Browse Forums Safer Living 1 Apr 22, 2015 11:37 am Hi folks, First time poster Got an issue with our garage, a free-standing single-brick construction double-garage specifically, with a ridged flat colourbond roof, located in Sydney. During normal rain it's not an issue, but when it rains heavily (more water than the gutters can handle) the water rises over the back lip of the gutter and down the inside of the single brick. I'd assume it runs across the front lip as well at it's heaviest. I've cleaned the gutters about 6 months back, and unblocked a blocked downspout (but i'll re-check when the weather clears). As above, when a normal flow of rain happens it's not an issue, just when it's excessively heavy. From the inside, there is a wooden beam running horizontally along the top of the inside lip of the gutter, and there is a narrowing gap between the wooden beam and gutter which is no more than about 1cm wide at it's biggest. In the past i've used expanding foam across that gap, not the best choice naturally as it's not completely waterproof, and water that spills from the rear of the gutter, and through gaps in the expanding foam run down the inside wall and allows for puddles of water to accumulate on the floor (raw concrete). Should i remove the expanding-foam and replace with silicon? Will the silicon bind to the wood & rear lip of the gutter? Just thought i'd seek some advice how best to waterproof the gap and stop water ingress to the inside of the garage before a more serious problem forms. Appreciate any help or advice. Thanks. Re: Garage gutter overflow. 2Apr 26, 2015 7:52 pm We have weep holes high up on the gutters, done during construction. This means that after the gutter is full, the excess flows out of the weepholes. Also do you have enough downpipes? It might be wise to add a couple where there's a longer run and no downpipe. We had gutter weep holes in our previous house, the only time they didn't work was when we had a huge hailstorm and the gutters filled up with the ice. Because it didn't melt quickly enough we had a waterfall coming in down the windows!! Re: Garage gutter overflow. 3Apr 28, 2015 7:41 pm Hi Treeseachanger! Thanks for the reply. Good point about the weep-holes, i assume you mean on the gutter itself? Those are usually stamped when the gutters are formed (i forget the technical name for them). A little update after my previous post, although i cleaned the gutters maybe a little over 2-months ago, turns out they filled with a decent amount of leaf-litter again. Frustrated, i did my research today, and decided on the Fielders 'Watergate' products, both the 'pop leaf guard' and 'gutter leaf guard'. http://www.fielders.com.au/pdf/FIEL_285 ... -s_P22.pdf Their about $40 from your local Bunnings for 10 linneal-meters, and made in Australia, which is nice. The Pop-Guards for the garage are a bit overkill since they'll also have the Gutter-guards, but i got some for the house as well. What i like about the gutter-guard is that it's DIY, and is easily removable so when enough silt piles up i can still clean the gutters, just less frequently with the guards in-place (compared to permanently installed products). Folks on the Whirlpool forums give it a good wrap, so it cant be too bad I've already installed the popguards on all downpipes, after a thorough clean, and when i have more time, i'll install the gutter-guards as well. This should prevent another pile-up of leaves, blocking the gutters, leading to overflow, leading to water ingress into the garage. I'll still try some 'roof & gutter silicone' to waterproof the gap between the wooden-beams and lip of the gutter in case it overflows for other reasons, but after all that, i'm hopeful i wont have to worry about water ingress anymore! (or cleaning gutters as frequently as i currently need to) Anyway, i thought others might find the Fielders products useful. Their made from zinc so they're also good for houses in medium to high fire danger areas as well. Cheers. Re: Garage gutter overflow. 4Apr 28, 2015 9:29 pm Yes I meant the ones on the gutter itself. There are some great new gutter guard products out there. Perhaps you need to lop or prune some tree limbs as well, if you have trees very near the house? Much a do about nothing. You can see the fall heading to the actual drains. Stormwater ingress will be minimal and it's far better to have the top sitting flush rather… 12 6421 Thanks for that, the PVC pipe is still about 40cm below ground level and it sticks out of the sand with no end cap or anything on it just open pipe, is this the finished… 2 10671 No, I even have sections of narrowness where the tiles won't slide up any further. When I manage some spare time, I might play around with the first DIY part of my… 7 5112 |