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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
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Fundamentals: Gutters, why?

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014 edited
     
    I'm at the point of drawing up the building regs plans for my new build and reading another thread about the problems with leaves and gutters, it set me thinking, why do I need gutters and could they be designed out?
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014 edited
     
    Ask this in fundamentals!!

    it is likely that they are part of the regs as everyone has them?
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014
     
    One of the nicest I've seen was in pictures from Finland, I think, on a lakeside property with a large jetty/front porch. The large roof overhang discharged directly into the water. It looked great in a rainstorm, with the wall of water.
    You could adapt the same principle and discharge into a garden feature, but I guess you'd need the large overhang.
    You could also design a roof in a sort of inverted triangle with the base at the ridge and the apex at the ground then with clever hidden valleys behind barge boards either side you could discharge into one single "torrent/ waterfall", at the ground.
    • CommentAuthordickster
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014
     
    You "need" them because of splash. Up to 600mm up the walls if it hits a hard flat surface in a downpour, creating ideal conditions for a damp external skin. You need them because the water needs somewhere to go if you have waterproof ground around your house (clay etc). We lived in a mobile home for 5 years, no guttering, no problem. Now in our new house with guttering with loads of trees. A complete pain until I put mesh over them, but still have minor annual clean up to do as have been defeated by pussy willow catkin fluff which becomes sodden and sticks to mesh.
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014 edited
     
    Have you tried Hedgehogs,............ not the miss Tiggy-Winkle variety, that would upset the kids.

    http://www.easyinnovations.co.uk/products/hedgehog-gutter-brush

    :bigsmile:
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: dicksterYou "need" them because of splash. Up to 600mm up the walls if it hits a hard flat surface in a downpour, creating ideal conditions for a damp external skin.
    So if I had a feature at ground level to stop the slash, would that work?
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014
     
    My thatch roof has no gutters; cob walls you'd think vulnerable to splashback; no probs on that score. But the thatch does slow the discharge - continues pattering on conservatory roof below for ages after it's stopped.
  8.  
    I have diverted all my gutters from about 15m by 5m + 2no*10m*20m into our new duck-pond.
    A patch of rushs that had been annoying me for years, after 2 days with a tracked digger, is now a useful feature.
    Filling up nicely too, will be about 1.75 to 2.0m deep when full.
    The pups love it!
    Then I need to arrange an artful overflow to the back sheaugh!
    • CommentAuthordaserra
    • CommentTimeMay 29th 2014
     
    Hardly any houses in Portugal have them but suffer from lots of problems at the base of the walls as well as windows when it's windy etc. This is sometimes solved by having a large cornice overhang or slot drains at the base but it's not as effective. I do agree they look ugly though. I fitted copper gutters to mine (with security torq screws !) as they gain a larvely patina dahling.
    • CommentAuthorTriassic
    • CommentTimeMay 30th 2014
     
    Posted By: daserrafitted copper gutters to mine (with security torq screws !) as they gain a larvely patina dahling.
    here in the UK, builders, plumbers and diy stores only stock plastic. Copper sounds wonderful, must be expensive?
  11.  
    Posted By: tonyAsk this in fundamentals!!

    it is likely that they are part of the regs as everyone has them?


    Yes they are part of regs. There is a calculation shown somewhere about the pitch and surface area of the roof which determines gutter size and number of outlets. Also rainwater must be discharged into approved drainage runs or soakaways - been controlled more in recent years because of flooding
  12.  
    Around here it is generally recognized by people with experience working on very old buildings that theses buildings can start to suffer structural problems if, during renovation guttering is installed where there wasn't any previously. The guttering has the effect of drying out the ground around the building, causing movement in buildings that had previously not had any signs of structural problems.
  13.  
    correctly installed ogive? continuious aluminium guttering is visually pleasing, and works well without leaking.
    • CommentAuthorskyewright
    • CommentTimeMay 30th 2014
     
    Posted By: fostertomMy thatch roof has no gutters

    True here on Skye too, even for "new build" thatched cottages (I know of 5 built within the last 20 years, and another that's just being built).
    • CommentAuthordaserra
    • CommentTimeMay 30th 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: Triassic
    Posted By: daserrafitted copper gutters to mine (with security torq screws !) as they gain a larvely patina dahling.
    here in the UK, builders, plumbers and diy stores only stock plastic. Copper sounds wonderful, must be expensive?


    It was a tad; I fitted an 8m length with 1 downpipe inc. s-bend and I paid 300€ to a German fella who imports it. I think in uPVC the same thing would've been €70 ish.
  16.  
    Posted By: Triassic
    Posted By: daserrafitted copper gutters to mine (with security torq screws !) as they gain a larvely patina dahling.
    here in the UK, builders, plumbers and diy stores only stock plastic. Copper sounds wonderful, must be expensive?


    Unless its listed then your stuck with wooden gutters painted with linseed oil paint. I kid you not.
    • CommentAuthorMacey
    • CommentTimeMay 30th 2014
     
    We used Lindab powder coated steel (dark grey) which our local builders merchants got in for us - they also do a copper and galvanised steel range. More than plastic, but worth it in my opinion.
    •  
      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2014
     
    Posted By: fostertomMy thatch roof has no gutters; cob walls you'd think vulnerable to splashback; no probs on that score. But the thatch does slow the discharge - continues pattering on conservatory roof below for ages after it's stopped.

    Hence the expression 'eavesdropping'. Standing under a thatched roof listening to the conversation indoors through the window, in the days when windows didn't have glass.
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMay 31st 2014
     
    wow!
    • CommentAuthorborpin
    • CommentTimeJun 1st 2014
     
    I'd second the vote for Lindab. I looked at aluminium but felt they would be vulnerable to snow damage. During my conversations with reps, one said the problem with snow damage was that most gutters are set too high. If you lay a piece of wood down the finished roof, the outer edge of the gutter should be at that level. My builders gave me the 'the water will just shoot over the top' speech but I did it anyway and it is fine. No snow last year so no idea if it works or not. Still the brackets and strong gutter will I hope stop damage as well.

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