a fall (i.e. perfectly level) but it "self cleans" better with a fall, whereas when perfectly level it tends to accumulate more sludge.

Marvqn1

Looking online, the average hourly rate for a roofer in the UK is £29 per hour. I guess that is only for labor, not materials but the rate roofers charge is far higher than that such as £200+ per hour. And the materials are usually cheap probably, as some people in this thread have indicated.