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Rain gutter
A rain gutter, eavestrough or surface water collection channel is a
component of a water discharge system for a building.[1] It is necessary to
prevent water dripping or flowing off roofs in an uncontrolled manner for
several reasons: to prevent it damaging the walls, drenching persons standing
below or entering the building, and to direct the water to a suitable disposal
site where it will not damage the foundations of the building. In the case of a
flat roof, removal of water is clearly essential to prevent water ingress and to
prevent a build-up of excessive weight.
Lead guttering: slate and pitched
Water from a pitched roof flows down into a valley gutter, a parapet gutter or valley gutter flow into parapet gutter,
an eaves gutter. An eaves gutter is also known as an eavestrough (especially in with downpipe and overflow
Canada), rhone (Scotland)[2], eaves channel, dripster, guttering, rainspouting
or simply as a gutter.[3] The word gutter derives from Latin gutta (noun),
meaning "a droplet".[4]

Guttering in its earliest form consisted of lined wooden or stone troughs. Lead
was a popular liner and is still used in pitched valley gutters. Many materials
have been used to make guttering: cast iron, asbestos cement, UPVC (PVCu),
cast and extruded aluminium, galvanized steel, wood, copper, zinc, and
bamboo.

Eaves gutter and downpipe

Contents
Description
History
Types
Cast iron
UPVC
Stainless steel
Seamless gutters
Zinc
Finlock gutters
Vernacular buildings
Shapes
Gutter guards
Types of gutter guards
See also
References
External links

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Description
Gutters prevent water ingress into the fabric of the building by channelling the
rainwater away from the exterior of the walls and their foundations. [5] Water
running down the walls causes dampness in the affected rooms and provides a
favourable environment for growth of mould, and wet rot in timber.[6]

A rain gutter may be a:

Roof integral trough along the lower edge of the roof slope which is
fashioned from the roof covering and flashing materials.
Discrete trough of metal, or other material that is suspended beyond the
roof edge and below the projected slope of the roof.
Wall integral structure beneath the roof edge, traditionally constructed of
masonry, fashioned as the crowning element of a wall.[7]
A roof must be designed with a suitable fall to allow the rainwater to discharge.
The water drains into a gutter that is fed into a downpipe. A flat roof will have a
watertight surface with a fall of 1 in 60, or 1 in the case of lead. They can drain
internally or to an eaves gutter, which has a minimum 1 in 360 fall towards the
downpipe. [8] The pitch of a pitched roof is determined by the construction Decorative lead hopper head dated
material of the covering. For slate this will be at 25%, for machine made tiles it 1662, Durham Castle
will be 35%. Water falls towards a parapet gutter, a valley gutter or an eaves
gutter. [9] When two pitched roofs meet at an angle, they also form a pitched
valley gutter: the join is sealed with valley flashing. Parapet gutters and valley gutters discharge into internal rainwater
pipes or directly into external down pipes at the end of the run. [9]

A parapet gutter at the A simpler parapet gutter. A valley gutter between

base of a sloping roof two parallel roof
and a parapet wall, surfaces.
outflowing to a downpipe

The capacity of the gutter is a significant design consideration. The area of the roof is calculated (metres) and this is
multiplied by rainfall (litres/sec/metres²) which is assumed to be 0.0208. This gives a required discharge outfall capacity.
(litres/sec) .[10] Rainfall intensity, the amount of water likely to generated in a two-minute rainstorm is more important
that average rainfall, the British Standards Institute[11] notes that an indicative storm in Essex, (annual rainfall 500mm
per annum) delivers 0.022 l/s/m²- while one in Cumbria (annual rainfall 1800mm per annum) delivers 0.014 l/s/m².[12]

Eaves gutters can be made from a variety of materials such as cast iron, lead, zinc, galvanised steel, painted steel, copper,
painted aluminium, PVC (and other plastics) and occasionally from concrete, stone, and wood.[13]

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Water collected by a rain gutter is fed, usually via a downpipe (also called a
leader or conductor),[14] from the roof edge to the base of the building where it
is either discharged or collected.[15] The down pipe can terminate in a shoe and
discharge directly onto the surface, but using modern construction techniques
would be connected through an inspection chamber to a drain that led to a
surface water drain or soakaway. Alternatively it would connect via a gulley (u-
bend) with 50mm water seal to a combined drain.[16] Water from rain gutters
may be harvested in a rain barrel or a cistern.[17]

Rain gutters can be equipped with gutter screens, micro mesh screens, louvers
or solid hoods to allow water from the roof to flow through, while reducing
passage of roof debris into the gutter.[18]
a: Rainwater gutter

Clogged gutters can also cause water ingress into the building as the water b: Endcap
backs up. Clogged gutters can also lead to stagnant water build up which in c: Hopper
some climates allows mosquitoes to breed.[19] d: 112° bend
f: Downpipe
History g: Manifold

The Romans brought rainwater systems to Britain. The technology was

subsequently lost, but was re-introduced by the Normans. The White Tower, at
the Tower of London had external gutters.[20] In March 1240 the Keeper of the Works at the Tower of London was ordered
by King Henry "to have the Great Tower whitened both inside and out". This was according to the fashion at the time.
Later that year the king wrote to the Keeper, commanding that the White Tower's lead guttering should be extended with
the effect that "the wall of the tower ... newly whitened, may be in no danger of perishing or falling outwards through the
trickling of the rain".[21]

In Saxon times, the thanes erected buildings with large overhanging roofs to throw the water clear of the walls in the same
way that occurs in thatched cottages. The cathedral builder used lead parapet gutters, with elaborate gargoyles for the
same purpose. With the dissolution of the monasteries- those buildings were recycled and there was plenty of lead that
could be used for secular building. The yeoman would use wooden gutters or lead lined wooden gutters. [20]

When The Crystal Palace was designed in 1851 by Joseph Paxton with its innovative
ridge-and-furrow roof, the rafters that spanned the space between the roof girders of
the glass roof also served as the gutters. The wooden Paxton gutters had a deep semi-
circular channel to remove the rainwater and grooves at the side to handle the
condensation. They were under trussed with an iron plate and had preformed notches
for the glazing bars: they drained into a wooden box gutter that drained into and
through structural cast iron columns.[22]

The industrial revolution introduced new methods of casting-iron and the railways Cross section of a Paxton
brought a method of distributing the heavy cast-iron items to building sites. The gutter with glazing bar
relocation into the cities created a demand for housing that needed to be compact.
Dryer houses controlled asthma, bronchitis, emphysema as well as pneumonia. In
1849 Joseph Bazalgette proposed a sewerage system for London, that prevented run-off being channelled into the Thames.
By the 1870s all houses were constructed with cast iron gutters and down pipes.[20] The Victorian gutter was an ogee,
115 mm in width, that was fitted directly to the fascia boards eliminating the need for brackets.[23] Square and half-round

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profiles were also available. For a brief period after the first world war asbestos-cement guttering became popular due to it
being maintenance free: the disadvantages however ensured this was a short period: it was more bulky and fractured on
impact [24]

Types

Cast iron
Cast iron gutters were introduced in the late 18th century as an alternative to lead. Cast iron enabled eaves gutters to be
mass-produced: they were rigid and non-porous while lead could only be used as a liner within timber gutters. Installation
was a single process and didn't require heat.[25] They could be attached directly to the fascia board. Cast iron gutters are
still specified for restoration work in conservation areas, but are usually replaced with cast aluminium made to the same
profile.[23] Extruded aluminium gutters can be made to a variety of profiles from a roll of aluminium sheet on site in
lengths of up to 30 m. They feature internal brackets at 400 mm spacing.[26]

UPVC
In UK domestic architecture, guttering is often made from UPVC sections. The first PVC pipes were introduced in the
1930s for use in sanitary drainage systems. Polyethylene was developed in 1933. The first pressurised plastic drinking
water pipes were installed in the Netherlands in the 1950s. During the 1960s rain water pipes, guttering and down pipes
using plastic materials were introduced followed by PVC soil systems which became viable with the introduction of ring
seals. A British Standard was launched for soil systems, local authorities started to specify PVC systems. By 1970 plastic
rainwater systems accounted for over 60% of new installations.[27] A European Standard EN607 has existed since
2004.[28]

A collector with 112 mm Available gutter fittings Available pipe and gutter Fitting a gutter to a 45°
gutter, draining into fittings connector
68 mm downpipe

It is easy to install, economical, lightweight requires minimum maintenance and has a life expectancy of 50 years. The
material has a disadvantageous coefficient of thermal expansion 0.06 mm/m°C, so design allowances have to be made. A
4-metre gutter, enduring a −5 °C to 25 °C temperature range will need space to expand, 30 × 4 × 0.06 = 7.2 mm within its
end stops.[29] As a rule of thumb a 4-inch (100 mm) gutter with a single 68-millimetre (2.7 in) downpipe will drain a 600-
square-foot (56 m2) roof.[30]

Stainless steel

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High quality stainless steel guttering systems are available for homes and commercial projects. The advantage of stainless
steel is durable, not rust, easy to clean, nice appearance, compared with the ordinary concrete gutter, the stainless steel
gutter will produce the extension effect with the temperature rising, in some local positions due to the stress can not be
completely released there will be some deformation phenomenon, which will cause phenomenon of water ponding, for
these locations with the up and down motion less than 10mm generally does not affect the use of gutter.

Seamless gutters
Seamless gutters have the advantage of being produced on the spot with a portable roll forming machine to match the
specifications of the building they're installed in. This reduces opportunities for clogs and leaks, and extends the lifetime
of the building's gutter system. By being made to order, seamless gutters are also able to reduce waste over sectional gutter
systems that leave the homeowner cutting gutter pieces down to size to match a building's dimensions. [31]

Zinc
In UK commercial and European commercial and domestic architecture, guttering is made from zinc. Metal gutters with
bead stiffened fronts is governed in the UK by BS EN612:2005.[32]

Finlock gutters
Finlock gutters, a proprietary name[33] for concrete gutters, can be employed on a large range of buildings. There were
used on domestic properties in the 1950s and 1960s, as a replacement for cast iron gutters when there was a shortage of
steel and surplus of concrete.[34] They were discredited after differential movement was found to open joints and allow
damp to penetrate, but can be fitted with an aluminium and bitumastic liner.[35] Finlock concrete gutter units are made up
of two troughs – one is the visible gutter and the other sits across the cavity wall. The blocks which can range from 8 to 12
inches (200 to 300 mm) can be joined using reinforcing rods and concrete, to form lintels for doors and windows.[35]

Vernacular buildings
Guttering can be made from any locally available material such as stone or wood. Porous materials may be lined with pitch
or bitumen.

Wooden gutter at an Wood used on a stone Stone gutter in Stone gutters in

open air museum building Burgundy Slovenia

Shapes

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Today in Western construction we use mainly three types of gutter - K-Style, Round, Square. In days past there were 12
gutter shapes/styles. K-Style gets its name from its letter designation being the eleventh out of the twelve.

Gutter guards
Gutter guards (also called gutter covers, gutter protection or leaf guards) are primarily aimed at preventing
damage caused from clogged gutters and reducing the need for regular gutter cleaning. They are a common add-on or
included as an option for custom-built homes.

Types of gutter guards

Brush gutter guards resemble pipe cleaners and are easy to install. They prevent large debris from clogging gutters, but are
less effective at reducing smaller debris.

Foam gutter guards look like styrofoam and are also easy to install. They fit into gutters, so they prevent large objects from
obstructing waterflow, but they do not prevent algae and plant growth.

Reverse curve or surface tension guards reduce clogged gutters by narrowing the opening of the gutters. Many find them
to be unattractive and difficult to maintain.

Screen gutter guards are among the most common and most effective. They can be snapped on or mounted, made of metal
or plastic. Micromesh gutter guards provide the most protection from small and large debris.[36]

See also
Sima (architecture)
Chantlate
Copper in architecture
Cornice
Gargoyle
Rain chain

References
1. Chudley 1988, p. 476.
2. Collins English Dictionary. 1979.
3. Sturgis, Russell (1901). A Dictionary of Architecture and Building: Biographical, Historical, and Descriptive (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=RdkjAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PRA6-PA843,M1).
4. Simpson (1963). New Compact Latin dictionary. Cassell.
5. Maskrey 2012, p. 461.
6. "ToxicBlackMould Information about mould and mould disease" (http://www.blackmould.me.uk/Coniophora%20putean
a.html). Sysco-Environmental. 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
7. Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building: An Unabridged Reprint of the 1901-2 Edition, Vol. II: F-N,
p.340, ISBN 0-486-26026-7
8. Chudley 1988, p. 479.
9. Chudley 1988, pp. 476-7.
10. Maskrey 2012, p. 465.
11. BS EN 2056-3:2000

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12. Maskrey 2012, p. 462.

13. Hardy, Benjamin. "Gutters 101" (http://www.bobvila.com/articles/530-gutter-basics/#.U_VGLYBdVoE). Bob Vila.
Retrieved 21 August 2014.
14. "Architectural Graphic Standards," First Edition, 1932, ISBN 0-471-51940-5, p. 77, 'Parts of a gutter' illustration
15. Ching, Francis D. K. (1995). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. p. 209. ISBN 0-
442-02462-2.
16. Chudley 1988, p. 480.
17. "Rainwater Harvesting" (http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/conveyance/). Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Texas
A&M. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
18. Zhu, Qiang (2015). Rainwater Harvesting for Agriculture and Water Supply. Springer. p. 264. ISBN 9812879641.
19. "Mosquitoes and West Nile Virus in Delaware", dema.delaware.gov (http://dema.delaware.gov/brochures/westnile.pd
f)
20. "A HISTORY OF RAINWATER SYSTEMS AND THEIR PLACE IN MODERN DAY CONSTRUCTION. - Stafford
Rainwater building Systems" (http://www.staffordrs.co.uk/a-history-of-rainwater-systems-and-their-place-in-modern-da
y-construction/). www.staffordrs.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
21. Impey & Parnell 2000, pp. 25–27
22. Berlyn, Peter; Fowler, Charles. The Crystal palace, its architectural history and constructive marvels (https://archive.or
g/details/crystalpalaceits00berl). London, J. Gilbert. pp. 40–50. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
23. "Repairing or replacing guttering - Period Living" (https://www.periodliving.co.uk/advice/repairing-or-replacing-gutterin
g/). www.periodliving.co.uk. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
24. Hall 1982, p. 422.
25. Trace, Paul. "A Cast Iron Solution" (http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/castiron/rainwater.htm).
www.buildingconservation.com. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
26. Maskrey 2012, p. 427.
27. "Plastic Pipes Group | PPG - About - History" (http://www.bpfpipesgroup.com/about/history/). British Plastics
Federation Pipes Group. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
28. "BS EN 607:2004 - Eaves gutters and fittings made of PVC-U. Definitions, requirements and testing" (http://shop.bsigr
oup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030105755). BSI Shop. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
29. Maskrey 2012, p. 467.
30. Hall 1982, p. 423.
31. http://www.exeter-mindfulness-network.org/
32. "BS EN 612:2005 - Eaves gutters with bead stiffened fronts and rainwater pipes with seamed joints made of metal
sheet" (http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030145072). shop.bsigroup.com.
33. Glover, Peter (2009). Building surveys (7th ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 323.
ISBN 1856176061.
34. "Guttering - Home Condition Survey" (http://www.myhomeconditionsurvey.co.uk/downloads/Guttering.pdf) (PDF).
Home Condition Survey.
35. Santo, Philip (2016). Inspections and Reports on Dwellings: Inspecting (Revised ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 144.
ISBN 1136021302.
36. "What Is The Best Gutter Guard For Your Gutters? | gutter guards types" (https://www.topgutterguard.com/best-gutter
-guards-reviews/). Top Gutterguard. 1 September 2017. Retrieved 16 June 2018.

Bibliography

Chudley, R. (1988). Building construction handbook. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0434902365.

Impey, Edward; Parnell, Geoffrey (2000), The Tower of London: The Official Illustrated History (https://archive.org/det
ails/toweroflondon00edwa), Merrell Publishers in association with Historic Royal Palaces, ISBN 1-85894-106-7
Maskrey, Michael B (2012). Level 2 NVQ diploma in plumbing and heating. London: City & Guilds.
ISBN 9780851932095.
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Hall, E (1982). The New home owner manual. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0600349918.

External links
An Illustrated glossary of roofs and roofing terms. (https://web.archive.org/web/20121017003751/http://www.builderbill
-diy-help.com/roof-glossary.html)
Tutorial on installing plastic guttering (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jLdNJxxoM)
Tutorial on installing metal sheet guttering (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo_GXULZl8I)

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