Thread: Hidden Guttering problems

I have the same problem. It only affects one side of the house, so I put in a few 32mm pvc pipe overflows, which have been successful through about a dozen major downpours (including the big storms that hit Melbourne earlier in the year). It only cost me for 1/2 a metre of pipe, some silicone sealant and a spade bit (which was cactus by the time I finished).

Cheers, Mike

Yep. What he said. The guy that put mine in said he always puts overflows in hidden gutters.

I've been toying with the idea of putting normal gutter inside the hidden gutters but I haven't tried it out yet. Need to get up and measure, then figure out how to do the down pipes etc.

Mods. Feel free to move this thread to renovation.

Before doing anything rash check to see the water is getting away from the down pipe quickly enough. You may put a hose in the gutter and watch the water get away. Then unhook the down pipe and check again, you may see a large difference, if this is the case the proplem is in the drainage system.
Rowley.

The downpipes is a good point. My guy checked mine out and they were okay, and we really only had an issue about three times a year during really heavy downpours. Resulted in the same issues as bennylaird though because the fibre cement under the eaves sat on top of the window frames and it allpoured in through there.

A mate of mine who is a plumber tells me he doesn't put in any downpipe other than 100mm round these days (0r 90mm, whatever it is). He used to get away with 2x4 square profile etc, as mine are, but he reckons we get more rain these days and the old pipes don't carry it. Not more rain exactly, probably the same amount per year, but he believes it's coming in bigger downpours these days.

I reckon it doesn't matter how fast the water gets out of the downpipe, there is always the one in one hundred storm where there is more water than it can cope with - unless you remove the gutters altogether! And then there's hail, which will block things up.

Personally, I think it's a bad design and there are plenty of houses that are going to suffer internal water damage due to high profile gutters combined with a lack of eaves. The water has nowhere to go but into your ceiling and down your walls.

I think the most common solution to the problem is overflows - and most high profile guttering now has slots along the front which are lower than the back of the guttering so that hopefully the water will be able to escape faster than it can build up. I have seen mine overflowing in heavy down pours, so it clearly works up to a point.

Benny, has your place got eaves, or is it one of those joints where the guttering is adjacent to the wall? Even if my guttering overflowed into the eave, it can't get into the house because the eave sheet is about 4" lower than the top of the external wall, so the worst that can happen - and I have seen it happen once in 4 years, is that it runs down the outside of the wall.

This is a common problem over here in perth with commercial/industrial buildings built with parapet walls and box gutters inside the walls, usually concrete tilt up buildings. Gutters overflow and the water has nowhere to go but under the roof sheets. Mostly caused by insufficent down pipes and no overflows. If i were you i'd just install the overflows and check downpipes for blockages etc.

Originally Posted by bennylaird

My house has hidden gutters. The Facia is outside the guttering which is just squared off tin channel.

My problem is that in heavy rain it overflows into the eaves and then down the inside of the brick wall resulting in water windows inside and out, a feature my wife isn't that keen on.

We do not have enough downpipes which I plan to fix but a roofing guy has advised me to convert to normal guttering. As far as I can see this would be a massive and expensive job.

Has anyone had similar problems or any ideas on how to sort it out?

I'm tempted to extend the walls of the guttering and add overflows at regular intervals as the problem only occurs when the weather radar is showing red bits.

Another problem is bayonet lighting under the eaves, water runs into them with dust and crap and has caused 2 to short out already. I must either waterproof them or remove them before the problem is solved by a house fire.

Can I suggest that if you have an installation like the ones described in this link At last, the truth on gutters
hopefully you'll find a solution that doesn't involve replacing the gutters
a bit more about the issue of dodgy guttering Residential gutters - NSW Office of Fair Trading

google "gutter problems office of fair trading" for more

Hi Bennylaird,

I solved this problem at our place by installing a pair of overflow dumpers at each end of the gutter run. The overflows are effectively a 125 mm square down pipe extending 30 mm up into the gutter profile. About 300 mm of the over flow extends down below the soffit. Now the water in the gutter can't exceed about 30mm in depth or it escapes down the overflows. We lose practically no water [ we live on a tank water supply] and the overflows only operate on very rare occasions. It's a foolproof system and very low costs involved. Any sheet metal place can make up the tinware for you in a few minutes.


Old Pete

You can use an inverted downpipe pop too. Need to clean the gutters regularly though because if they are blocked anywhere either side of the overflow pipe, they can still overflow.

I remember there was a major hail storm in Sydney about 10 years ago that wiped out hundreds of tiled roofs. One of the other major causes of damage was from flooding because hail blocks up gutters and downpipes and causes rain water to overflow into the roof space. Even overflows like slots or inverted pops won't protect against that because hail blocks them off. The only way to be certain is to design the roof and guttering so that the water cannot possibly enter the roof, even if the gutters are full of hail.

Thanks Guys for all your valuable input, I might take some pics of the before and afters and post them to help others out in future.