Common problems with concrete gutters and finlock gutters concrete gutters or finlock gutters were installed during the 1950 s 60 s and 70 s to carry out two functions of closing the cavity at the top of the brickwork and providing a wrongly assumed maintenance free gutter system.
Concrete gutter problems.
1 heavy concrete will suffer frequent movement and cracking of the joints 2 sealant used on the inside of the gutter is also subject to cracking caused by movement 3 the guttering is often only a few inches from the ceiling a leak can cause considerable damage.
This can often be seen as a line of black mould just below the ceiling.
This problem is often compounded by differential thermal movement in the concrete gutters which causes the concrete to crack.
For some reason this company have done everything they needed to do to join the upvc gutter to next doors concrete but have then forgot to cut the stop plate so the water can get across this left the neighbour without a downpipe or anywhere for their water to go other than over the front of their concrete guttering.
The concrete gutter is solid from outside to inside and so when it is cold outside the concrete sections are colder inside than the adjacent surfaces and so attract condensation when environmental conditions are right.
Your guttering may continue to fail gradually losing strength and causing more problems.
Commonly concrete gutter might suffer from shrinkage and hence develop cracks.
The gutters do leak but this seldom manifests itself on the inside of the property.
Concrete gutter problems concrete gutters can impact your family s health your property and your pocket.
When metal forms are used then division plate is utilized to form contraction joints.
Linings can never solve the problem of damp to the inside of the property.
The only practical solution is to hire guttering experts to replace your concrete gutter blocks with upvc guttering.
And the problems finlock concrete gutters cause the problems caused by finlock gutters can be traced back to intrinsic design features and this means that cosmetic or partial solutions are never going to make things better.
The main problem with concrete gutters is condensation to the inside of the walls and ceilings caused because they bridge the cavity leaving a cold inside surface.
If the gutter and the curb are integral the contraction joints shall be extended into the curb.
Therefore contraction joints shall be provided at a spacing not larger than 7 62m.
When the gutter lining starts to deteriorate the gutters leak water into the wall cavity and this water can also seep into the house causing damage to the internal plaster.