Bizarre moving guttering problem

I have a problem that I thought I'd fixed about 4 times but it keeps recurring and is making me quite narked.

When it rains a steady stream of water falls through the air and lands on the soil about 8in from the wall. The source is a gap in the guttering. The gap is where 2 adjacent pieces of standard plastic half-pipe meet (not at right-angles, but "in-line" along the top of a straight stretch of wall). The pieces don't join directly but both sit on and clip on to a very short piece of half-pipe which acts as a sort of "junction" piece. (In fact the junction contains a descender pipe.)

When the gap appears, it looks like one of the long pieces has "drifted away" horizontally from from the junction piece. With quite a bit of effort and grunting, I pull it back horizontally towards the junction, where it seems quite happy to sit (and I even clip it in). But after a while the long piece drifts away again! How can this happen? I have to exert and grunt quite a lot to get the piece back in, so what force can take it out again? Immediately after I've put it back, there seems to be no "spring" action that wants to take it out again - it seems to come out slowly over time.

Possible bodge solutions include aralditing or screwing the drifting piece to the junction, perhaps? And why does it happen?

TIA Cheers Richard

Reply to
Richard Clay
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I would guess that it works its way out as it expands and contracts with temperature. I've noticed that the longer lengths of our plastic guttering 'tick' quite noticeably when the sun shines on them which suggests they're expanding quite significantly.

I think I'd go for screws (or even some cable ties through holes) to fix it.

Reply to
usenet

A total guess, but it seems likely that it is caused by the daily cycle of contraction and expansion due to warming from the sun. I would have thought the expansion and contraction of a long piece of guttering would be quite substantial and could well cause it to creep over time and work its way out of this clip and through the other clips.

I'd probably try screwing it in place as a first effort.

Reply to
Ben Edgington

This is exactly what causes it, our polycarbonate conservatory roof does the same thing. Think this is why you don't get solvent weld gutters, they always have rubber seals to allow some creep. Presumably the gutter is gripped tighter by the clips at the far end than it is at the junction.

Reply to
Tim Mitchell

You might not be able to buy them, but I have got one. And a metric/imperial bodge further along the wall.

Reply to
Nick Finnigan

Some of the gutter systems have the pieces locked in place using notches in the top edge of the gutter, which lock with a matching locator on the fittings (including the support clips). It is possible that the gutters have been put together without making the appropriate notches in the gutter, so only friction is holding it together (not very well). Expension and contraction in the sun will then pull it all apart.

Reply to
John Armstrong

In article , Richard Clay wrote: [snip]

It sounds a similar problem to one we with a 100ft long guttering on our factory unit. The guttering lengths used by the builders were too long, with not enough joints used to cope with the expansion and contraction. Cut the long gutter in half, push the guttering over (to close the joint that leaks), and clip a new joint over the cut ends.

Reply to
Tony Williams

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