What's the point of cyclical maintenance?
Housing providers don't wait for a tenant to report a leak before they clear the gutters. They do it on a cycle, every property, every year or two. It isn't box-ticking: it's the cheapest way to make a building last.
Planned, not reactive
Cyclical maintenance means doing the same small jobs at set intervals, whether or not anything looks wrong yet: gutters cleared, roofline washed, roofs checked and treated, all on a schedule.
Reactive maintenance is the opposite: waiting until something fails, then paying to fix it and whatever it damaged on the way.
Why housing providers do it
A housing provider might look after thousands of homes for decades. They've learned that the outside of a building fails slowly and then all at once: a blocked gutter becomes a wet wall, a wet wall becomes a rotten fascia, and a rotten fascia becomes damp and mould inside.
A cycle of small visits catches each of those at the first step, when it's a clear or a clean rather than a repair. The building lasts longer before it needs major work, and the spend is predictable, which is easier to budget than emergencies.
The same logic for your own home
Your house is no different from a housing provider's, just one property instead of thousands. The jobs that keep it sound are the same, and so is the saving: an annual gutter clear costs a fraction of the damp repair it prevents.
- Gutters and downpipes: cleared once or twice a year, depending on trees.
- UPVC fascias, soffits and gutters: washed, so grime and algae don't stain and degrade them.
- Roof: checked for slipped tiles and moss, and treated before the growth takes hold.
- Render: cleaned before algae and staining set in.
What a cycle looks like with us
For housing providers and facilities managers, we plan the visits across your properties, price them per property and send a PDF report with photos after each one, so you have a record of what was done and what we found.
For a single home, we can book your visits for the right time each year so you don't have to remember.
To confirm with Blue Shield: Whether Blue Shield offers an annual reminder or booking for homeowners today, and what it involves.
Questions we're asked
How often should exterior maintenance be done?
Gutters usually need clearing once a year, twice if there are trees nearby. Roofline washing and roof checks can often follow a longer cycle. We'll suggest a timetable for your property when we survey it.
Is it worth it if nothing's wrong yet?
That's exactly when it's worth it. The point is to find the blocked outlet or the slipped tile before it becomes a leak, not after.
Do you run programmes for housing providers?
Yes. We plan and price cyclical programmes per property, work around tenants and report on every visit. See our page for housing providers for how it works.
Where we work
Based in Southampton, we cover Hampshire and the South Coast. Not on the list? Ask us: we cover the whole South Coast.
- Aldershot
- Andover
- Basingstoke
- Eastleigh
- Emsworth
- Fareham
- Farnborough
- Fleet
- Gosport
- Havant
- Hedge End
- Horndean
- Hythe
- Locks Heath, Warsash and Whiteley
- New Milton
- Portsmouth
- Southampton
- Stubbington
- Totton
- Winchester
Get a free maintenance quote
Tell us about your property and we'll arrange a visit to survey it and give you an exact price. It costs nothing.