[Closed] Victorian gutters, what were they thinking?. Thaw woes

[i]Cleared all the roofs[/i]

Do you not have servants for that sort of thing?

Nope, just me.

Not suffering here. The (one)advantage of living in a modern shoebox.

Around here it's the crappy plastic ones that have fallen off. The cast iron ones are ok well except for the than hit an old dear on the bonce.

Hidden rainwater roof gutters might hide unsightly pipes....Ours all froze creating icy lakes of mel****er in the roof valleys.

If you mean "box guttering" then they are still a standard method of roof construction today.

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If you mean "box guttering" then they are still a standard method of roof construction today.

No, its just a series of valleys which have lead gutters going through stone walls to take the captured water away. Even leaves block them in autumn.

edit - thats the thing but it diverted throught three inch lead pipe.

I assume you've got a parapet wall which has an outlet for the box guttering then. That isn't unusual these days either, although it is normally associated with flat roofs.

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Mine has this also, between our roof and next doors roof, the thaw hasn't thawed the ice blocking the drain fast enough, so the roof full of snow melted and filled the valley, overflowing it down the back of the partition wall, soaking my plaster. Tempted to install trace heating up there.

I dare say it's frozen more then once in the 100-ish years since it was put up....

Maybe it can cope on it's own? 😉

Maybe it can cope on it's own?

Dunno about his, but mine certainly can't, without destroying my plaster and cavity wall insulation.

Well our entire roof is made of wood (cedar shingle tiles) and one of our gutters fell off recently. Oh well.

Ernie - I rather think he's talking about valley gutters rather than box gutters or parapet gutters. Anyway for all three it's very useful to put in a weir overflow "just in case" the internal rwp's get blocked. Syphonic drainage might be a neat solution if you're happy to destroy quite a lot of historic fabric....

Same problem as coffeeking. The snow gathers in the valley. The exit drain freezes. The thawed material cant escape, creates a lake that then overflows the lead tanking and then escapes under the slates.

I doubt its the first time its happened.

A good friend parked her car under the eaves of her three storey house. The avalanche that shot off the roof crushed her car.

A good friend parked her car under the eaves of her three storey house. The avalanche that shot off the roof crushed her car.

😯 Forgot I had my rather rare car sat under teh eaves of my snow-laden roof. Bugger.

Not everything about victorian buildings is wonderfull: The OG Rhones that sit on the wallhead are an example; when they overflow, water runs down the back of lathe/plaster wall, wetting wooden lintels etc on the way. The fancy baronial turrets you get in Marchmont often have lead gutters going through them (they are often soldered into lead watergates and these joints can tear as the metal expands and contracts).
The Gorgian houses often have Box Rhones at the eaves which were never waterproof: 2m is about the longest a single piece of lead can be without it pulling itself apart as it contracts.

I'm guessing the New Town will be suffering the same problem we have. My folks have property there where there are no downpipes on the front of the building. It is all diverted through the building to the rear.

Disaster in the making.