Advice
Signs your fascias and guttering are failing
Fascias and guttering are the cheapest part of a house to maintain and the most expensive to ignore, because everything they fail to control ends up in the brickwork. A large share of the damp and spalled brick we are called out to look at started as a leaking gutter joint.
Overflowing or dripping gutters
Watch the house during heavy rain. Water spilling over the front edge usually means a blockage or a run that has lost its fall; water dripping steadily from one point between downpipes means a failed joint seal or a dropped bracket.
None of that requires a full replacement. Clearing, resealing, re-bracketing and resetting the falls is routine work and will often add years to a run that looks past it.
Green or dark staining down the wall
A vertical green, black or dark streak running down the brickwork below a gutter joint or a downpipe is the clearest sign of all. It means the same strip of wall is being soaked every time it rains.
Saturated mortar softens and washes out, brick faces blow in frost, and the damp eventually shows on the inside face. If you have recently had an elevation repointed, a leaking gutter above it will undo that work faster than anything else.
Sagging or rotten fascia boards
The fascia carries the weight of a full gutter. On timber, look for flaking or blistering paint, soft or dark patches, and a gutter line that dips between brackets rather than running straight.
By the time the board is soft, the rafter feet behind it are often wet too. That is worth catching early, because replacing a fascia is straightforward and repairing rafter ends is not.
Broken or missing soffits
Gaps in the soffit are an open invitation to birds, squirrels and wasps, and every year we see nests in roof spaces that were reached through a broken board.
The soffit also carries the ventilation path that keeps roof timbers dry. Replace it with vented soffit where the roof needs airflow, rather than simply boarding the gap over.
Damp showing inside
A patch high on an internal wall that darkens after every storm, or peeling paint at the top of a chimney breast or external wall, is very often a roofline fault rather than rising damp or condensation.
The test is simple: if it appears in the same place after rain and nowhere else, look up. Fixing the gutter is nearly always cheaper than treating the wall.
FAQ
Signs your fascias and guttering are failing - common questions
Often yes. Blockages, failed seals, dropped brackets and incorrect falls are all repairable. We will tell you honestly whether a repair will hold or whether the run has had its day.
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Honest advice from a family-run brickwork specialist serving Richmond and South West London since 1946.