Gutters, fitting and cleaning

A gutter that overflows does more damage than people expect, because it puts the rainwater from a whole slope of roof onto one strip of wall. That wall stays wet, the render stains and breaks down, the paint blisters, and damp comes through inside, usually on a gable or above a window. It also dumps water at the foot of the wall, right where the damp proof course is. Most gutter problems are simple. Leaves, moss washed off the roof and silt build up and block the outlet. Joints between sections lose their seal and drip. Brackets loosen, the gutter sags, and water pools at the low point instead of running to the downpipe. Downpipes block at the bend or the shoe, or empty onto the ground with nowhere to go. We clear the gutters and downpipes, flush them and watch where the water goes, then fix what is wrong: resealing joints, adding or resetting brackets to get a steady fall, replacing cracked sections and freeing blocked downpipes. Where the gutters are old, too small for the roof, or cast iron that has rusted through, we replace the run, sized for the roof area rather than whatever was cheapest, with enough outlets to cope with a real downpour. Leaf guards go on where trees overhang, though they still need an occasional clean.

Where the downpipe ends

The last metre matters. A downpipe that empties onto a path or into a flowerbed against the wall just moves the problem along. We make sure it runs into a gully or drain that works, and if the drain itself is blocked, we tell you.