Gutter Repairs, Fascias & Soffits In Newcastle
Is rainwater pouring over the front of the gutter instead of going down the pipe?
Gutter clearing, realignment, bracket and joint repairs, and uPVC fascia and soffit replacement for terraces, semis and Tyneside flats across Newcastle upon Tyne
An overflowing gutter is a slow leak pointed at your brickwork. We get called to green streaks down gable ends in Heaton, soffits in Kenton you could push a thumb through, and cast iron on Jesmond terraces that has not met a brush this decade. Where the gutter can be saved we clear it, reset the falls and swap the failed joints. Where the timber behind it has gone, we replace the fascia and soffit in uPVC and fit the gutter properly to it. Free look, written price, no ladder-and-leave.
- Falls checked with water running, not by eye from the pavement
- Rotten fascia and soffit timber replaced, never capped over
- Cast iron repaired where it is worth keeping on older terraces
- Written guarantee on every roofline job, term on your quote
Get A Free Roof Inspection
Tell us what is going on and we will ring you back to arrange a look.
What Goes Wrong Along A Newcastle Roofline
The gutter is the most ignored part of a house until the day it fails, and then it is usually the wall underneath that pays for it. These are the faults we meet most often across Tyneside.
A Gutter Full Of Grit And Moss
Concrete tiles shed their surface a little every year, and the grit ends up in the gutter. Add the moss that slides off the north slope in a thaw and the run is half full before any leaves arrive. Water then sits, the joints stay wet and the brackets carry weight they were never meant to.
Water Sheeting Over The Front Edge
If it comes over the lip in the middle of a run rather than at the stop end, a bracket has dropped and the fall now goes the wrong way. Common on 1930s semis in Fenham and Gosforth where the original brackets were screwed into a fascia that has since softened.
Drips At Every Union
uPVC unions rely on a rubber seal. After twenty-odd winters the rubber goes hard, the clip loosens and each joint weeps. One drip is annoying. Six of them along a Longbenton terrace, all landing on the same path, becomes an ice hazard every December.
Fascia Soft Behind The Gutter
A sagging gutter is usually telling you about the board behind it. We push a screwdriver into fascias in Kenton and Westerhope and it goes in to the handle. The paint was still on. Paint hides rot; it does not stop it.
Black Mould On The Loft Felt
Replacement soffits fitted without any ventilation seal the roof space up. Warm damp air from the house rises, meets cold felt and condenses. The first sign is a musty smell on the landing, the second is mould across the underside of the felt and on the rafters.
A Green Stripe Down The Gable
That streak of algae below a corner of the roof is the signature of a gutter that has been overflowing for years. Behind the green the pointing is washed out, and inside the house there is normally a damp patch high on the bedroom wall that keeps coming back through the paint.
How We Sort Gutters, Fascias And Soffits
Clearing a gutter takes an hour. Working out why it keeps blocking, overflowing or dripping takes a bit of looking, and that is the part most people skip.
Look Before We Clear
We walk the outside first and note every stain, drip mark and sag. Then up the ladder to see what is actually in the gutter and what the fascia feels like behind it. Photos at this stage, so you can see what we are describing.
Clear It By Hand
Grit, moss, nests and the occasional tennis ball come out by hand and into a bucket, not flushed down the pipe to block the gully. Downpipes are rodded through to the drain and the gully grate lifted and cleared while we are there.
Run Water Through It
A hose at the far end tells the truth. Water should get to the outlet without pooling anywhere along the run. Where it sits, we mark the brackets that have dropped and the joints that weep so the quote lists each one.
Reset, Refit Or Replace
Dropped brackets are re-fixed or added, perished union seals are swapped, and lengths that have cracked or lost their shape are replaced to match the existing profile. On cast iron we re-seal joints with a proper putty and paint the repair, rather than condemning the lot.
Fascias And Soffits Where Needed
If the timber is rotten the gutter has nothing sound to hang from, so the old boards come off, the rafter feet are checked, and new uPVC fascia and ventilated soffit go on with stainless fixings. The gutter is then hung on new brackets at the right fall.
Tidy Up And Guarantee
Everything we took out goes with us, the paths are swept and the water test is run again with you watching. You get a written guarantee on the work and a note of anything else we spotted on the roof while we were up.
Done Once, And Put In Writing
Roofline work is cheap compared with the damp it prevents, which makes it tempting to do cheaply. We do not. Every bracket, joint and board we fit is covered by a written workmanship guarantee that runs for ten years, so if a joint we sealed starts dripping again you ring us and we come back and sort it.
We also tell you when a gutter is beyond saving. There is no point re-sealing twelve unions on a run that has lost its shape, and we will say so and price a replacement instead. The quote names each fault we found, so you can compare it with any other price you get and see whether the other lad actually got up the ladder.
Three Questions Before Anyone Goes Near Your Gutters
Did They Test It With Water?
A gutter can look level and still back-fall by a centimetre, and a centimetre is enough to leave a puddle at the wrong end all winter. If the person pricing the job has not run a hose along the gutter, they do not know whether the fall is right and neither do you. Ask them which brackets they found dropped. A real answer names positions, not vague talk about 'resetting the run'.
What Happens To The Rotten Board?
Capping is the trade word for screwing a thin uPVC skin over a rotten fascia and calling it new. It looks the part for a year or two, then the rot carries on behind it and the gutter brackets pull out of mush. Insist on the old board coming off so the rafter ends can be seen, and get that in the quote. If someone offers capping as the cheap option, they should at least call it what it is.
Where Is The Air Getting In?
A soffit that seals the eaves completely will give you a condensation problem by the following February. New soffits should either be the ventilated type or have over-fascia vents fitted along the run so the loft can breathe. Any roofer who shrugs at the question is not thinking about your loft, only about the next job.
Clean It, Patch It, Or Replace The Lot?
Most gutter problems sit in one of three boxes. This is how they compare on a typical Newcastle semi or terrace.
| Clean and realign | Replace sections | Full roofline replacement | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it involves | Clear by hand, rod the downpipes, re-fix dropped brackets, re-seal weeping unions | Cut out cracked or misshapen lengths and failed joints, fit new to match the profile | Strip fascia, soffit and gutter, inspect rafter feet, fit new uPVC boards and gutter on new brackets |
| Guide price | £80 - £250 | £150 - £500 | £900 - £1,500 and upward on larger houses |
| Time on site | One to two hours | Half a day | One to two days |
| Access | Ladder in most cases | Ladder, tower on a tall gable | Tower or scaffold on anything above two storeys |
| How long it lasts | Until the next build-up, so a yearly clear is wise | The remaining life of the rest of the run | Decades, with the odd clear-out |
| Right choice when | Gutter and fascia are sound, just neglected | A few lengths or joints have failed on an otherwise good run | Fascia timber is rotten, or the gutter has lost its shape along most of its length |
A Bay Window Top And Fascia We Put Right
The photo here is the top of a bay window on a terraced house in Newcastle after we finished with it. The flat top over the bay had been leaking into the window head for years, and the ornate timber fascia with its dentil moulding had started to split along the grain. We coated the bay top in grey fibreglass, dressed it over the edge so water drops clear of the woodwork, and repaired and repainted the fascia and mould rather than ripping out detail that suits the street.
Jobs like that are where the roofline and the roof blur into one another. The water that was coming into the bay was first blamed on the main gutter above, which is a fair guess and happens to be wrong on a lot of the leak call-outs we attend. When the stain is near the eaves we check the gutter, the fascia and the bottom course of tiles together, because any of the three can be the cause and a cracked tile at the eaves looks identical from inside to a gutter dripping behind the board.
Whatever we find, you get the before and after photos and a written note of what was done, so you are not relying on memory when the next roofer tries to sell you something.
Based on the jobs we get called to across Newcastle, somewhere around half of the 'damp wall' enquiries we receive turn out to be a gutter that is blocked, back-falling or leaking at a joint rather than anything wrong with the roof covering itself.
Based on the enquiries and jobs handled by Huckleberry Roofing Ltd. A rough picture of what we see, not a formal survey.Guide Prices For Gutter And Roofline Work
A clear-out and water test is the cheapest job we do. Realigning a run and replacing a few joints is a bit more. A full fascia, soffit and gutter replacement on a semi is the top of the range. Every price is VAT inclusive and in writing before we start.
£80 - £1,500
See The Full Cost GuideGutter, Fascia And Soffit Questions From Newcastle
How often should gutters be cleared in Newcastle?
Should I keep the cast iron gutters on my Victorian terrace?
The gutter on my Tyneside flat runs across both flats. Who pays?
Why is there mould in my loft since the soffits were replaced?
Can you just cap the fascia instead of replacing it?
Do I need planning permission for gutter, fascia or soffit work in Newcastle?
Gutter Repairs, Fascias & Soffits Across Tyne And Wear
Newcastle upon Tyne is home turf, and we cover the rest of Tyne and Wear from there. Pick your area for the local page, or just ring if you are somewhere in between.
Stop The Overflow Before It Reaches The Plaster
Tell us where the water is going and we will come and look. Free inspection, written quote, and a straight answer on whether it needs clearing, fixing or replacing.