Is it time to maintain or upgrade your guttering?
It’s easy to forget the extremely important job your guttering and downpipes do, when they are operating optimally. It’s when they start to operate sub-optimally the problems can start.
The problems can be largely aesthetic, or it could result in an insidious ingress of water into your house that causes damage and expensive repairs. Small aesthetic problems, however, can turn into larger issues.
Imagine a constant drip from your guttering from a failed join, a cracked component or small hole, onto your pathway. Under this hole lichen and moss can grow making the area slippery and dangerous
Sagging guttering, due to insufficient clipping, inadequate fall, impact damage or a warped section can cause many issues. Under this sagging section you can have water holding causing an overflow outside or inside your home envelope reducing the effective volume of your spouting. The sagging guttering could be damaging your fascia further allowing water into the wood, causing rotting, mould or worse.
FUN FACT: residential guttering generally should be clipped at maximum 500mm spacing.
Inadequate sizing of guttering or spouting can lead to overflows into your home. There is a tool online to walk you through the process, based on 100mm rainfall/hr (the highest recorded in New Zealand was in Hokitika (2004) at 134mm/hr), and for scale the maximum intensity of Cyclone Gabrielle was 56mm/hr in Glengarry, Hawke’s Bay.
Guttering measurement tool:
https://www.buildmagazine.org.nz/index.php/articles/show/sizing-gutters-and-downpipes
Build up of leaves and debris can cause major problems. This can often lead to water inflow into the building envelope causing expensive damage.
FUN FACT: residential guttering should have a fall of 5mm per 10m, minimum.
It’s best to maintain your guttering a few times over the course of of autumn and winter to ensure proper function of your stormwater systems, especially if you are surrounded by deciduous trees
We know it's not fun to be outside when it’s raining, but it is worth observing the guttering periodically to check that you are not suffering from overflows, pooling on the ground, or outflow from the stormwater connection. Also, if birds are washing themselves in your guttering, you have a sagging area.
How do you keep on top of it all?
Keeping on top of your spouting maintenance can save you money and prolong its life. Inadequate maintenance can require more than an easy fix, and can often require sub trades to complete the job, costing more.
A great way to keep on top of your spouting maintenance is the preventative maintenance plan provided by Archer Plumbing Services Ltd, where we not only look after the outside of your home, but will check important areas on the roof, and plumbing, gas and drainage components inside.
A standard plan is available, as well as a bespoke plan. Call today, while Autumn is upon us, which is the perfect time to start.
If you are looking for spouting repairs, contact us here or call on 0273486417