Guttering in Manchester

How guttering fails

Gutters fail in an order, and the order tells you what you are looking at. The outlet blocks first. Leaves, moss off the tiles and the grit that washes out of old concrete tile all travel to the lowest point of the run, the top of the downpipe. Water then stands instead of leaving, and standing water comes over the edge at that point in any heavy rain. It is also heavy, and it sits against the joints rather than running past them, so the union seals go next and the run drips at fixed points even in light rain. Then the weight works the screws loose in wet timber and the length sags. Most of what we get called to is further down that list than it needed to be.

Reading it from the ground

Standing outside in heavy rain is the best inspection there is. Water over the front edge along one stretch, with the rest dry, is a blockage or a dropped length at that point. A steady drip from one spot in ordinary rain, with a green streak down the wall beneath it, is a failed joint. Water still lying hours after the rain stopped is that same blocked outlet, or a length off its brackets making a dip. It is only a fall problem if the outlet is clear and the run still holds water, so we check both first. One thing we will always say: do not lean a ladder against the guttering for a closer look. uPVC distorts under the weight and cast iron can come off the fascia with you on it.

Clearing the run, the downpipe and the gully

A gutter is only half of it, and a good share of what gets reported as a gutter fault sits below the outlet. We take the debris out by hand and away with us rather than flushing it down the pipe, because a downpipe packed with wet moss is a worse problem than the gutter was. Then we put water through and watch where it comes out, which is the only way to know the clear has worked. On the older terraces the downpipe runs into a hopper head at first floor level, and a hopper full of leaves overflows onto the same patch of brickwork all winter. The split nobody finds is at the back of the pipe against the wall, hidden by the pipe itself and showing indoors as a damp stripe on the plaster. At the bottom the gully silts up with grit off the roof. We look at hopper, pipe and gully as one run, because clearing the gutter and leaving the gully blocked only moves the overflow lower down the wall. If the blockage is in the underground drain that is a drainage job, and Dave will say so. Where water still stands after a clear, the fault is the run itself and the repair goes in a free written quote.

What the water does if it is left

Some of the overflow goes down the brickwork out front. The rest works back over the inside edge onto the fascia, and that is the half that does the damage, because timber takes water in at the end grain and behind the bracket screws. Once the board is soft the brackets have nothing to hold and the run drops further. Outside you get a green streak and moss under the fault. Inside, on the same elevation, a damp patch high near the eaves and plaster blowing. A tide mark starting high and working down came off the roof, not up out of the ground.

Cast iron, uPVC and the houses round here

The Victorian terraces around Swinton, Pendlebury and Salford were built with cast iron, often an ogee profile, bolted through at every joint and bedded on putty. It lasts a very long time while it is painted. Left bare it rusts from the back edge where nobody looks, the bolts seize, and a socket can crack in a winter that freezes it full of water. Sound cast iron is worth rebolting, resealing and repainting rather than stripping off, and on a period frontage we usually say so. The 1930s semis around Wardley and Moorside mostly carry uPVC now, often on runs sized for the original half round and never resized once a concrete tile roof started shedding grit into them. On a pair of semis the run is lowest and fullest at the join between the two houses, which is the awkward place to work and the first place it overtops.

New guttering, set out properly

For a new run we fit sectional uPVC half round or square in 112mm or 150mm, or seamless aluminium rolled on site so there are no joints except at the corners and the outlet. The setting out matters more than the material. We give the run a shallow fall to the outlet, a few millimetres to the metre, so nothing stands. Brackets go at roughly metre centres, closer either side of a union and closer again on an exposed gable. A long run off a big pitch, or a valley firing into the middle of a length, wants the deeper section or it will overtop however clean it is. Dave sets the sizes and falls out in a free written quote before anything is ordered.

Repair or replace, and what affects the price

A repair is right when the run is sound and the fault is local: a blocked outlet, one failed union, a bracket out of the board, a dropped length. Replacement is the answer when the plastic has gone brittle, when the board behind it is rotten so there is nothing to fix to, or when the section is too small for the roof above. If a clean is all it needs, that is what Dave will say. What it costs follows the metres of gutter and how many elevations carry it, then the section and the material, then whether the downpipe route and the gully are in the job or only the gutter is. After that it is access, because a run over a conservatory or down a tight alley may want a tower rather than a ladder. Dave sets the work out in a free written quote and leaves you to think about it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should gutters be cleaned?

Once a year at least, twice if you have trees overhanging, and best after the leaves are down and before the first hard frost. A run left blocked when it freezes can split a uPVC union or crack a cast iron socket, which turns a clean into a repair.

My gutter only overflows in very heavy rain. Is it blocked?

Not always. The section may be too small for the roof draining into it, or a valley may be firing water into the middle of the run faster than it can get away. We would rather work that out than sell you a clean you do not need.

Should I have gutter guards or leaf mesh fitted?

No, and it is the one job on this page we turn down outright. Moss coming off a Manchester roof sits on top of the mesh instead of washing into the gutter, and a run you could once clear in an hour has to be unclipped along its length first.

uPVC or aluminium?

uPVC suits most houses and a damaged length is easy to swap out on its own. Aluminium seamless has no joints along the run and lasts longer, and it costs more to fit. Dave will put both in writing if you want to compare.

Can you do just the back gutters?

Yes. We can do a single elevation if that is all that has failed.