High Front Gutters- What is all the fuss!

On the 14th April Shoalhaven City Council passed an unanimous motion in support of checking for failure of slotted high front guttering in new projects and issue a newsletter to the relevant building services to warn of the failure of some versions of this product.

so whats it all about?

Sylvia Hale Greens MLC has been working to expose the inadequacy of some of the slotted high front gutter available in the market. The failure of this product has seen some houses suffering from severe water damage.

High front guttering has been a product favoured by the building industry over the last 10 years, it helps to give a neat finish to the edge of the roof and when installed correctly is a useful product. Slots have been cut to help allow extra water to escape the gutter in a big rain event- but these for the most part just simply don't work, add internal gutter brackets that give the streamlined look and you end up with a product that is difficult to clean.

The product needs to be installed with fall allowing the water to run down hill.
A gap behind the gutter that allows any overflowing water to escape- but not into the house.
Gutters should not have low spots where water sits for long periods of time!

If excess water flows over the top of these gutters on the building side it can make its way into the structures cavity. Some homes have experienced structural damage to soft-wood frames which don't cope with long periods of moisture- an expensive thing to fix.

Moral to the story-buy a good quality product, have it installed by a qualified trades person. Clean gutters on a regular basis, check for low spots with water lying in it.