Another Gutter question
Discussion
Following on from Speedkings question about a shared gutter I have a question that maybe someone might answer.
I live in and end of terrace house, row of 3. The middle house (and the other end house but that does not affect me) have both done loft conversions. The houses are your typical turn of the century house with a side door, front and middle rooms and the kitchen on the back about two thirds the width of the house, albeit two storey so bedroom above kitchen if you get my drift.
Now their loft conversion has gone the full length of the loft above all three rooms, so far so good it's just with the way the rear roof angle is any rain that hits the side of their loft conversion wall which would have previously gone over my ridge and fallen on their side now comes down their wall and down my roof pitch into my gutters.
My gutters can't cope when it rains more than lightly.
I've upgraded the gutters to wide ones but still it overflows each side of the gutter and down the wall so much so that my father has put lead under the bottom roof tile and into the gutter to at least deflect it from hitting my walls above one set of bedroom windows.
The water flow was coming down with such volume that it leaks through the peddle-dashing and into the room. I've had the dashing re-done to make sure it's fine but it's actually made it worse now.
Do I have any recourse to my neighbours or what can I do? The dashing was initially re-done because it started to come away from the wall and eventually fell off leaving just sand cement render.
I live in and end of terrace house, row of 3. The middle house (and the other end house but that does not affect me) have both done loft conversions. The houses are your typical turn of the century house with a side door, front and middle rooms and the kitchen on the back about two thirds the width of the house, albeit two storey so bedroom above kitchen if you get my drift.
Now their loft conversion has gone the full length of the loft above all three rooms, so far so good it's just with the way the rear roof angle is any rain that hits the side of their loft conversion wall which would have previously gone over my ridge and fallen on their side now comes down their wall and down my roof pitch into my gutters.
My gutters can't cope when it rains more than lightly.
I've upgraded the gutters to wide ones but still it overflows each side of the gutter and down the wall so much so that my father has put lead under the bottom roof tile and into the gutter to at least deflect it from hitting my walls above one set of bedroom windows.
The water flow was coming down with such volume that it leaks through the peddle-dashing and into the room. I've had the dashing re-done to make sure it's fine but it's actually made it worse now.
Do I have any recourse to my neighbours or what can I do? The dashing was initially re-done because it started to come away from the wall and eventually fell off leaving just sand cement render.
KevinCamaroSS said:
You could try putting more of a drop so the water flows faster.
I've done that and there is no more scope to drop it anymore due to other windows being in the way on the way to the downpipe.My question was a more legal one is regards do I have any recourse to their builders, should there have been a gutter to catch the water coming off their wall before it met with my roof. I didn't have this issue before and the extra water is causing issues to my home now
pics ? also sometimes with terraces you have just one fall pipe serving maybe 2 or 3 houses. doesn't take much to block it up and cause problems.
sometimes its worth putting a gutter on the actual pitch of the flat roof dormer- if it were designed that way to take it.
not sure about recourse with the builder TBH- they'll have worked to the customers design brief. if water ingress is now damging yr home, it will be damaging yr neighbours so its in both yr interests to sort out.
sometimes its worth putting a gutter on the actual pitch of the flat roof dormer- if it were designed that way to take it.
not sure about recourse with the builder TBH- they'll have worked to the customers design brief. if water ingress is now damging yr home, it will be damaging yr neighbours so its in both yr interests to sort out.
OP, you don't say when the loft conversions were done. Has this been a problem for years, or has it only just occurred. Was the work done under the Party Wall Act with your input / agreement, or did you have no involvement in the process. Was it like this when you bought your home and had a survey done?
Pictures would be useful to see what they have done and to see if it has created a focal point for the run-off which would create an exceptional situation.
Basically, walls and roofs get wet when it rains and normally they are more than capable of dealing with heavy rainfall. Exceptional one-off rain will highlight any weaknesses in the weather protection without any long-term impact. It sounds like you are getting that exceptional 'wetting' on the render and brickwork far too frequently and that the there needs to be a more effective guttering route off the roof for the extra water off the loft conversion.
Without pictures, it's not possible to say if they have either:-
- ignored the problem
- incorporated a poor solution, or
- designed a good flashing and hidden gutter which has subsequently blocked or failed
Pictures would be useful to see what they have done and to see if it has created a focal point for the run-off which would create an exceptional situation.
Basically, walls and roofs get wet when it rains and normally they are more than capable of dealing with heavy rainfall. Exceptional one-off rain will highlight any weaknesses in the weather protection without any long-term impact. It sounds like you are getting that exceptional 'wetting' on the render and brickwork far too frequently and that the there needs to be a more effective guttering route off the roof for the extra water off the loft conversion.
Without pictures, it's not possible to say if they have either:-
- ignored the problem
- incorporated a poor solution, or
- designed a good flashing and hidden gutter which has subsequently blocked or failed
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