Gutter overflow trough in attic.

[Makfai]

I have an old terraced house built in the 1880s. The front gulley empties via a pipe which descends from the gulley and goes through the exterior wall and empties - not into a hopper - but is connected directly to the downspout.

When designing the house they realised that there was a need to plan for overflows and to achieve this they installed a leadlined wooden 'trough' in the attic (at right angles to the gulley) to carry water from the front to back. Photos in Images album.

I cannot actually see how the pipe is constructed to facilitate this overflow so if anyone knows anything about these types of troughs I would like to know more.

This area now leaks so I intend to modify the front by installing a hopper rather than the direct feed into the drainpipe so that the hopper will overflow rather than the interior trough.

Any suggestions before I start this venture will be appreciated.

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• Makfai
• 3 Jan 2015
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• Makfai
• 3 Jan 2015
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• Makfai
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• Makfai
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[catlad]

most people have done away with that system now and have installed a down pipe at the front of the property.

 

[Makfai]

most people have done away with that system now and have installed a down pipe at the front of the property.

I already have a downpipe. It was part of the original installation.

The interior trough was clearly their solution to carrying away excess water so that it did not overfow from the gutter back into the house.

 

[catlad]

The lead trough is not an over flow it was to take the water to the drains and do away with a down pipe at the front of the property.

 

[Nige F]

Have a google for lead catchpit with overflow - for that is what you have

 

[Makfai]

The lead trough is not an over flow it was to take the water to the drains and do away with a down pipe at the front of the property.

I don't think you are correct in our case.

The houses in our street were all built in the 1880s and they all had the same design of outlet from the gutter via a pipe which fed directly into the downpipe/drainpipe. They ALSO had the interior trough. The interior trough is not large enough to carry the full capacity of water which would be captured by the exterior gutter.

Over the years many householders have modified these downpipes/drainpipes by installing a hopper so that if the water backs up it overflows from the hopper rather than back along the interior trough to the back of the house.

That interior 'trough' was clearly designed to stop water in the gutter backing up to flow unchanelled into the attic.

In the pcs you can see that to the left of the trough is the downpipe which feeds from the gutter into the downpipe/drainpipe while to the right, at the end of the trough, is the pipe which feeds the overflow into the trough.

 

[Makfai]

Have a google for lead catchpit with overflow - for that is what you have

Thanks for that.

I have found a link here https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...onepage&q=lead catchpit with overflow&f=false

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• Makfai
• 3 Jan 2015
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[catlad]

ok well if thats the case were does the water go when it enters the attic.

 

[Makfai]

ok well if thats the case were does the water go when it enters the attic.

The trough you can see in the pics runs at right angles to the front and the back of the house. There is the slightest of a 'fall' so that the water runs from the front to the back. The trough terminates in a hole in the rear wall of the house so that water just drains out of the hole and down the wall.

This opening in the rear wall never fed into a drainpipe. I can only assume that they believed that it would be needed infrequently and when it was needed would not be high capacity.

So essentially that trough carried the overflow from the front of the house to the rear. What is happening now is that the trough/pipework is failing at the front wall area so creating damp on the bedroom ceiling. We will investigate it in more detail later in the year by stripping back that area at the front but in the meantime will fit the hopper to create an alternative overflow option.

The house was originally my parents' house and we only discovered this trough when investigating a damp patch which came and went on the interior of the rear bedroom wall where there were no internal pipes or exterior drainage. It was a mystery. We then discovered the trough and the fact that someone had rendered over the exit hole creating intermittent flooding of the inside of the wall!

It is an interesting design but one which is clearly flawed. If the outlet on the front had not fed directly into the drainpipe but into a hopper then it would not have needed that interior drain in the attic!

I wondered if anyone on here had seen them before.

 

[Makfai]

I have had a good look for the 'lead catchpit with overflow' and find it interesting that I can't find another example of the overflow being an internal trough. All I have seen have had external overflows.

Has anyone else seen the internal troughs in attics?

 

[catlad]

I have seen plenty of wooden lead lined troughs in attics of that period, but normally that trough would lead to the stone gutter or a hopper at the rear of the property. Can you look at other properties in your street to see how they used to finish at the rear.

 

[Makfai]

I have seen plenty of wooden lead lined troughs in attics of that period, but normally that trough would lead to the stone gutter or a hopper at the rear of the property. Can you look at other properties in your street to see how they used to finish at the rear.

I understand your interest in that because I had already done this to satisfy my own curiosity.

The stone gutters were only installed to the front of the houses not the rear. The rear had the old cast-iron gutters fixed onto facias. The interior troughs emptied out freely onto the exterior wall. There is no sign of any downpipes/ hoppers ever having been there.

The houses are a common design in that they had a two-storey extension built at a right-Angle to the rear wall. This extension also had 'normal' not stone guttering.

The water from the trough would exit onto the rear wall but would not have far to travel before it met the lead flashings on the house/extension join. The flashings formed a channel for water to flow down the extension's roof and into the cast gutters.

I will try to put some pics up tomorrow. I am surprised that there is not more on the Internet about these old methods because as time went on they must have caused problems and needed repairing/modification.

In our street they adopted two methods to compensate. One is the simple installation of a hopper between the pipe existing the front wall and the downpipe itself.

The other is to actually cut the stone gutter and create a completely new exit for the water from the gutter into a hopper immediately below the gutter. I will also get some pics of these.

Quite fascinating really and I wonder why this system was thought better than the hopper system which would increase flow by having a syphoning effect.

 

[Makfai]

These are images of the stone gutter. The pipe you can see in the hole is the one which exits the front wall and connects directly to the drainpipe.

The overflow pipe which feeds into the interior trough must connect with the ext pipe under the stone gulley somehow...?

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• Makfai
• 4 Jan 2015
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• Makfai
• 4 Jan 2015
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[catlad]

I have seen a few strange set ups in my time and tried to fathom some logic but have been left scratching my head a few times, and its difficult to find much information as its so old. Can you sleeve a new piece of pipe down the old one and by pass the pipe going to the attic.

 

[Makfai]

My plan is to ensure that the drainpipe and pavement gulley (covered cast-iron) are completely free of debris as I think this is causing a partial back up. Sorting that tomorrow (Monday).

The next thing is to fit the hopper to the front so that any water back-up will overflow from the top of that hopper rather than back-up into the stone gulley and from there into the interior overflow.

In a few months time, when the weather is more favourable, we will lift the tiles/felt and get a proper view from above. You can't get close enough from inside the attic. Once we can see everything and we have had a chance to ensure the hopper us dong what we want, we will block the overflow by some means. A sleeve sounds a good idea or even just some builder's foam.

Interesting set-up eh? But it can't be unique.