Ramshackle new to me 1910s ish semi detached house that's kept its wooden gutters for a respectable 110 years. The gutters however are blocked, rotten, and in places about to fall off. Damp has ruined the interior plasterwork. So replacement is definite and imminent.
At the front of the house the gutter sits on what look like wood corbels (that may be the rafter tails prettied up) that sit on some form of fascia board. At the back the gutter sits on I believe are the rafter tails. Some of the supports look fine, others look bad. Found on the window ledge is what I think is one that fell out at the front. Looking at diagrams of guttering set ups the roof always overhangs the wall a fair bit and has room for fascia boards and soffits and similar business. Here the slate ends nearly right at the wall and the gutter similarly hugs it. This is apparently uncommon enough that researching best practices has been difficult.
Complicating this is that the loft currently has condensation issues. Reasons A through X are likely that theres no loft insulation above the bathroom, Y is missing roof slate(s) but Z is possibly that there's no apparent ventilation. Peering down the rafters ends in a brick wall. Looking from the outside I can spot two high ventilation bricks, any others are obscured by the board or gutter. One vent block has been bunged up, possibly during cavity wall insulation. If there is any hidden gap between slate and brick its quite small.
3 gutter guys came. 1st guy said he would put new guttering on the existing supports, as did second. The third said that the noggins looked rotten and would ruin the fall of the gutter and was saying to cut the noggins off and install a fascia board. 1st guy said he could also do this if I wanted and 2nd guy went no contact. On a similar tangent, notable but apparently safe settlement means if the gutters may well be flowing uphill now. Looking at the common use of the term noggin on internet I assume third guy meant rafter tails.
What I'd like to do is do it myself replace the guttering right away straight on the current supports and bring a chisel and some wood shims to adjust the fall as needed. Keep an eye on it and come back with professionals if needed. But due to internal house politics I'm banned from DIYing something so important and I don't want to spend 3k+ on something that needs to be taken down again in a year for another 3k+.
I could do with some guidance of fascia board retrofitting. Fascia salespeople seem to declare them a fundamental necessity but this house has gone 100 years without and only chronic lack of maintenance to the gutters has made it a problem now. Whether a fascia would even do anything on a building not designed to have one is a mystery to me.
Currently in my head it goes
Put gutter on noggin
+Keeps original feature
+Cheaper
-Possible rot in rafter could travel up?
-Compromised supports?
Chop off and add fascia
+No reliance on old features
+Caps rafters behind a PVC barrier
+??
-Ugly
-More money
-Needs a cut out around airbrick (double ugly)
-May block any ventilation that does exist?
-May jet guttering too far out from the wall and end of roof?
-??
At the front of the house the gutter sits on what look like wood corbels (that may be the rafter tails prettied up) that sit on some form of fascia board. At the back the gutter sits on I believe are the rafter tails. Some of the supports look fine, others look bad. Found on the window ledge is what I think is one that fell out at the front. Looking at diagrams of guttering set ups the roof always overhangs the wall a fair bit and has room for fascia boards and soffits and similar business. Here the slate ends nearly right at the wall and the gutter similarly hugs it. This is apparently uncommon enough that researching best practices has been difficult.
Complicating this is that the loft currently has condensation issues. Reasons A through X are likely that theres no loft insulation above the bathroom, Y is missing roof slate(s) but Z is possibly that there's no apparent ventilation. Peering down the rafters ends in a brick wall. Looking from the outside I can spot two high ventilation bricks, any others are obscured by the board or gutter. One vent block has been bunged up, possibly during cavity wall insulation. If there is any hidden gap between slate and brick its quite small.
3 gutter guys came. 1st guy said he would put new guttering on the existing supports, as did second. The third said that the noggins looked rotten and would ruin the fall of the gutter and was saying to cut the noggins off and install a fascia board. 1st guy said he could also do this if I wanted and 2nd guy went no contact. On a similar tangent, notable but apparently safe settlement means if the gutters may well be flowing uphill now. Looking at the common use of the term noggin on internet I assume third guy meant rafter tails.
What I'd like to do is do it myself replace the guttering right away straight on the current supports and bring a chisel and some wood shims to adjust the fall as needed. Keep an eye on it and come back with professionals if needed. But due to internal house politics I'm banned from DIYing something so important and I don't want to spend 3k+ on something that needs to be taken down again in a year for another 3k+.
I could do with some guidance of fascia board retrofitting. Fascia salespeople seem to declare them a fundamental necessity but this house has gone 100 years without and only chronic lack of maintenance to the gutters has made it a problem now. Whether a fascia would even do anything on a building not designed to have one is a mystery to me.
Currently in my head it goes
Put gutter on noggin
+Keeps original feature
+Cheaper
-Possible rot in rafter could travel up?
-Compromised supports?
Chop off and add fascia
+No reliance on old features
+Caps rafters behind a PVC barrier
+??
-Ugly
-More money
-Needs a cut out around airbrick (double ugly)
-May block any ventilation that does exist?
-May jet guttering too far out from the wall and end of roof?
-??
