What guttering is and why it matters
A roof sheds a surprising amount of water. Every slope sends rain down towards the eaves, and the gutter is the only thing stopping it from pouring straight down the face of the house. From there, outlets and downpipes take it to a gully or soakaway at ground level.
Most houses on Tyneside have uPVC half-round or square-line gutters, although older terraces may still have cast iron sections or ogee profiles fixed to timber boards. Whatever the material, the system only works if it falls gently towards the outlets, the joints are sealed and the brackets hold it firmly in line.
Common gutter faults
Dripping joints are the most frequent complaint. Plastic systems use rubber seals inside each union and corner, and over time those seals harden, shrink or get pushed out of place. You often notice it as a steady drip in the same spot every time it rains, with a green streak on the brickwork below.
Sagging lengths come next. Brackets can work loose from the fascia board, snap in the cold or simply be spaced too far apart. Once a section dips, water pools in the low point rather than running to the outlet, and the extra weight pulls it down further.
Overflowing is usually down to a blockage. Moss washed off the tiles, leaves, and grit from concrete roof tiles gather at the outlets and in the bottom of the channel. On some houses the gutter is simply too small for the roof area it serves, or it has been fitted with too little fall.
Cracked or split sections, missing stop ends and downpipes that have come apart at the offset bends are also common. Each of these sends water somewhere it should not go.
Clearing, repairing or replacing
Where the system is sound but blocked, clearing the channel and outlets may be all it needs. Where a single union is leaking or one bracket has failed, a local repair can put that run back in order.
Replacement makes more sense when the plastic has become brittle and discoloured, when several joints are leaking at once, or when old cast iron is rusting through. It also gives a chance to correct the fall, add a second outlet on a long run or move to a larger profile if the existing gutter regularly overflows.
The board behind the gutter matters too. If the timber fascia is rotten, new brackets have nothing solid to fix into, so the two are often looked at together.
Gutters, roofs and damp inside
Water spilling from a blocked gutter can soak the top of a wall and show up as a damp patch on a bedroom ceiling near the eaves. That can look a lot like a roof leak. Equally, a slipped tile at the bottom of a slope or a worn felt at the eaves can let water behind the gutter rather than into it.
Because the two are so closely linked, we look at the lower edge of the roof covering, the eaves felt and the fascia at the same time as the guttering. If the cause turns out to be on the roof, we explain that before any work is agreed.
Access and safety
Gutters on a bungalow or single-storey extension are often within reach of a ladder. On a two or three-storey house, a terrace with a narrow back lane or a property above a conservatory, a tower or scaffold may be the safer option. The right access depends on height, ground conditions and how long the job will take, and it is discussed before work begins.
Asking for a guttering quote
It helps to tell us where the water is coming out, whether the problem happens in all rain or only heavy downpours, and roughly how old the guttering is. A photo taken from the ground during rain is useful. We will then discuss what the system needs and provide a free quote for the agreed work.