Suppliers for cast iron guttering?? Mine has juts fallen off

[benmc]

All

I need some advice. I have just walker around the back of the house and found a section of cast iron guttering has fallen off!!! This is not good as you can imagine!

I knew the guttering needed replacing in the next couple of years but no idea it was this bad.

As we are listed I will of course intend to replace with Cast Iron that matches the original.

My question is around the suppliers of new cast iron guttering? Is there any good suppliers or ones to avoid?

Any help appreciated

Ben

 

[Feltwell]

Saint-Gobain's Classical Rainwater range is made just down the road from me and is fine, I've used it before. Don't buy it from their website (below) - I found it was literally half the price by buying it through my local builder's merchants. :roll: They are clearly very greedy with the margin they want to make from their retail website.

http://www.classicalrainwater.co.uk/

However - I now wouldn't use them, having since used J&JW Longbottom. A traditional foundry up near Huddersfield, they were really helpful when I wanted some very unusual sizes of fittings. Clearly a much smaller company, if their prices are comparable I'd be much happier supporting them rather than the corporate giant that is Saint Gobain (even if they do have a good portion of my pension!)

A poor website but give them a call and they'll send you their catalogue, which is much more comprehensive than Saint Gobain's range.

http://www.longbottomfoundry.co.uk/gutters-pipes-fittings.htm

http://www.northpole2006.org.uk/jjwlongbottom/index.htm

 

[benmc]

Feltwell

Great advice. Thanks very much, I will give J&JW Longbottom a call on Monday morning.

Regards
Ben

 

[Flyfisher]

I found it was literally half the price by buying it through my local builder's merchants. :roll: They are clearly very greedy with the margin they want to make from their retail website.

I suspect the retail margins on all such building materials is huge. I was very pleased with myself when I bought a whole lot of Hepworth drainage products last year and got 60% discount off their "Trade Pricelist" via Jewsons.

On showing off my purchasing prowess to a builder acquaintance, he countered with their discount of 80%.
Still, he probably buys loads more than me, but even so . . . (unless he was winding me up!)

 

[Feltwell]

"Trade" price lists are rather a farce, and are always grossly inflated above the true value of the products. Depends on what you're buying, but most places give 25% off without even asking. In my opinion it's the primary reason why so many keen DIY'ers don't go to builder's merchants - the pricing is not transparent at all.

The fact that you can go to a merchant, who is of course adding his own mark up on top of what he has paid Saint Gobain, and still pay 50% less than Saint Gobain's own retail transactional website tells me that they really are taking the proverbial with their pricing!

Go into B&Q and buy "heavyside" building products and generally you won't find they are much more expensive than a builder's mechants, despite popular belief to the contrary. It does depend what you're buying though.

 

[Feltwell]

Ben - sorry to be a phrophet of doom, but if one section of your guttering has gone that badly there's a high chance that the rest is not far behind. You need to check it carefully.

What I've found with cast iron guttering is it can look superficially OK, as the bit you can see (and therefore paint) is in good condition. However the back of the gutter, which is partially hidden and much more difficult to paint, tends to be in much worse condition. This is especially true of gutters with flat backs that screw to fascia boards - Ogee style and similar.

My ogee guttering looked great from the ground, but once up a ladder I found that the back had almost entirely disintegrated. I replaced it with like-for-like, but this time I used gutter brackets rather than screwing it directly to the fascias, as the Victorians had done.

 

[benmc]

Completely agree.

We have ogee style that is bolted to the facia board. Appears the bolts have just rusted through.

Planning to find the replacement then work out the cost to replace the whole lot!!

Ben

 

[Feltwell]

Even though it won't be exactly the same, I'd use brackets next time. A lot safer - it maybe that your screws have rusted through, but equally likely that the area around the hole at the back of the gutter has rusted through. Brackets won't stop the back rusting but they do support the gutter a lot better.

 

[worms]

I suspect there are a lot of us with gutter problems to sort out this summer, so the advice is timely. In my case some has been needing work for a while and there are a couple of ends that succumbed to the ice in winter.

Problem is, it all seems to have been done on the cheap 150 years ago and there are not nearly enough wall-head brackets, so lengths of gutter are supported by the downpipes... and the downpipes are held up by the pipes to the (silted up) soakaway... and the pipes to the soakaways are held in place by the rock-hard boulder clay...

So a typical Period Property job where you can't fix A until you have fixed B which in turn can't be done until C is sorted...

 

[benmc]

So currently the flat back on the guttering sits against the facia board and the two are bolted together.

It is the bolts that have failed, I can also see the bolt holes in the guttering are enlarged.

I can see the benefit of the brackets but wanted to check. the brackets are bolted to the facia?

I have also ordered a catalogue from Longbottom, looking forward to seeing it.

regards
Ben

 

[Moo]

Problem is, it all seems to have been done on the cheap 150 years ago

Typical. They just didn't make things to last, did they?

 

[Feltwell]

I can see the benefit of the brackets but wanted to check. the brackets are bolted to the facia?

They screw to the fascia - 3 screws in each bracket on the Saint Gobain ones that I've got. I guess eventually you could get problems with the screws corroding through, but that will take a long, long time - they are in a "dry" position, unlike the position of the screws if you go through the back of the gutter.

You could also screw the gutter direct to the fascia as well, although the bracket does space the gutter away from the fascia slightly so you may need to put a spacer in - a gap is good though as it means you're getting some airflow round the gutter, less chance of moisture being trapped. The chances of the brackets themselves corroding to the point of failure is very low indeed, they're quite solid and not in a position where they are likely to corrode quickly.

 

[worms]

Problem is, it all seems to have been done on the cheap 150 years ago

Typical. They just didn't make things to last, did they?

Walked into that one, didn't I?!

 

[benmc]

I can see the benefit of the brackets but wanted to check. the brackets are bolted to the facia?

They screw to the fascia - 3 screws in each bracket on the Saint Gobain ones that I've got. I guess eventually you could get problems with the screws corroding through, but that will take a long, long time - they are in a "dry" position, unlike the position of the screws if you go through the back of the gutter.

You could also screw the gutter direct to the fascia as well, although the bracket does space the gutter away from the fascia slightly so you may need to put a spacer in - a gap is good though as it means you're getting some airflow round the gutter, less chance of moisture being trapped. The chances of the brackets themselves corroding to the point of failure is very low indeed, they're quite solid and not in a position where they are likely to corrode quickly.

As someone stated, it is never easy.

The facias on our house are 110 years old and while in good condition generally they are starting to rot in places. Guess I could replace them in hardwood at the same time. When I was up on the ladder the thought the facias looked like a standard skirting board. Could replace with Oak Skirting at a reasonable price.

Ben