gutter woes

[journeyman Mick]

Meg,
rot is fungal attack and usually even the sound timber surrounding the decayed areas is infected. I prefer complete removal and replacement. In cases of very minor, non structural area rot it could be patched. This would entail cutting well past any areas of visible rot, anf then patching, usually with a graving piece and some bog. (Graving piece = a piece of timber cut to fit a fault/mistake/hole etc).

Is this work being paid for by the inspector's indemnity insurance? (I reckon it should be)

Mick

[Aries25au]

Hi Meg, sorry to read about your house probs, but hey all is not lost.
Anyway I live in Adelaide also and have a guy I use and recommend highly who is retired but an excellent handyman. He actually is by trade a builder. Let me know if you want me to contact him for you, I have used him and currently using him on my home renovations and cant speak of his quality of work highly enough. One of those old school types very methodic.
PM me if you need his number
Good luck

And Merry Christmas to you and all..................

[meg]

Yes please, I'd like his number. Thanks.

The story of the building inspector turned into a saga. I wrote to him to express disappointment and he turned up offering to do some reparation work for me, but I haven't seen him since! That was four months ago. So back to square one. Will definately need that handyman/builder.

[journeyman Mick]

Meg,
did you contact your state's relevant licensing body or consumer affairs department? In Queensland he would be liable for the cost of any repairs for faults that he didn't uncover in his inspection. I can't imagine it would vary too much from state to state.

Mick

[woodbe]

Meg, it sounds to me that you have a square section gutter across the back of the extension, that is for some reason not coping with the rain. We used to have the exact same situation on a place in St Peters SA, and the problem was:

1. The roofing sheets overhung the gutter too much.
2. The gutter had inadequate fall (slope) so the water that was in it moved away slowly.
3. The downpipes were pretty clogged with wisteria leaves.

The result was, that in a downfall, the water would race down the main roof onto the lean-to roof, then a wall of water would approach the gutter. Half of it would go straight over the top and down the face of the gutter and our lovely rear windows. The rest would fill the gutter and slowly ooze out the downpipes. In a big downpour, the water would enter the cieling space and pour into the back room.

We replaced the gutter with a wide half circular affair, with external hangers (so it could be easily cleaned) and replaced the downpipes. In a big pour, we still had some overshoot, but the running inside problem was solved. No water hit the windows from the gutter anymore. I think the overshoot is very hard to fix - the roof is long from peak to gutter, and the lean-to roof is nearly horizontal, so there is a lot of water arriving fast at the edge of the roof.

Hope this helps.

woodbe.

[woodbe]

Meg,

Our new gutter was like this one:



woodbe.

[julianx]

Hi
the only problem with that particular gutter is the back of the gutter is lower than the front, so in the event of the gutter filling the water will overflow to the back of the gutter and possibly into the roof space instead of over the front and into the yard. This style of gutter is availible with a lower front.

[meg]

I tried consumer affairs but they didn't seem to care. Also registered my displeasure with the MBA of which he is a member but nought came of that too. However, I did have a meeting with the said inspector who promised to make amends with the problem of water entering the wall space because the ground level outside is too high (another problem with Lemon Cottage, aside from the overflowing gutter which has now been replaced with an enormous trough like structure with new, larger down pipes). However, he rang me ages and ages ago to say that he was laid up and couldn't do the work right now. Meanwhile I can't do anything around the yard (like termite treatment) until the work has been done. I am at wit's end. I have every sympathy for his illness, but it is frustrating. I have decided to wait until after Xmas and then contract someone else to do the work and simply ask him for my $300 back. According the Archicentre who I had assess the problem, the soil level needs to be dropped around the outside of the cottage on all sides and a membrane slotted in underneath the wall frames to ensure no more water can enter into the structure. I don't know where to start getting blokes who can do this so if any of you have any ideas I would appreciate it...
Thanks, Meg

[woodbe]

oh dear...

julianx. Yes, you are correct. Our new gutter had the lower front as you describe.

meg. Whilst it'd be nice to peg this guy with costs, I think it will be far more rewarding, and less stress to fix the problems and get on with life.

The first thing to do is to drop the soil level and direct runoff away from the house. You may need to fix the dampcourse problems, but unless you have a money vault, I'd just fix the level and runoff to start with and wait a season or two to see what happens - you may well find that removing the water pressure from the existing wall is enough to make the problem go away.

The only real fix for no dampcourse is to insert one, but it may not be required if there is little or no water ever near the foundations.

We fixed a disasterously bad dampcourse problem in a city building with a mob that cut a slot in the bottom of the wall and inserted a dampcourse bag in the wall which was pumped up with grout after installation. Very effective in our case, and a fraction of the cost of undersetting, which is the traditional method. Still expensive though.

woodbe.

[Aries25au]

Meg send me a pm and I will give u his number
Or give me yours and I will call u and pass his number on

[meg]

what's a pm?

[Aries25au]

My private email is elitefun@hotmail .com...............send me a message there and I will reply