Replacing / repairing cast iron gutters and drainpipes

[DJH]

You could try slipping some PVC guttering inside the cast iron as a temporary measure even permanently if it will cope with the discharge from the roof.

Doug

 

[TheRoost]

From my limited experience, there were a couple of things that the Victorians were not good at. One was underfloor ventilation (often non-existent or woefully inadequate) and another was guttering: the ogee on my house had no hope of ever coping with the amount of water from a good-size roof, and the holes on the back of the ogee guaranteed that the fascia would rot. I'll bet that the existing ogee is in far worse condition than you expect. So, when you come to replace this, make sure that your new guttering is adequate - I fitted 5" half round instead of 4.5" ogee and this (coupled with 3" downpipes) gave a huge increase to the capacity. I suggest a good look during some heavy rain this winter!

By the way, is the roof itself OK?

I had a look when we last had a heavy shower, the guttering seemed to be coping ok, although at the time I probably was distracted by the water feature elsewhere which was a blocked hopper! After seeing some examples on a website of badly rusted through ogee I'm a bit concerned at what I might find up there. The adjoining house has the same original guttering and theirs is 'ok' so changing the style would be a no-go.

The roof is ok with no leaks or loose slates etc. it looks like it has been stripped off and re-laid in recent years.

I am getting no closer to even having a temporary repair done, no roofer in our area is interested at the moment!