PVC guttering

[knewey]

Hi all,

I saw some pvc guttering at Bunnings the other day - has anyone had any experience with this stuff? It looks pretty good in terms of ease at which it can be installed with vitually a molded piece to suit every possible eventuality. Don't know how it compares price wise, but I like the idea of using pvc glue to join it all up (rivets and silicon sounds messy). And I assume it takes paint ok.

Or is it simply a fad.

Cheers,

[griffo]

I've used it twice now to gutter two different pergolas. I left it unpainted both time so I can't comment on the finishing side of things. It is very eady to work with and there is a joint for just about every eventuality.


griffo;)

[mikeyp]

I've used it on my house.

It's very quick and easy to install. Although I have two problems with it.
1) The channel tends to warp a bit between each support over time (3 years) I used the manufacturer recommended support spacing , from memory approx 400mm.
2) water tends to stick to it so you end up with a row of dropplets forming along the channel at the lowest point, that constantly drip down.

You can put it all up without glue to check and then glue each joint just by pulling the sections apart slighlty (the channel can move whilst hooked into the supports) - Use plenty of the pvc glue, especially on the down pipe joints.

I didn't paint mine, but I would suggest you give them a good roughing up with sandpaper before painting.

Regards,
Mike

[Barry_White]

The only problem with PVC gutter is that after about 20 years time when you lean a ladder against it you end up with two extra outlets for the water, especially if it isn't painted.

[ChrisH]

I recently had a phone call from a local old dear whose gutters were blocked, so no rain was getting to her tanks. When the rain eased to merely torrential I got up to clean them out. They were old plastic, but still the same profile you see in Bunnings today. AS well as being full of leaves, they had buckled in both horizontal and vertical planes. In some places the gutter had pulled away so far that the water fell between the fascia and the gutter, instaed of into the gutter. When I tried to push it back, it cracked. (fortunately only slightly.) The dips and rises meant it also held stagnant pools between downpours.
I'd stick to zincalume or colorbond.

Chris.

[knewey]

Thanks for all the replies,

I think after reading some of the problems people encounter I might stick to the more traditional style of guttering - zincalume. colourbond.

Cheers,

[Christopha]

About 29 years ago I reguttered an old farmers house with the crap at his insistence, 6 weekslater I retuned and did the job again in zincalume as the bloody Corellas had eaten all of the plastic stuff! The only place I would consider using is at the beach and then only in short, straight runs.....

[dale]

I'm not so sure about the value of PVC guttering, but I'ld be 100% behind PVC downpipes. A friend has his 90mm downpipes with 45degree bends and it never clags up with leaves.
The stupid, stupid, stupid plumbers who build downpipes out of 4x2 steel with shallow angles that slow the waterflow and cause leaves to fall out of the waterstream and clag everything up should be forced to empty out all of their stupid gutters when it's pouring down.

(from someone who has cleared out all of those stupid gutters when it's pouring down).

[Barry_White]

I agree with Dale regarding downpipes. I replaced all mine with 90mm PVC. The only thing is that it needs to be painted to protect it from UV deteriation.

[Snoopy]

Paint really is the trick here. Even the new uPVC, mPVC and cPVC (contains UV blocking agents to help slow deterioration) will only last a few years in the sunlight until it will become brittle. You would need to use a good quality outdoor UV shielding paint (such as Solarguard or Dulux X-10) to prevent this. Warping is not such a problem these days so far as I know. As stated though, this system is best suited to exposed coastal locations, as since you still have to paint it there is no great maintenance benefits. I would consider this system on a cost/intallation basis only.

Just as an aside but also of note is that all PVC is currently being quietly phased out. There a couple of reasons for this. The one usually spoken about is the fact that it leaches out chlorides and other nasties over time. But the other reason is that the polyethylene alternatives are made from petroleum by-products which means oil producers can easily sell and profit from a waste product. To help this along the global prices for PVC raw materials (which come from the same sources) have been going up by about 10-15% per annum of the last 4-5 years. (This is the current word in the pipe industry, anyway).

[soundman]

a couple of lessons i have learned one easy one hard.

easy
Wattyl super etch is great for priming pvc pipe ( or gal gutter for that matter), spray application prior to fixing. Sticks great & good to paint over.

hard
always put more gutter supports than specified, a lot more.
I've had two gutter sagging sagas here and have seen many others.

Water weighs 1 kg per litre (1000cc), my gutter when full (spouts clogged) weighs in excess of 20kg per metre, 25metres long that makes my gutter when full weigh half a tonn!!!!

Sometimes the standard hardware has difficulty getting a secure fix & pulls out or bends.


just remembered a third, quad gutter collects much less leaves than the fancy square stuff.

[Barry_White]

Just remember when putting up gutter it is not the size of the gutter catching the water it is the number of downpipes that is getting it away that is most important.

[KiwiSteve]

Just my 10 cents worth. In NZ pretty much all housing was done with PVC guttering (and I think still is). There I think there were 2 or 3 different guttering profiles and since I left NZ (1996) they have released several colours to add to the more common white. I don't remember many people actually painting it.

I found it easy to work with as others have said with all the various fittings and simple PVC solvent based glue.

Of course in NZ we didn't have the problems of parrots eating them and maybe the UV is not quite as harsh as Oz.

I must admit I now think I prefer the colorbond product that we have used on our house here in Melbourne (lots of colours to choose these days as well). We also put in the 100x75 downpipes rather then 100 x 50 so I think that improves water flow especially with leaves added.

[soundman]

It don't matter how many or how big the down spouts are, if they are bunged up with leaves the gutter will fill up.
Yess 100mm down pipes clog up less.

then we could get onto various leaf barriers.

well I've never seen one that can cope with a serious leaf load.

I know quite a few people in bushland areas who just don't have guttering.

[KiwiSteve]

The roofing plumber that did our roof and guttering said the best way to survive the leaf problem was to get up there and clean 'em out regularly. I have tried some leaf barrier products but I still had to clean the guttering out so I now just do what my plumber suggested