Brandon Roofers replaces and repairs fascias, soffits and guttering for homeowners in Soham, keeping rooflines watertight and looking their best for years to come.
Most homeowners don't think about their roofline until something goes wrong. The fascia is the horizontal board that runs along the bottom edge of your roof, fixed to the ends of the rafters. The soffit sits underneath it, closing off the gap between the fascia and the wall. Together they protect the roof timbers from rain, birds and insects. The gutters hang from the fascia and carry rainwater away from your walls and foundations.
When any part of this system fails, water finds its way into the places it should never reach. Saturated roof timbers, damp walls, and damaged ceilings are all common results of a roofline left in poor repair. The good news is that problems caught early are far cheaper to fix than the damage they cause if left.
You don't need to get up a ladder to spot most roofline problems. Stand back from the front and rear of your house and look carefully at the boards and gutters. Common warning signs include:
Any one of these is worth investigating. Two or more together usually means the whole roofline section needs replacing rather than patching.
uPVC is the sensible choice for the majority of properties. It doesn't rot, doesn't need painting, and holds up well to rain and frost over many years. Modern uPVC boards come in a range of colours and finishes, including woodgrain effects, so they needn't look out of place on an older property.
Aluminium is the better option where spans are longer than usual, where the existing structure has unusual dimensions, or where the property has planning restrictions on materials. Aluminium boards are thinner and stronger than uPVC, and they can be powder-coated to virtually any colour. They cost more to supply but require very little maintenance once fitted.
Timber fascias are still specified on some older and listed properties. Where timber is required, it should be treated hardwood or engineered timber, not the cheap softwood used in older construction. Timber does need periodic painting to protect it, so factor that into your decision if you have a choice.
A full roofline replacement is a straightforward job when it's done properly, but it does require safe working at height. We work from scaffold or a tower system, never from ladders alone, because the work involves fitting boards at awkward angles with both hands occupied.
The process runs in this order. First, the old gutters are removed and the fascia boards are taken off carefully to avoid disturbing the roof covering or the lead flashing at the eaves. At this stage, the condition of the rafter feet and wall plate is checked. If any timber is soft or rotten, it needs to be cut back and a section of treated timber spliced in before new boards go on. Fitting new uPVC over rotten timber just delays the problem.
The new fascia is fitted and levelled. The soffit is then measured, cut and clipped or pinned into place. Ventilation is built into the soffit where required, either as a continuous strip vent or individual round vents, to allow the roof space to breathe. Finally, the new gutters are hung using concealed brackets, fall is checked with a spirit level, and all joints and stop-ends are sealed. Downpipes are connected and checked for secure fixing at the correct standoff from the wall.
The job is finished by boxing in any exposed corners neatly, fitting fascia trim where boards meet at angles, and clearing away all the old materials. The finished result should look clean and flush with no raw edges visible.
Prices depend on the size of the property, the number of elevations being replaced, access requirements and the materials chosen. As a general guide for UK work at current rates:
Quotes that come in unusually low are worth questioning. A price that doesn't allow for scaffold, proper timber repair or decent-quality board is likely to cost more in the long run. Ask any contractor to specify the board thickness and manufacturer, and ask whether the quote includes taking away the old materials.
Not every roofline call turns into a full replacement. Gutters blocked with leaves, moss and debris can usually be cleared and re-sealed at the joints without any new materials at all. A blocked gutter that overflows onto a wall can cause damp problems surprisingly quickly, so clearing the system once or twice a year is sound housekeeping.
Where individual sections of guttering are cracked or have pulled away from the fascia, these can often be replaced section by section without disturbing the rest of the run. Half-round guttering, square-line guttering and ogee-profile guttering are all still available to match existing systems, so a repair can be made to blend in.
Downpipes are often overlooked. A cracked downpipe at the back of a house can quietly soak the brickwork for months before anyone notices. If you can see a green or black stain running down the wall from a pipe joint, the joint has likely failed and needs re-socketing or replacing.
This is the part most contractors don't bother to explain, but it makes a real difference to how long your new roofline lasts and whether you ever have to deal with the same problems again. The roofline is a low-maintenance part of the house, but low-maintenance is not the same as no-maintenance.
The single most useful thing you can do is keep the gutters free of debris. Leaves, moss washed off the roof, silt and even bird nesting material all accumulate in gutters over a season. When a gutter blocks and overflows, the water doesn't just run down the outside of the house; it can also run back behind the fascia board and into the roof space. Clearing gutters in autumn, after the leaves have fallen, and again in spring, when moss spores are high, covers most properties well. A garden hose run from the highest point toward the downpipe shows you quickly whether the fall is correct and the outlet is clear.
If trees overhang or sit close to the house, leaf guards fitted inside the gutters can reduce how often you need to clear them. These are simple plastic or mesh inserts that sit in the gutter channel and stop large debris from accumulating at the outlet. They don't eliminate maintenance entirely but they reduce it considerably.
uPVC guttering expands and contracts with temperature changes across the year. Over time, this movement can work joints loose, compress the rubber seals inside union pieces, and pull brackets slightly out of alignment. Once a year, ideally after summer when the plastic has been through its full range of expansion, it's worth walking round the house during or just after a rain shower to watch the gutters in action. You're looking for water dripping from joints, overflowing from specific sections, or running back over the front of the gutter rather than into it. Any of these points to a joint seal that needs replacing or a bracket that needs repositioning.
Replacing a union seal or a single bracket is a small job that costs very little if caught early. The same problem left for two or three years can allow water to repeatedly saturate the fascia behind the joint, leading to softening of the board and, in the worst cases, rot in the rafter feet behind it.
uPVC fascias and soffits don't rot, but they can be damaged. Impact cracks from ladders leaned carelessly against the board, splits from overtightened fixings, and yellowing from prolonged sun exposure are all worth noting. Small cracks can be sealed with uPVC-compatible sealant to prevent water ingress behind the board, but a board that has cracked across its full depth or pulled away from its fixings should be replaced rather than patched.
Ventilated soffits deserve a check every couple of years. The small slots or grilles that allow air into the roof space can become blocked with insulation that has been pushed too far toward the eaves during a loft insulation installation, or with debris from birds nesting just inside the gap. Poor ventilation in the roof space leads to condensation on the underside of the roof deck, which damages timber and felt over time. If you can access the loft, check that you can see daylight through the soffit vents and that insulation rolls end at least 50mm back from the eaves.
High winds and hard frosts are the two weather conditions most likely to cause sudden roofline damage. After a storm, check that all downpipes are still secured to the wall at every clip and that no sections of guttering have been pushed out of their brackets. A downpipe that has come away from the wall at the top but still connects at the bottom will funnel rainwater into the gap behind the fascia with every shower.
Hard frosts affect guttering when water is sitting in a section that has lost its fall and is no longer draining properly. Standing water freezes, expands, and can crack a section or push a joint apart. After a hard frost, check the gutters visually for any sections that look bowed or misaligned, and look at the downpipe connections for signs of separation. Catching this in early spring avoids having a failing gutter through the wetter months of the year.
uPVC and aluminium boards don't need painting in the same way timber does, but if you have aluminium boards with a powder-coat finish, the coating can chip if struck, and bare aluminium exposed to weather will eventually oxidise. Touch up any chips with a matching powder-coat aerosol or a suitable metal primer followed by exterior paint. The point is to keep moisture from working under the coating at the edges of any chip.
If you have any remaining timber fascias or soffits, these need repainting every five to seven years as a minimum, and more often in exposed positions. Use a good-quality exterior microporous paint that allows the timber to breathe, and make sure the surface is clean, dry and sound before you apply it. Painting over damp or soft timber seals the problem in and accelerates the rot.
Clearing gutters from a stable ladder is within most people's capability, provided they follow basic ladder safety. Anything that involves leaning out to reach awkward angles, working above a single-storey, or actually fixing or replacing boards should be left to someone with the right access equipment. Roofers carry out this work from scaffold towers or full scaffold because the angles involved make ladder-only working unsafe as well as inaccurate. A board fitted from a ladder is unlikely to be as well seated, levelled and sealed as one fitted from a stable working platform.
For homeowners in Soham looking to get a roofline in good order before problems develop, a visual check of the outside of the house and a gutter clear in autumn is the most cost-effective maintenance routine you can adopt. If you spot something that looks wrong, call us for a roof survey so we can assess whether you're looking at a small repair or something that needs more attention before winter.
Getting the right contractor matters as much as choosing the right materials. Before you agree to any work, ask these questions and take note of the answers:
A contractor who can answer all of these clearly and without hesitation is one who knows what they're doing. Anyone who is vague about materials, dismisses the question about rafter feet, or proposes to work from ladders on a two-storey house is worth thinking carefully about before you commit.
If your fascias, soffits or guttering are showing any of the signs mentioned on this page, the sensible move is to have them looked at before the problem develops. We carry out roofline surveys across Soham and the surrounding area, including nearby towns and villages within reach of Brandon. If you're unsure what needs doing, a roof survey is a sensible first step to take.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
