Roofers in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
Guttering in Llanelli: get the rain off the roof and away from the walls
Water pouring over a gutter or down a wall is doing damage every wet day. Say how long the run is and how many storeys, and a local roofer will ring you back about it.
- Gutters and downpipes cleared of moss, leaves and grit
- Dripping joints, sagging runs and broken brackets fixed
- New uPVC, aluminium or cast iron guttering fitted
- Rotten fascia and soffit boards replaced
A waterfall by the front door
In a heavy shower a house roof sheds a lot of water. All of it is meant to go along the gutter, down the pipe and into the drain.
When the gutter is blocked or has dropped, that water goes over the front edge in a sheet. It soaks the wall, splashes the door and windows, and in time finds its way through to the plaster inside. You may see a green stripe on the render under one joint, or a patch of damp in the corner of a bedroom.
In this part of Wales the gutters get plenty of practice. A fault that would be a nuisance in a dry town does real harm here.
From damp patch to a price, in three moves
Describe what you can see
Write down what you have noticed from the ground or from indoors: a slate in the gutter, a stain on a ceiling, water running down the wall behind a downpipe. Add your name, a phone number and the part of Llanelli you are in.
A roofer from your side of town rings
Your phone goes at the hour you asked for. Expect a few plain questions about the house and the roof, and for most jobs a time to come round and have a proper look.
You get a figure and think it over
Have the price put in writing, with a line on what it covers. Take as long as you like over it. If it does not suit you, say so and that is the end of it.
What goes wrong at the roof edge
- Blockage. Moss rolls down the slates and settles in the gutter with leaves and grit. The outlet to the downpipe clogs first.
- Leaking joints. The rubber seals in plastic gutter joints harden and shrink with age.
- Sagging. Brackets snap or pull out of a soft fascia, so the gutter no longer falls towards the outlet.
- Rotten boards. A timber fascia that has been wet for years will not hold a screw. Paint hides it until the gutter comes away.
- Short felt. The roofing felt should lap into the gutter. Where it has rotted back, rain runs behind the gutter and down the wall.
The first two are quick, cheap repairs. The last three usually mean new boards, new gutter or both.
Gutter and roofline costs
Typical UK figures from published guides. Choose the job, then the kind of house where asked.
Every figure here is a typical UK guide price read from the published guide named with it. Not one is a quote for your roof. What your own job comes to depends on the size and height of the roof, how easy it is to reach, the materials and what turns up once the old covering is lifted. Most of the guides give their prices before VAT.
The whole price list in one table
| Job | UK guide price |
|---|---|
| Clearing blocked gutters: Small terraced houseCleaning about 5 metres of gutter on a small terraced house. | £50 to £120 |
| Clearing blocked gutters: Medium semi-detachedCleaning about 15 metres of gutter on a medium semi-detached house. | £100 to £150 |
| Clearing blocked gutters: Detached four-bedCleaning about 20 metres of gutter on a detached four-bedroom house. | £130 to £165 |
| Clearing blocked gutters: Three-storey houseCleaning about 15 metres of gutter on a three-storey townhouse with a gutter vacuum. | £165 to £300 |
| New guttering and downpipesReplacing a 15 to 20 metre run of guttering with three downpipes, supplied and fitted. The guide says most three-bedroom houses need about that much. | £650 to £1,700typical about £1,000 |
| New fascias and soffits on a three-bed semiA full uPVC roofline on a three-bedroom semi: fascias, soffits, gutters and downpipes. The source is a roofing firm's guide that reports the range from another UK cost guide. | £1,800 to £3,500 |
Every figure here is a typical UK guide price read from the published guide named with it. Not one is a quote for your roof. What your own job comes to depends on the size and height of the roof, how easy it is to reach, the materials and what turns up once the old covering is lifted. Most of the guides give their prices before VAT.
The published guides these prices were read from
Prices by the metre and by region
Checkatrade's gutter replacement guide lists uPVC gutter at £30 to £70 a metre fitted, aluminium at £55 to £180 and cast iron at £85 to £275. It puts new fascia and soffit boards at around £150 for each metre.
For cleaning, the same firm's gutter cleaning guide publishes regional averages. It gives Wales a typical cost of £115 to £202 a job, with an average of £151. That was the second highest of the regions it lists, after Greater London.
Most houses in town suit plain uPVC. Cast iron costs far more, but on a listed building or in the conservation area a like-for-like replacement may be what is expected, so check before changing the material.
Gutters on a Llanelli terrace
Along a terrace the gutter is often one continuous run across several houses, falling to a shared downpipe. If the pipe is two doors down and blocked, your gutter overflows however clean it is. A roofer will look along the whole run, and you may need to speak to the neighbours about sharing the job.
Rear extensions add short lengths of gutter that are easy to forget. They sit low, catch everything that washes off the main roof, and block quickly.
Gutters need clearing more often under a mossy roof or near trees. If moss is the cause, it makes sense to have the roof looked at as well. See roof repairs in Llanelli for moss removal, and slate roofing if the roof is slate.
Roofing work in Llanelli
- Roof and leak repairsLeaks traced, slates and ridges re-fixed, lead put right.
- Emergency rooferRain coming in or roof damage after a gale.
- Slate roofingSlates replaced, slopes re-laid, old slate reused where sound.
- Flat roofsExtensions, garages and dormers patched or re-covered.
- Chimneys and leadworkRepointing, lead flashing, pots, rebuilds and removals.
- New roofsFull re-roofs in slate or tile, with the Welsh rules explained.
Llanelli and the places round it
Roofing help for the whole town, the villages on its edge and the coast as far as Burry Port.
- Town centre, Bigyn and Tyisha
- New Dock, Morfa and Machynys
- Sandy and Stradey
- Felinfoel
- Swiss Valley
- Dafen
- Pemberton and Trostre
- Llwynhendy and Bynea
- Pwll
- Burry Port and Pembrey
- Llangennech
- Trimsaran
- Kidwelly
- Loughor
Plain facts before you fill it in
- No bill for asking. There is no fee for sending the form and no fee for the call. Turning a price down costs nothing either.
- The form is brief. Your name, a number, your area and what is wrong. The number of your house and your email address are not asked for.
- The prices are not ours. Each figure on these pages was read from a published UK cost guide, and the guide is named and linked next to it. Use them to get your bearings. A real price needs someone to look at your own roof.
- Your details go no further than the job. They are used so a roofer can ring you about your roof. Nobody buys them, and you will not end up on a marketing list.
Common questions
How often should gutters be cleared in a wet area?
Once a year suits most houses, done in late autumn once the leaves are down. Under trees, or below a roof with heavy moss, twice a year is safer. If water spills over in a normal shower, they are due now.
Is it the gutter or the roof that is leaking?
Watch in the rain. Water coming over the front lip means a blockage or a sag. Water running down the wall behind the gutter points to rotted felt or a failed fascia. A drip from one spot is usually a joint.
Do fascias and gutters have to be replaced together?
Not in every case. Sound boards can take a new gutter. But the gutter has to come off to replace a fascia, so if the boards are soft it costs little extra to renew the guttering while everything is down.
A wall that never dries
Render and stone can take a shower. They cannot take a stream in the same place all winter. The damp works inwards, lifts plaster, blackens the corner of a room and rots the ends of the roof timbers that rest on the wall. Clearing or fixing a gutter is one of the cheapest jobs on a house, and one of the dearest to ignore.
Count the storeys, guess the length and name your part of Llanelli. The quote itself is never charged for.