Soffits, guttering, noggins etc.

Furts

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Thank you, phil23, for your kindness in responding.

They stated quite correctly that the guttering is mounted too near to the tile making debris removal difficult. I have to agree on this point having tried myself.

Regards, Sterling

To comply with accepted, and good, building practice your roof tiles should overhang your guttering to the centre line of the gutter. Failing this would cause you damp problems. This also means it will be difficult to access the gutter for cleaning but that is life. With care and wearing suitable gloves it is easily done.

Then consider the fundamentals of building. A gutter is only fixed to a house once the roof tiles have been placed. It is therefore impossible to mount gutter too high. In addition one has to get a screwdriver to the upper screw hole on the gutter bracket in order to fix it in place. This alone prevents guttering being fixed too high!

I sense that your gutter cleaners may be spinning you a yarn!

Sterlingtimes

Furts wrote: »

Hepworth also own Osma who are also a UK manufacturer, probably of the best quality guttering. Here all seals and parts are available even for guttering installed 30+ years ago. Indeed your Hepworth gutter may be Osma.

Bear in mind endless nonsense is talked about gutter replacement. I have Osma made 30 years ago and it is in perfect order. Seals are so easy to renew- you do not need to remove and renew the brackets or joiners.

Thank you, Furts, this is very helpful.

Upon climbing a ladder this afternoon, I now see that the Hepworth parts are coded by SG plus a number, e.g. SG14. "SG" appears to stand for square gutter.

I found a Hepworth to Osma conversion table using Google, so SG14 become Osma 4T805. That gives me far more possibilities.

But now you make me wonder whether there is really any problem with the guttering.

Sterlingtimes

Furts wrote: »

To comply with accepted, and good, building practice your roof tiles should overhang your guttering to the centre line of the gutter. Failing this would cause you damp problems. This also means it will be difficult to access the gutter for cleaning but that is life. With care and wearing suitable gloves it is easily done.

Yes indeed, Furts, the tiles overhang the guttering by between one third and half the way in from the house edge of the guttering.

The lower end of the tile enters into the guttering by about half an inch below top of the guttering.

As you say, getting hands into the gutter is difficult.

My guttermen suggest using a spacer and/or replacing the guttering completely.

Your posting suggests that my installation is correct.

Thank you.

Furts wrote: »

Then consider the fundamentals of building. A gutter is only fixed to a house once the roof tiles have been placed. It is therefore impossible to mount gutter too high. In addition one has to get a screwdriver to the upper screw hole on the gutter bracket in order to fix it in place. This alone prevents guttering being fixed too high!

Thank you for your guidance.

Furts wrote: »

I sense that your gutter cleaners may be spinning you a yarn!

So do I now.

Sterlingtimes

phil24_7 wrote: »

£850 for painting what every 5 years?
£250 for cleaning the guttering. How long were the two men there and did they use ladders, tower scaffold or cherry picker?

Yes Phil. £250 covered 2.5 hours of work by 2 men. Their advice may not be sound, but they did a good job of emptying very full gutters by un-clipping and then re-clipping around the four sides of the house and the fours side of the double garage.

Every five years, I have a complete re-paint at £850.

I pay for on going smaller tasks.

I have had other opportunists coming to the doors to say, "I have been working on a roof on a neighbour's house, and your roof looks like Wimbledon."

Thank you again, Sterling.

Sterlingtimes

Thank you correspondents all, I have learned a lot from your responses.

Furts

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Yes Phil. £250 covered 2.5 hours of work by 2 men. Their advice may not be sound, but they did a good job of emptying very full gutters by un-clipping and then re-clipping around the four sides of the house and the fours side of the double garage.

Thank you again, Sterling.

Before you close your thread please consider some constructive criticism regarding what you have been doing. You seem genuine and appreciative of advice so I will stick my neck out...

Guttering is fitted on a fit and forget basis - it is there for life and not meant to be taken down for "cleaning". You would not dig up your drains to clean the pies, you do not remove your windows to clean them, you do not remove your car body panels in order to wash your car...you get the idea!

You may ask why do I state this? The reason is every time the gutter is removed one risks breaking clips (they degrade with uv light), loosening the fixing screws holding the clips and brackets to the fascia, destroying the overhanging roofing felt which serves a vital purpose ( yours will have been destroyed well before now), damaging the seals (they age and become hard), and causing leaks when the gutter is re-fixed (grit gets trapped on the seals, and also the hardened seals no longer engage or bed down as they had before)

All these points should have been explained to you by the skilled (?) operatives who have done their utmost to ruin your guttering and ruin your roofing felt.

The answer is a rod, or a long narrow brush, or a simple hose pipe, or bucket...regularly removing upvc guttering is a recipe for problems.

Le_Kirk

Firstly, I would echo what Furts has said about clips, you only have to look at them sometimes and they snap!

Secondly be careful about the conversion to Osma. I recently repaired an elderly neighbour's gutter (on her house!!) and bought a replacement section using the conversion. It was close but not exact so it would not fit into the old connector. Compromise was required with hacksaw, the new rubber seal and plenty of Gripfill. Despite Gripfill not supposed to be any good in the wet, it is fine and has withstood some horrendous recent rain including Desmond!

phil24_7

I would be inclined to use CT1 for wet weather sealing.

I would also say that £50/hour for gutter cleaning seems excessive. You could get a window cleaner or other cleaning company to do it for a lot less. Some company's have long hoses/brushes on poles specifically for cleaning guttering.

You may also be able to get a painter/decorator to do your painting vastly cheaper (depending on what is actually painted) as the top of your house looks to be unpainted brick.

Regards
Phil

phil24_7

And yet I know a few cleaning companies down here in Devon that have all the relevant insurances, equipment and training, that wouldn't charge anywhere near that.

leveller2911

Charging £50 per hr for cleaning gutters is a joke, in fact its laughable.

You need no qualifications whatsoever, involves low business costs (ladder and a vehicle) and Public Liability insurance (£110 per year) .

I did a 3yr apprenticeship, spent close to £100,000 on machinery,£1,000 a yr on insurance,business rates,electric,heating etc etc and I charge £30 per hr.

I need to sell up buy a new plastic bucket and small trowel and start up as a gutter snipe...............


I'm close to speechless ,which is very unusual.