Gutter cleaning, repairs and replacement
Guttering is the least glamorous part of a house and the part that causes the most expensive damage when it is neglected. A single blocked outlet is enough to send an entire roof's worth of rainwater over the edge of the gutter, down the fascia, across the wall and into the ground right beside your foundations. The symptoms show up as damp patches inside, green streaks on render, rotten fascia boards, blown pointing and, eventually, work that costs many times what clearing the gutter would have.
Sam & Son Jet A Drive covers the whole rainwater system across Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and the wider Sussex area — clearing, inspecting, leak repairs, section replacement and complete refits in matching uPVC. We handle both domestic properties and commercial buildings, and we do this work year-round.
One of our most common jobs is being called out after somebody else has already tried. If your guttering has been fitted or repaired and still leaks, we are happy to come and look at it, tell you plainly what is wrong, and price putting it right.
Recent gutter clean, repair & refit jobs in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Sussex
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How we clear, repair and refit guttering
1. Inspect
We look along the whole run — falls, joints, brackets, outlets, hoppers and downpipes — and identify not just where it is blocked but why water is not getting away.
2. Clear
Moss, leaves, silt and nesting material are removed by hand and bagged, not flushed down the pipes, and valleys and hoppers are cleared at the same time.
3. Flush and test
Every downpipe and outlet is flushed and tested with water so we can prove it runs away freely and see any leaking joints while they are actually wet.
4. Repair or replace
Failed joints are resealed, dropped brackets refixed, damaged sections swapped, or the full run replaced in matching uPVC with correct falls and new fixings.
Clearing is the start, not the whole job
Plenty of firms will scoop the leaves out of your gutter and drive away. That is fine if leaves were the only problem, but in our experience the majority of leaking gutters have a second issue underneath: a joint whose seal has hardened and split, a bracket that has pulled away from the fascia and created a low spot, a run laid with no fall or the wrong fall, or a downpipe that is solid with compacted silt further down where nobody looked.
That is why we flush and test rather than just clear. Running water through the system while we watch the joints is the only reliable way to find a leak, and it is the difference between a gutter that is clean and a gutter that actually works. Anything we find is priced there and then so you can decide whether to have it dealt with in the same visit.
Compacted silt in a downpipe is a particularly common hidden fault, especially on properties with a roof that sheds moss. It builds up gradually at a bend or shoe, restricting flow long before it blocks completely, and it shows itself as a gutter that copes in light rain and overflows in a downpour.
- Gutter clearing, hand-cleared and bagged
- Downpipe and outlet unblocking, flushed and tested
- Valley, hopper and box gutter clearance
- Leaking joint repairs and reseals
- Bracket refixing and correcting falls
- Section and full-run replacement in matching uPVC
- Downpipe reroutes, shoes, hoppers and gully connections
- Leaf guards and gutter brush fitting
Repairs, refits and getting the falls right
Where guttering can be repaired, we repair it — resealing joints, replacing individual unions and brackets, and refixing runs that have dropped. Where it is beyond that, a full replacement in matching uPVC is usually less expensive than people expect and completely removes the problem. We can match existing profiles including half round, deep flow, square line and ogee, in black, white, brown, grey and anthracite.
The single most important thing on a refit is the fall. A gutter needs a consistent, gentle slope towards its outlet, set out properly with a line rather than by eye, and brackets at the correct centres so the run does not sag between them in heavy rain. Get that right, along with proper expansion allowance at unions, and a uPVC system will run for decades without touching. Get it wrong and you have exactly the same leak in a new colour — which is why we are so often called to fix somebody else's recent installation.
On larger or older properties we also work with cast iron and aluminium, either repairing and repainting what is there or replacing like-for-like where the building's appearance matters. If a run is genuinely beyond economic repair we will say so rather than patching it indefinitely.
What blocked gutters actually cost you
The damage runs in a predictable sequence. Water overflows behind the gutter and soaks the fascia board, which rots. The rot loosens the bracket fixings, which drops the gutter further and makes the overflow worse. Water then runs down the wall face, saturating render or brickwork, which shows internally as damp patches and cold spots and externally as green algae streaks and blown pointing.
At the same time, water discharging at the base of a wall rather than into the drain saturates the ground next to the foundations, which on Sussex clay is exactly what you do not want. Add the risk of frozen standing water splitting a gutter or downpipe in winter, and the case for a routine clear becomes obvious.
For most houses, once a year is the right interval — late autumn, after the leaves have finished dropping. Properties with trees close by, or a roof that is shedding moss, benefit from twice a year. Where access is difficult or there is a lot of overhanging growth, fitting leaf guards or gutter brushes on the worst runs cuts the frequency down considerably, and we are happy to quote for that at the same time.
Access, safety and doing the whole system at once
Gutter work is height work. We plan access before the job with correctly footed ladders, towers or scaffolding as the building requires, and we carry full public liability insurance. Debris is bagged and taken away rather than dropped into borders or left on the drive.
Because we are already up there, it usually makes sense to do the rest of the rainwater system in the same visit: cleaning the soffits and fascias, washing down the gutter exteriors, clearing moss off the roof that would otherwise end up back in the gutter, and cleaning the windows afterwards. We will quote the combination as one job and price it accordingly.