gutter can't cope

trailingspouse

After a huge thunderstorm yesterday, our house started taking in water. It was coming through the top of the first floor landing window, and through the top of the frame of the front door (immediately underneath the landing window), and into the cellar, (again, immediately under the other two areas).

A roofer came out today, and had a look at the gutter - basically there was nothing wrong with it. He cleaned it out, but said it didn't really need it. The problem is the area of roof that drains into that gutter - basically half the roof drains in to a length of guttering about 6 foot long. Also it goes slightly up hill to the down pipe, which doesn't help.

Now, I accept that the gutter won't be able to cope when the rain is really heavy - but how can I stop it getting in to the house? The house is 100 years old, and there is no sign of damp anywhere (apart from the cellar) so I think this must be a fairly new problem. Any ideas how it might be getting in and what I can do about it?

Doozergirl

Firstly, the guttering needs to hang on a slight incline towards the downpipe - it really will not help the situation as it is, as water will choose the path of least resistance. It meeds changing.

Where does the water go to once it's left the downpipe? Soakaway? Drains? Is that flowing clearly underground? Might need CCTV to check, given the age of the house.

If the problem isn't entirely solved by hanging guttering at the correct angle, drains are clear and water can't be diverted elsewhere, then another downpipe would be a sensible option to cope with the load.

heretohelp

you could change the gutter to a deep gutter which will help with the volume of water coming off the roof also the slope of the gutter wants to fall towards the down pipe.
the water might be coming out of the gutter splashing under your tiles and traveling down the cavity (if it has one) on the way down it hits the window, door then gets into your basement. you can get gutter flashing to stop this sits in the gutter and goes a couple of tiles up the roof water cant travel that far up easy and it just goes back in the gutter.

trailingspouse

Gutter flashing. Excellent. I thought there must be something.

The down pipe is at one end of the gutter, and the other end of the gutter is hard up against the tiles, so can't be lifted any higher. The down pipe itself is on next-doors property, so not easy to do anything about that either.

The roofer mentioned something about it getting in to the cavity - we've agreed that he'll come out again (when he's less busy) and 'do something'. He did suggest a second down pipe, but where to site it could be a problem (the landing window is under most of the length of the gutter). I think gutter flashing might be the best option.

It only happens in exceptionally heavy rain - we've been in the house 15 months, and this is only the second incident. Luckily none of the areas have had the renovation treatment yet, so no major harm done - but they'll be done in the next year, so need to get it sorted before I start hanging curtains and putting down carpet.

G_M

All good advice, but I would also investigate where/why the water was getting in.

OK, you have water overflowing the gutter, and this needs correcting, but even so it should not be getting in "through the top of the first floor landing window, and through the top of the frame of the front door".

These need looking at too. It may be as simple as using mastic to make the join between window and wall watertight.

cellers are a bigger problem. They are by defintion low down, and water has a strange habit of flowing down to the lowest point it can! But there must be an entry point for the water. Where?

trailingspouse

Yes, the cellar is an odd one. It's only ever flooded on the same occasions as the problems with the first floor window and the front door. If water was getting in at ground level I would have expected problems from 'ordinary' rainfall too.

Water getting in to the cavity at the top of the wall and working its way through to the window, the door, and the cellar seems as good an explanation as any - but I'm happy to hear other suggestions!!

tony6403

Doozergirl wrote: »

Firstly, the guttering needs to hang on a slight incline towards the downpipe - it really will not help the situation as it is, as water will choose the path of least resistance. It meeds changing.
If the problem isn't entirely solved by hanging guttering at the correct angle, drains are clear and water can't be diverted elsewhere, then another downpipe would be a sensible option to cope with the load.

The "slight incline" of guttering is an interesting point which I discussed at length with the architects where I once worked .
The view was that if the guttering was absolutely level the water would still drain with no detriment.

HandyMan247

I agree with most of the comments above. The gutter needs to be laid level but change for a deepflow version – for example Brett Martin BR072 – If you could install an outlet at the other end this would also greatly help in getting rid of the water at a greater speed.

Furts

tony6403 wrote: »

The "slight incline" of guttering is an interesting point which I discussed at length with the architects where I once worked .
The view was that if the guttering was absolutely level the water would still drain with no detriment.

I am with Doozergirl on this one. Gutters must be laid to a fall. A level gutter will tend to collect silt. A sloping one will also speed up the flow out of the gutter thus increasing the volume that it can cope with. This is the same as the principles of drainage pipes and flows- the steeper the fall the more the capacity to drain.

I appreciate OP may not be able to significantly change matters, but half a house(?) roof draining into a six foot gutter sounds like bad design and practice. I find this scary for implications of damp.

Gutter flashing? A detail could be achieved but this depends on good, thorough workmanship. I suggest this may be difficult to achieve.

Is OP certain that the 100 year old house has a cavity wall?