2.5 KiB
| title | slug | date | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replacing garage guttering | /replacing-garage-guttering/ | 2025-12-06 |
|
I faced the following problems with the guttering on my garage:
- It had been bent out of shape by the wind
- The seals on the joins had worn away causing leaks
- There was sitting water that wasn't making it to the downpipe
- It was old and gross
Whenever it rained heavily, these problems would compound and lead to water pouring over onto the garage brickwork.
The sitting water was caused by the lack of a sufficient drop from the union join with my neighbour's gutter to the downpipe. A further impediment was that the water had to turn a 90 degree angle, around the side of the garage, before reaching the downpipe. As a result, water was only making it to the downpipe when there was very heavy rain and/or high winds. During normal drip-drainage of the daily dew condensation on the roof, the water was just pooling in the gutter.
I decided to redesign the passage to the downpipe. Instead of trying to make the water turn a bend I thought it would be better to work with gravity and have the drop start at the end of the guttering, not around the corner. This way, the water would have increased velocity at the beginning of its descent into the downpipe.
By fashioning a "swans neck" sequence of joins, the downpipe now turns the corner during descent and is fed downwards along the wall to the water butt.
This has been working very well and the water no longer pools. I've noticed however that condensation forms on the underside of the downpipe. This doesn't look great and I worry about it wearing away the sealant I have applied at the joins.
Overall, however I think it looks much neater as well as being more satisfying from an engineering perspective. The white half-round gutters blend in nicely with the neighbours' and look a lot cleaner.
I didn't keep track of costs for this project. I think in total it cost around £80. This included the cost of the Floplast guttering and fixtures, the downpipe and the protective mesh I applied to the top of the gutters to prevent blockages from leaves and roof moss.