Stop Gutters Overflowing and Increase Gutter Capacity
If your property suffers from overflowing gutters then there are some steps you can take to remedy this. The occasional overspill onto the roofline fascias and soffits during heavy torrential rain is to be expected but during typical rainfall gutter should not overflow.
First thing to do is ensure that the gutter is actually overflowing, rather than leaking as a result of a faulty part or other problem. This hub covers gutter leak repairs.
If you can confirm that the gutter is indeed overflowing in normal rain conditions, then try the following:
- Remove any leaves, moss and other debris from the gutter and the rainwater pipe, this can significantly reduce the flow of water and in heavy rain that water will spill over the edge. Don’t forget that mud and leaves etc does often get caught in the down pipe. If this works then you will need to increase maintenance of the gutters or consider installing a gutter guard such as the gutter brush.
- Make sure the roof tiles overhang into the gutter correctly, sometimes tiles can be laid without enough overlap, this can result in water running behind the gutter and onto the ground.
- Pour a bucket of water into the gutter and wait a few minutes to see what happens. If the water flows towards the rainwater downpipe, then great, all is working well. If the water flows away from the pipe then you may need to remove the gutter and re-fit it, ensuring the water is flowing in the correct direction.
- Sometimes all may seem to be okay but the gutter just cannot cope with the water, if this is the case and you have ruled out #1, #2 and #3 above the you could try installing a higher capacity gutter or adding some additional rainwater downpipes,
If you suspect that the gutters on your house are too small for the job then an upgrade to a larger size may be required. You should be cautious about installing additional rainwater pipes as they need to connect into a drain or soakaway system at ground level. This can be expensive
