Rooflines fail quietly. A gutter runs over for a fortnight in December, the soffit behind it stays wet, and by the middle of January the boards have gone soft and the fascia is holding nothing up. Booking fascia and soffit skip hire in Litherland at the same time as the roofline contractor is the difference between a tidy two day job and a garden full of wet timber and old plastic guttering waiting for somebody to deal with it.
What comes off a roofline replacement
A full roofline strip on a standard Litherland terrace or semi produces more than people expect. There is the old timber fascia, which on properties of a certain age is sizeable softwood and comes off in long lengths, the soffit boards, the bargeboards at the gable, the cast iron or plastic guttering and its brackets, and the downpipes. Add the nails, the felt overhang trimmings and whatever has been living in the void behind the boards, and a modest looking job produces a genuine pile.
The awkward part is length. Fascia boards come off in three and four metre runs and they do not fold. Cutting them down on the ground before they go in the skip is worth the ten minutes, because a skip loaded with full length boards standing on their edges holds a fraction of what it should and cannot be sheeted properly for the road.
Sizing the skip for a roofline job
Roofline waste is bulky rather than heavy, which is the opposite of most of what we carry. Timber and uPVC take up space and weigh very little, so weight limits are rarely the constraint and volume always is. For a single property having front and back replaced, our 4 tonne midi skip is usually right, and it is the size we deliver most often on this kind of work in the Sefton streets.
Where the job takes in a full wraparound with gables, or where a contractor is doing two or three neighbouring houses in the same week, stepping up makes better sense than running two deliveries. Our range of skip sizes sets out the dimensions so a contractor can work out the volume before quoting rather than guessing on the day.
The asbestos question on older soffits
This is the one that matters. Soffit and bargeboard on properties built or refurbished before the mid nineteen eighties can be asbestos cement rather than timber or plastic, and around this part of Merseyside we still come across it regularly. It looks like a grey fibrous board, it is more brittle than timber, and it snaps rather than splinters. It cannot go in a skip, it must not be broken up on site, and it needs a licensed contractor to remove and dispose of.
If a board looks like it might be, treat it as though it is until somebody qualified says otherwise. Our overview of what is hazardous waste explains where the line sits and why we cannot accept it. A reputable roofline contractor will already know this and will price the survey in. One who shrugs it off is not the one to use.
What happens to the timber and the plastic
Clean roofline timber recovers well and so does uPVC, provided the two are not thoroughly mixed with soft waste and soil. Everything we collect comes back to our own recycling centre where it is separated, and the timber and plastic streams both go on to be processed rather than landfilled. Our approach to environmental and recycling work is the reason we ask people not to use a roofline skip as a general clear out skip halfway through the job.
That last point is worth taking seriously. A skip that arrived for fascia and guttering and left with a mattress and two tins of paint in it is a different load with a different cost, and it undoes the recovery on everything else in there.
Fascia and soffit skip hire in Litherland and where the skip stands
A lot of the housing here has limited or no off street parking, which makes placement the first thing to settle rather than the last. If the skip can go on a drive or a hardstanding, it stays simple. If it has to sit on the road, Sefton Council is the permit authority and the permit needs to be arranged before delivery rather than on the morning. Our guide to skip permits explained covers what is involved, and we can make the application on a customer’s behalf.
Where a street is too tight, the practical answer is often a shorter hire with a tighter turnaround rather than a bigger skip standing for a fortnight. Tell us the street and we will usually know it, because we run these roads constantly and our drivers have a fair idea of what will and will not fit before we set off.
Working across the Sefton streets
Roofline work rarely stops at one house. Once one property on a terrace has been done the neighbours tend to follow, and we are often back on the same street within a month. The same service runs through Bootle skip hire and Seaforth skip hire work, with the same sizes and the same permit route through Sefton, so a contractor working across the three does not need to relearn anything from street to street.
If you have a roofline job lined up and want the skip organised around the scaffold rather than after it, ring our team on 0151 909 6399 or send the details through our contact page. Give us the property type, the runs being replaced and where the skip can stand, and we will get the size right first time.
