Guttering on eves... best kind?

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JayADee

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Topic # 223604 8-Oct-2017 08:24

Hi,
The guttering on our house has been badly done and as a result we've put up with problems with it for years.
We want to replace the whole lot.

I see there is plastic, colour steel and copper.
Copper sounds very expensive (about three times the price of colour steel?) is it worth it?

Opinions welcome as to which to choose, stuff to watch out for, stories that might provide insight etc.

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Reply # 1879264 8-Oct-2017 08:38

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I have the white plastic kind. Works fine.

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wally22

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Reply # 1879270 8-Oct-2017 09:05

Coloursteel will eventually rust out, time depends on conditions, salt, trees, and other variables. It can last for a long time though.

Copper is maybe best painted to put off copper thieves.

Plastic is fine but eventually gets brittle over many years and any interference then from ladders or suchlike causes damage.

The most critical thing is to get someone who knows what they are doing to install it!

antoniosk

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Reply # 1879276 8-Oct-2017 09:26

wally22:

The most critical thing is to get someone who knows what they are doing to install it!

Yep, precisely this

We've put coloursteel white guttering as part of our reroof, but I also agree nothing will last forever. NZ has a brutal climate, reason we went for metal is the sun and wind can be quite strong in parts of welly.

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scuwp

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Reply # 1879280 8-Oct-2017 09:54

We have always gone with the longrun steel that they form and fit on site. Colour and shape choices make it a much classier product IMO than white plastic, and being cut to fit means less joins to rust out. But depends on the house style I guess. Never had a problem, but none of the options will last indefinitely and all require some maintenance to get the best performance and longevity.

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Aredwood

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Reply # 1879352 8-Oct-2017 12:52

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I have 30+ year old plastic spouting on my house, that I have previously taken down and put back up with new clips. Reason was to swap the end where the downpipe connects to the spouting. So no problem to work with even old plastic spouting.

Main problem with it is cheapskates not putting in enough clips. As it then bends the clips and sags.

JayADee

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Reply # 1879355 8-Oct-2017 13:03

The white plastic on there now looks fine so that's not an issue. The angles are messed up, water sits in some places and on the longest side dirt accumulates in the middle as the down pipes are at either end. (no trees around but it is a concrete tile roof from 1950) Ditto in a couple other places. Then when you climb a ladder to clean the muck out in those spots, the part sticking out from under the roof is so narrow it is hard to clean- I use a spoon. It also drips in a couple places where the water sits. I figure the previous owner did a half arsed DIY job and the best bet is a professional total redo. I've been putting up with it about 15 years.

kryptonjohn

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Reply # 1879401 8-Oct-2017 14:29

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And the clips only cost a couple of bucks each!

I have about 6m of new roof over the entrance door which needs spouting. The drain layer already left a drain to connect it to and I'll do the rest myself. Dead easy job.I'll just use Marley Classic PVC.

richms

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Reply # 1879414 8-Oct-2017 14:51

Marley stormcloud here on the replaced stuff. The old was classic but it got broken in parts where the chimney came down, and am replacing on the shed with the reclad once the painter has a fine weekend to finish that off.

The classic has a shape to it which gets ugly shadows on it and also seems to accumulate more grottyness in the scalloped part so dont want to get that just to match what is on the rest of the house. Also the profile looks like an ugly old piece of molding found on old houses vs a nice flat shape. Considered FL2 but builder said stromcloud was easier to work with.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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Reply # 1879445 8-Oct-2017 16:25

The problem with plastic is over time the joints often leak as the solvent glue breaks down and it can look bad. They used to solder the copper gutters but don't think they do that anymore.

RickW

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Reply # 1879462 8-Oct-2017 17:25

I’m a roofer by trade and the first thing that I’d be doing would be checking the fall on the fascia to see how out it is as pvc only requires half the fall as steel. In terms of personal experience I’d recommend steel every time assuming you can get the correct fall.

Rick

Aredwood

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Reply # 1879467 8-Oct-2017 17:45

If you have leaking joins on plastic spouting, either they weren't glued properly. Or no allowance was made for expansion and contraction.

Soldered copper spouting also leaks on joins as well. mostly on corner joins.

lapimate

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Reply # 1879528 8-Oct-2017 21:22

RickW: ...as pvc only requires half the fall as steel. In terms of personal experience I’d recommend steel every time assuming you can get the correct fall.... Rick

I think that "half the fall" promoted by the plastic boosters is quite misleading. It relies on the low friction of pristine new plastic and does not take account of the increased friction caused by the deterioration of the plastic surface with gravel/sand abrasion in the gutter, nor the saggy/baggy effect of the great thermal expansion/contraction of PVC cf metal.

RickW

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Reply # 1879543 8-Oct-2017 21:35

lapimate:
RickW: ...as pvc only requires half the fall as steel. In terms of personal experience I’d recommend steel every time assuming you can get the correct fall.... Rick

I think that "half the fall" promoted by the plastic boosters is quite misleading. It relies on the low friction of pristine new plastic and does not take account of the increased friction caused by the deterioration of the plastic surface with gravel/sand abrasion in the gutter, nor the saggy/baggy effect of the great thermal expansion/contraction of PVC cf metal.

Of corse with any gutter regular maintenance is critical, the minimum fall between pvc and steel is not because of the “low Friction” of pvc which is in my professional opinion bull and the first time I’ve heard that before. It’s because of the joins in the steel gutter are thicker due to the bead of sealant so in order to have minimal water backed up behind the steel join the steel is pitched more than the pvc.

Rick

Lastman

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Reply # 1879575 9-Oct-2017 02:13

+1 for PVC and I've always preferred the look of Stormcloud. We are about 3km from the sea but I still find metal starts to break down and look crap and develop holes relatively quickly.

Traditional weatherboard so plastic is not it's original character but I still prefer it. There's enough maitenance without worrying about the guttering.

JayADee

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Reply # 1879959 9-Oct-2017 15:24

Thanks, I'm going PVC, probably Marley preferably with external brackets to make cleaning easier but I do like that stormcloud with rp80 downpipe. I'm not doing it myself so now I need to find somebody who can do a good job. I think it has classic on it atm.

What is the fall on the fascia? Is that the angle the guttering slopes to the downpipe? Because yeah, that is currently an issue on at least two and possibly three sections.

I've had a plumber around twice to reglue the leaky joins but I don't know what he used or why it always re-leaks after a while. But I reckon since it's at least 15 years old it could stand a replacement anyways.

Thanks for the comments etc.

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