Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Jul 15, 2014 4:43 pm We are in Melbourne and house is about 12-14 years old. I recently noticed grass growing in our gutters. This made me curious to find out what's going on. So this Saturday took ladder and climbed up to see. Most of gutters were full of either grass or moss kind plants. I spent about half of day cleaning it and then thoroughly cleaned and hosed down every single thing from gutters. My observation is that gutters have excessive length between downpipes and water stays there in gutters. Is this normal thing and I'm becoming panic for nothing? Main concern is that we are planning to rent out this house in 6-8 months. It would be very difficult to keep an eye on gutters after that. What's the best solution to this issue? Re: Roof gutters leveling 2Jul 15, 2014 5:17 pm Eaves gutters are only required to have a minimum 1:500 slope (2 mm every metre) for compliance when fitted but when houses settle, the slope alters and poor drainage can result. Even so, the standards still permit gutters to pool water up to 10 mm deep for 3 days after rain for them to still be deemed compliant. There is no maximum distance between downpipes in either the BCA regulations or the Australian Standards. Your gutters poor drainage may relate to Melbourne's rainfall pattern where the average 150 rain days per annum are mostly drizzle or light showers. Inadequate flows allows silt to build up and if the gutters are not cleaned at least once every year, the situation compounds. Most flat soled gutters have poor flushing characteristics, the half round style of gutter is far superior but people choose gutters by what they find aesthetically pleasing. You could look at having the gutters re-sloped with increased height high points but it must be remembered that the gutter sole's high point must be below the lowest wall height at the downpipe to allow water to flow over the high point to the neighbouring downpipe in the event of a flow restriction. When re-sloping gutters, the gutter's back wall must also conform to the hf formula found in AS/NZS 3500.3:2003 that determines the minimum distance that the top of the gutter's back wall must remain from the top of the fascia. I would just get a handyman in late Autumn every year to clean the gutters. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Roof gutters leveling 3Jul 15, 2014 8:07 pm Thanks for explaining. It seems like that slope is within that range. Can see water flow but then some stays specially in middle region. These gutters are zinc ilium made and painted. They are still in very good condition. Hopefully as you have suggested yearly cleaning by some reliable handyman will keep them going. Re: Roof gutters leveling 4Jul 15, 2014 10:56 pm It's the negatively charged built up organic matter that does the damage in metal gutters, not the water. If it's the house gutter's first clean, they have done fairly well. If the downpipes are a long distance apart, it is hard to have much more than the minimum slope unfortunately. The BCA did have a regulation until 1st May 2007 that downpipes couldn't be more than 12 metres apart but that could have always been over-ruled by AS/NZS3500.3:2003 in any case because the AS was referenced by the BCA as a Deemed To Satisfy (DTS) document and the AS did not and still does not recognise a maximum distance apart for downpipes. On average, Melbourne has 3 heavy rain days annually but gutters need to be flushed more regularly than this. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Roof gutters leveling 5Jul 16, 2014 11:22 am It was mainly mix of dirt, sand, some other organic stuff which made perfect environment for grass and moss stuff to grow. We bought this place about 8 years ago. I believe it was very first cleaning. We don't have many tree around. So not sure if that gutter guard mesh sold in binning a will be any help? Might create more hassle to clean indeed. On yearly cleaning a regular water hose should be suffice. Re: Roof gutters leveling 6Jul 16, 2014 12:22 pm Most gutter mesh breaks up the concentrated fall of water during heavy rain that would normally flush the gutter from the front wall to the back. It sounds like your gutters are fine as is. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Roof gutters leveling 7Jul 16, 2014 3:00 pm mirz We are in Melbourne and house is about 12-14 years old. I recently noticed grass growing in our gutters. This made me curious to find out what's going on. So this Saturday took ladder and climbed up to see. Most of gutters were full of either grass or moss kind plants. I spent about half of day cleaning it and then thoroughly cleaned and hosed down every single thing from gutters. My observation is that gutters have excessive length between downpipes and water stays there in gutters. Is this normal thing and I'm becoming panic for nothing? Main concern is that we are planning to rent out this house in 6-8 months. It would be very difficult to keep an eye on gutters after that. What's the best solution to this issue? NCC2011BCAVolumeTwo 3.5.2.5 Downpipes — size and installation Downpipes must— (a) not serve more than 12 m of gutter length for each downpipe; and Explanatory information: A maximum 12 m gutter length served by each downpipe is to ensure effective fall and adequate capacity to discharge all water anticipated during a heavy rain period. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Roof gutters leveling 8Jul 16, 2014 3:25 pm building-expert NCC2011BCAVolumeTwo 3.5.2.5 Downpipes — size and installation Downpipes must— (a) not serve more than 12 m of gutter length for each downpipe; and Explanatory information: A maximum 12 m gutter length served by each downpipe is to ensure effective fall and adequate capacity to discharge all water anticipated during a heavy rain period. The above came into effect on 1st May 2007 and refers to downpipes not "serving" more than 12 metres of guttering. Depending on the downpipe location, the Current BCA regulation allows downpipes to be more than 12 metres apart. Nevertheless, the regulation is meaningless as the Australian Standards are most often called up as a referenced document under the BCA DTS provisions and the Australian Standards do not refer to either a maximum gutter length served or a maximum spacing for downpipes. Prior to 1st May 2007, the BCA stated: 3.5.2.5 Downpipes - size and installation (a) Downpipes must be securely fixed to walls. (b) The spacing between downpipes must not be more than 12 m. EDITED: Had typed gutters instead of downpipes. 3in1 Supadiverta. Rainwater Harvesting Best Practice using syphonic drainage. Cleaner Neater Smarter Cheaper Supa Gutter Pumper. A low cost syphonic eaves gutter overflow solution. Re: Roof gutters leveling 9Jul 16, 2014 6:25 pm I'll measure the distance between them over the weekend but my gut feeling is that they would be within 12m limit. Re: Roof gutters leveling 10Jul 18, 2014 2:21 pm iT doesnt matter how far your downpipes are apart, or how well pitched your gutter is, the phenomena of leaves resting in your gutter turning into peat will still happen. Get rid of all the trees around your house to fix this. Otherwise just make it an annual/bi-annual event to hose out your gutters. the longer you leave it, the harder this job becomes . Best to do it regularly. 2 9419 This certainly doesn't look good. I would be engaging with an independent inspector to have a look at this. As for the unscheduled site visits, most builders are quite… 1 28290 traditional gable roof facade - Have you did the dark and light gray color combination in facade with gray stone in facade… 0 4203 |