Roofline work is a spring and summer trade, and by May the installers are busy. Fascia and soffit replacement is a modest job in terms of waste volume, but it has one timing consideration that stops jobs dead if it has not been thought about, and a couple of items that are worth more than they look. Our Ainsdale skip hire service supports this work through the season.
Check the eaves for nests before booking anything
This is the one that catches people out in May. The gap behind a fascia and under a soffit is exactly where house martins, swifts, starlings and sparrows nest, and by the middle of May those nests are in use.
It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to damage or destroy an active nest while it is in use, and replacing a roofline with birds nesting in it does precisely that. Ainsdale has a good deal of housing of the right age and construction for this, and the birds have generally been using the same gaps for years.
Have a look before you commit to dates. Standing back from the house on a warm evening and watching the eaves for ten minutes will tell you most of what you need to know, because the adults come and go constantly once there are young in there. If there is activity, the work waits until the season is over, which usually means late summer.
Where nesting is a recurring feature, it is worth asking the installer about integrated nest bricks or leaving suitable gaps in the new roofline. It costs very little at installation and it is a great deal better than sealing a colony out of a building it has used for decades.
What is under the old boards
On any property of a certain age it is worth establishing what the existing soffit boards are made of before they are disturbed. Older soffits were sometimes formed in materials that would not be used now, and cutting or snapping them is the wrong way to find out.
If there is doubt, get it tested. It cannot go in a container and our guide to hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip explains what needs a licensed contractor instead.
Where the boards are timber, which most are, the other thing under them is usually the reason for the job. Rotten fascia, failed felt at the eaves, and often the ends of the rafters in poor condition. That last one matters, because a new roofline fixed to rotten rafter feet has nothing to hold onto.
Old guttering is worth more than you think
If the property still has its original cast iron rainwater goods, stop before they go in a skip.
Cast iron gutter and downpipe is heavy, and it has a scrap value on weight alone. Sound sections and particularly ornamental hoppers and brackets also have a reclamation value, because anybody restoring a period property is looking for them and new cast iron is expensive.
It is also extremely heavy to handle. Full length sections coming down off a roofline are a two person job and they are unforgiving if dropped.
Old uPVC guttering has no such value and simply goes in the container, along with the brackets and fittings.
What actually goes in the skip
The load is modest and it is mostly timber and plastic. Old fascia and bargeboards, soffit boards, ventilation strips, uPVC guttering, felt trimmed back at the eaves, and a quantity of nails and fixings.
Old roofline timber is frequently rotten, which makes it heavier than it looks because it holds water. It is also usually painted, and where the property is old enough that paint may be lead based, which means it should not be sanded or burned. Take it down whole and put it in the container.
Do not burn any of it. Painted and treated timber both belong in the skip rather than on a bonfire, and our guide to what you can put in a skip covers the materials involved.
Sizing and placement
A roofline job on a typical house is a 4 tonne midi skip, and often it does not fill one. Where the work is being done alongside other external jobs, an 8 tonne builders skip makes more sense than two smaller containers.
The placement consideration is the same as for any job at height. If there is scaffold or a tower, the container needs to be reachable both by our lorry and by whoever is dropping material into it, and those two requirements are easier to satisfy if somebody thinks about them before the scaffold goes up rather than after.
Ainsdale sits within Sefton borough, so a skip on the road needs a permit from Sefton Council at £36 per month, covered in our guide to skip permits in Southport. Most properties here have driveway room, which avoids it.
Local coverage
We run this coastal stretch daily, covering Birkdale skip hire and Formby skip hire alongside Ainsdale, and everything comes back to our own recycling centre for sorting. Our environmental and recycling page explains that side.
Ring us on 01704 779345 once you have checked the eaves and fixed the dates. Our contact page is there if the installer would rather deal with us directly.
