Spouting & Downpipes Tauranga

Spouting Causes More Damage Than It Gets Blamed For

A remarkable share of the "roof leaks" we get called to are not roof leaks. They are gutters. Water backs up over the top edge of the spouting, runs down behind the fascia, and goes into the wall cavity or the ceiling - and it presents exactly like a roof fault, because it shows up as a stain on a ceiling after heavy rain.

Two things cause it. Either the spouting is blocked, or it was never big enough to start with. Both are cheap to fix and both do expensive damage if they are left.

Sizing Actually Matters Here

The Bay of Plenty gets serious rainfall intensity, and Te Puke and the eastern side of our patch get more of it than the city does. Spouting has to be sized for the roof area draining into it and for local rainfall intensity - not simply matched to whatever was there before, which may have been undersized for its whole life.

The three things that decide whether a rainwater system copes:

• Gutter cross-section. How much water the profile can carry.
• Number and position of downpipes. A long run with one downpipe at the far end overflows before the water gets there. More downpipes are usually cheaper than a bigger gutter.
• Overflow provision. When a gutter does block - and it will, at some point - where does the water go? A properly detailed system overflows outward, safely, in front of you. A badly detailed one overflows backwards into the building.

What We Install

• Continuous spouting, rolled on site to the length of the run, so there are no joins between corners. Fewer joins is fewer leaks.
• Sectional spouting in the full range of profiles, where the run or the access suits it better.
• Downpipes in round and rectangular profiles, colour matched to the spouting or to the cladding.
• Fascia - metal fascia and fascia replacement, including sorting out rotten timber behind it while we are there.
• Internal and box gutters, on both houses and commercial buildings. These are the highest-risk part of any rainwater system.
• Gutter guard and leaf protection, which is worth doing where there are mature trees over the roof - very common through Welcome Bay, Otumoetai and Te Puna.
• Downpipe connections to stormwater and to tanks, including first-flush arrangements on rural properties.

Coastal Specification Applies Here Too

It is not much use specifying a roof carefully for a Mount Maunganui or Papamoa address and then hanging standard spouting off it. Gutters hold water, and near the coast that water carries salt. We match the spouting and downpipe specification to the roof and to the exposure, and we watch for dissimilar metals in the rainwater path - a copper or zinc roof draining into the wrong gutter material will corrode it.

Doing It With the Roof

If you are having a re-roof done, this is the moment to replace the spouting too. The scaffold is already up, the fascia is accessible, and matching new spouting to a new roof costs far less as one job than as two. It is also the only time anyone will properly look at the timber behind the fascia.