Dismantling cast iron gutters

[Geoff Flegg]

Hi,

Any tips on dismantling cast iron gutters? Can you use heat if necessary to help get downpipes apart? We're getting our roof re-done at the moment, so I took the opportunity to use the scaffold to inspect the gutters - only to find that whilst they look fine from the ground, the backs (they're ogee profile) are completely rusted, beyond repair. The downpipes aren't generally too bad, so I hope to be able to get the running outlets out without damaging the swannecks.

Anyone know of any sources of cheap ogee profile guttering? Otherwise it's likely to be half-round that goes back on, it's a lot cheaper and the back of the house has been re-done in that at some point anyway.

Any reason not to use roof & gutter sealant (comes in mastic-type tubes) when assembling cast iron? I did a quick bodge with this stuff on the plastic guttering on my last house - just smeared it across a leaky joint without even bothering to take it apart (lazy, I know!) - 3 years later it was still working fine and hadn't set.

And lastly, in my long list of questions - is there any advantage to using a bitumen paint on the inside of guttering, or is Smoothrite or similar as good?

Geoff

 

[Geoff Flegg]

And another query........

Do different manuacturers products tend to fit together with cast iron? I've been offered a load of half round guttering, new but been in storage for years, but with no fittings. It's a standard size, has anyone tried "mix and match" replacing bits on their existing guttering?

Geoff

 

[Nemesis]

We've replaced sections of old with new, and also re-used drive in spikes, as some were blacksmith made and decorative.

 

[dandrew]

Generally standard sizes of guttering were produced by foundries - half-round profiles were typically produced that had radii of 4, 5 and 6 inches. Not sure about sizes for ogee profile. I recently installed Saint-Gobain guttering and down pipes which were quite cheap as long as you go for the "primed only" finish and undercoat and top coat it yourself. Saint-Gobain sell a jointing kit which is basically a number of rubber gaskets and the associated nuts and bolts to join together lengths of guttering. presumably this could be used with your re-cycled guttering as long as the radii of all the individual pices were the same. I found it very effective - no leaks at all

 

[MattJ]

I used the bituminous gutter tape that Tuscan supply to joint my gutters. It's like a tarry blu-tac, so can be squeezed tight between gutter joints, but doesn't ooze out or get plastered on everything as gutter sealant seems to. Big advantage (for me anyway) was that the joints could be taken apart later and the tape reused when the joint was put back together.