Water pooling at end of guttering: is this a big issue? Photos attached

[Matt723]

New guttering is in place, it's flowing reasonably well apart from one small corner. It rained yesterday for 30 minutes (decent amount of rain) and I was surprised to see today there is still water in there, about 2 cm or about 0.8 inch.

I did a test by emptying a bucket in that corner in about 10 seconds it did overflow / splash a bit but the water channelled through the rest of the guttering. It's just that at this corner 2 cm of water seem to always remain. There is no leak.

The corner is below a valley, but it's the small part of the front elevation, small side of the gable, there is less surface water coming down this side than the right side, but still there is water coming.

I noticed the gutter is already quite high near the slates / valley so there may not be much room to raise further.

Do you think this should be addressed now that the scaffold is in place or am I good to go?

Thanks!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If water collect there, then so will debris. Gutters need to have a slight fall, all the way from the high point, to the low point, where the fall pipe should be.

 

[Wayners]

Plastic gutter moves and bends with temperature change.
Bit of pooling happens. If it's not leaking and works fine taking water away don't worry about it

 

[ree]

OP,
Attend to it now - while the scaff is in place.
Do not accept that guttering installation - if its wrong now it might begin leaking tomorrow or next year?
Hard to see but have the gutter lengths been stopped at the expansion lines on the fittings - if not then it definitely will leak.
Gutters are not meant to pool water. Water & debris is meant to fall.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Plastic gutter moves and bends with temperature change.
Bit of pooling happens. If it's not leaking and works fine taking water away don't worry about it

The slight incline, is designed to allow for that - the incline, makes the gutter self-cleaning, every time there is a decent fall of rain water. Any pooling of water, means that debris from the roof will eventually collect there. Debris collecting will lead on to seeds being able to grow in that debris, eventually obstructing the gutter. Gutters, bending and drooping in warmer weather, suggests to me there being insufficient support brackets.

 

[Wayners]

I agree but plastic gutter never remains level. The weather buckles plastic guttering.
I like the metal gutter but it's not cheap.
That seamless guttering is formed on site using a mobile gutter forming machine. It's brilliant stuff..

 

[JohnD]

I had something similar and fabricated an aluminium support bracket to push it up. If if is relying on a joint, it will naturally sag.

 

[Matt723]

Thank you all.

No the gutter don't go to the marking "insert gutter to here" however he said this will cause no problem they always install this this way, he placed some some gutter sealant (soudal) in front of every seal at the unions. That is not how I would have done it but at this stage I feel I've challenged as much as I could. He says the gutter will be guaranteed 6 years.

Regarding the slope issue:

One of the roofers came back today and spent a few hours trying to align the gutter. He says that because we rely on next door's down pipe there is not much he can do.

He tried various combinations (I trust this judging by screw holes in the fascia I will have to fill) and eventually obtained a tiny slope by setting the gutter as high as possible on one end. It now flows in the correct direction. There is now much less pooling but still about 1 cm in the union corner and he says he can't do more because if he drops it on the other end to have more slope then water won't go in the downpipe next door

The thing is now at one side of the gable I have the lead from the valley and a couple of slates well in the gutter. Can you let me know if this will be okay or if not what problem this will cause?

I guess long term we will have to find a way to have our own downpipe to be in control of how we can position the gutter. But for now we're stuck with this as we won't be able to redo the driveway and install a new gully before that scaffold comes down ..

Thanks for your insights!

 

[ree]

OP.
I noticed the issue above - and other issues - when I first looked at your pics. But didn't want to overload you - however, you now ask so :
In short, the gutter installation is well wrong & needs stripping and re-doing.
If the guttering is so poor then what about the roofing cover installation?
There a solution for where your gutter meets the neighbours outlet.
The thing is, any proper roofer would know immediately how to deal with what you had and now have.

Stay away from any kind of metal rain water goods.

 

[Matt723]

Hi @ree, I would be most grateful if you could let me know what should be done with this gutter. I may want to do this whilst the scaffolding is up but at the moment I am a little lost.

Thank you!

 

[ree]

OP,
I doubt that it will work properly while your guttering falls are still in that disorder.
Whatever:
1. you disconnect from the neighbour's gutter.
2. you fit an Internal or External Stop End to the neighbour's guttering/fitting.
3. you fit a stop ended outlet to your side.
4. drop a short piece of down pipe from your new outlet.
5. turn the short drop into the neighbour's RWP using a branch that Y-Tee's into the RWP.
see screw fix # ~10055.

IOW's you connect your gutter to the RWP below the neighbour's gutter.

 

[Matt723]

Thank you Ree, the neighbours' outlet is actually quite far away so we can't go to their outlet without running a second gutter in front of their house. Our gutter is linked to their gutter by a union.

The roofer (owner) came back today and confirmed they cut the gutter too short so he will come back and redo the length. He advised the tile being in water is not an issue and it is preferable for the gutter to be as high as possible. The part of the gable that goes into the gutter (about too tiles wide) is also next to the valley so advised the water flowing down the valley will move water in the correct direction anyway.

At this stage I'm considering leaving the slope as is the only question is is he right that it is not an issue for the end of the tile to be going inside the gutter and hence in the water?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Is the end of the final course of slates/tiles meant to sit that far down into the gutter? I know there's to be an overhang however didn't think best practice dictates that much slate/tile going into the gutter?

Maybe deep flow would have been better?

(Note: I'm just a diy'er!)

 

[Matt723]

That's indeed the question @diy_fun_uk.

Overhang over the gutter is supposed to be 50mm but I don't find any guidance online about tile going inside gutter. Certainly higher is better to avoid drip behind gutter however unclear if there is any issue having the tip (3/4 of an inch) of the slate soaked in heavy rain until the rain drains away.

It looks off hence why I asked the question . The roofers said because they're constrained by the low point starting at the neighbours (we have to connect using a union between the two houses) they had to go as high as this at the other end of the gutter to ensure downward slope. They showed me with their level indeed they have achieved a really tiny slope, going lower means water stagnating (or we'd need our own gully).

Roofer said not an issue apart from water flow (water rolling down the slate could affect the flow of water) which he says he's not an issue here because the valley is right behind if and will push the water in the right direction anyway.

Any view welcome.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The roofer (owner) came back today and confirmed they cut the gutter too short so he will come back and redo the length. He advised the tile being in water is not an issue and it is preferable for the gutter to be as high as possible.

The correct slope for a gutter, is 1/4" to 1/2" down, for every 10 feet, but equally important, is that it should be a steady and continuous fall to the discharge. 'Gutter as high as possible' is simply wrong.... It needs to have the correct slope. Too steep, or too shallow, and it will not clear debris so well.

When I did mine, I measured the total length, decided what the fall over the distance, needed to be, fixed the bracket at the hopper, then fixed the one at the far end, at the correct height, then a taut line between, which I used as a reference for the rest of the brackets between.