repairing cast iron gutters and drainpipes

Hatster

I'm hoping to repair a lot of rather elderly cast iron gutters and drainpipes - I can't see any actual holes, but they are quite rusty and in need of repainting.

Listed building, so replacing with plastic is not much of a solution here!

Is there any easy (or easier) way to go about renovating them? As far as I can see, they would need taking off the roof, getting the rust off, repainting and then putting back up again. Sounds like a fair amount of work...

savemoney

I have cast iron drainpipes/guttering.

I have at present applied gutter sealant to prevent a leak. I will later clean gutters, remove any loose paint, and paint with Ronseal paint that can be applied to guttering and on top of rust (hammerite also do a paint that can be applied on rust). Then apply two coats of bitumen paint this is on inside of the guttering, the outside isnt too bad

a&akay

I have a 1953 house with the problem you describe. However, I also have a scaffold tower with wheels that reaches all the gutters. If you feel at the very back of the underside of them you are likely to encounter a crumbly layer, ie corrosion. I scuffed this off by hand and wire brushed where accessible. I googled 'Hammerite' and bought the cheapest black 5 litre version plus lots of 3" cheap brushes, as it's not worth cleaning them, the price they are. I painted the underside and topside using plenty at the back problem area. I removed the down pipes and found most were showing signs of a 'split' down the back. I filled these with 'gun and nails' smoothed off by hand and then painted with Hammerite. All the wooden spacer bobbins were rotten so I replaced them with plastic. The nails I replaced with galvanised 10mm bolts using plastic rawlplugs. Admittedly a lot of work but hopefully not repeated in the next 10 years +.