Advice re: gutter style on 1820's Georgian house

[ross.mcw]

Hi,

First post on to this forum so hello! I'm hoping to get some advice regarding which style of gutter to get for a house that we've recently purchased and moved into and are trying to sort out various areas that have either been done badly or neglected in the past few years. I expect I'll become a regular on here as we tackle various projects.

Currently it's got some horrible plastic guttering (grey and badly painted white) with square downpipes that I'm replacing once the roofers have finished the roof, masons have finished the chimneys and I've finished the soffits/corbels.

I've decided on cast aluminium in a black textured powder coat finish (Alumasc?) - partly due to cost vs iron, but also because it'll hopefully be a bit easier to install as I'm doing it myself in a couple of weeks.

I'm just not sure whether I should go for an ogee profile (incl. which one?) over a plain half round and would be interested in people's opinions on what would be most appropriate for the house.

Here's a pic:-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vyjtf81f35z2ddj/house.jpg
(it looks bigger here than it really is)

Any advice would be really appreciated!

Thanks, Ross.

PS. if any of you recognise the house, it was actually featured in the David Dickenson 'Who Do You Think You Are' episode on BBC in 2006.

 

[ross.mcw]

Try again with that pic...

 

[MatthewC]

You might want to consider the volume of water: my house (c 1840) had cast iron ogee (all corroded and broken...) but I identified that one issue with the house was that the volume of water. It had to flow half way round the house to the nearest downpipe and so the volume was just too much, hence overflow. The shape of ogee limits the volume quite considerably and I could not fit an additional downpipe either. I therefore fitted 5" half round gutters and it has proved ideal - even in the very heavy showers we get these days, it doesn't overflow.

Also, the cast iron was not difficult to fit, as you seem to think.


Edit: "considerably"

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hello and welcome Ross Mcw.!!

The drop box link is empty!!

Good luck with your house--look forward to seeing the pictures as you progress

 

[Flyfisher]

Further to MatthewC's point about guttering capacity, there are many rainwater calculators on the web, such as this one: http://www.hunterplastics.co.uk/calculator/

I did the calculations for our house and one face of the roof was shown to be almost on the guideline limit, which exactly matched our experience that during very heavy rainfall the guttering would overflow. I was able to add an additional downpipe and it completely solved the problem.

 

[CliffordPope]

Wooden lead-lined ?

One point about gutters is to remember that the exact position to catch the water depends on the heaviness of the downpour.
if you position to catch the drips from a gentle shower, a deluge pouring down the roof may well overshoot the gutter
If you have a long run to the next downpipe it may be impossible to get it perfect, because the slate edge will be horizontal but the gutter needs a slight gradient.
The bigger half-round section sounds a good idea on that score. Ogee gutters are especially bad at catching fast-flowing water, because the water jets straight into the shallow outer part of the gutter and bounces off the angle of the ogee.
They would be more logical mounted back to front

 

[ross.mcw]

Thanks for the replies everyone - much appreciated. Interesting points about the flow rates of ogee vs half round - I'd assumed the opposite was the case so that's useful to know. I have done some flow calcs and both seemed okay, but as you say there's a lot of variables that basic calculations don't account for.

I've been trying to edit the link to the picture of the house so you can get an idea of what it looks like, but every post or edit is getting moderated so is proving to be a bit frustrating.

Cheers, Ross.

 

[ross.mcw]

Yay - the pic is now working properly!

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a beautiful house! The guttering is quite similar to ours - which is the same period to yours - lead lined with chestnut mutules.

 

[Feltwell]

What a handsome house - whereabouts in the country is it?

I have a mixture of cast iron ogee (on the front of the house where the neighbours would see it! Typical show-off Victorians....) and plain half round everywhere else.

I'm sure ogee would be fine if you've done the flow rate calcs, the amount of water entering at any point won't be too great with that roof shape, you've not got any large or steep valleys by the look of it.

One point with ogee - originally it was attached directly to the fascia boards on this house and I believe most others, through holes on it's back. This is a bad idea - corrosion tends to occur on the back and around the fixing hole, that's what happened here. I put my replacement gutter up with fascia brackets, gives it much better support.

Cast iron is not difficult to put up but it is very heavy, another reason why fascia brackets are a lot easier - all the faffing about getting the fall right and the fixings in happens with the brackets, the guttering is then just plonked on top. One thing I would say is to joint the sections with roof & gutter seal - the traditional way is linseed putty, but it goes rock hard and I find it eventually fails with the expansion movement in the guttering. Guttering providers sometimes sell a gasket kit or a thick strip of a rubberised putty, I found roof & gutter seal in a mastic gun was much easier though, stays flexible. Cast aluminium will of course be a lot lighter but not sure about lifespan compared to cast iron.

However - ignoring all the above - if you've got the cash, I'd look at ogee with internal joint fittings, as on page 6 of the catalogue below. It would give a lovely, elegant almost seamless line, no interruption to the moulding shape, that I think would suit your house very well indeed - and I wouldn't use fascia brackets, to keep that clean line. Don't you just love contradiction? :wink:

http://www.longbottomfoundry.co.uk/Longbottom-40-Page-Catalogue.pdf

 

[Feltwell]

What a beautiful house! The guttering is quite similar to ours - which is the same period to yours - lead lined with chestnut mutules.

4:20 am Joce? :shock: Insomnia?