Copper rainwater system · 2024
Copper guttering, Ecclesall Road
A stone-built villa wanted rainwater goods that suited the architecture instead of white plastic. We renewed the fascias in painted timber and hung a traditional half-round copper system that will patina beautifully over the years.
Job sheet
- Location
- Ecclesall, S11
- Scope
- Fascia renewal & copper gutter
- Materials
- Half-round copper
- Duration
- 3 days
- Guttering
- 34 m
- Downpipes
- 4
- Life
- 50 yr+
Before
Sagging, leaking white uPVC guttering staining the honey-coloured stone below the eaves.
After
Bright half-round copper guttering and downpipes on renewed timber fascias. It should outlast the plastic three times over.
What we found once the scaffold was up
The old uPVC had sagged between brackets and was throwing water down the face of the stone. That is how honey-coloured Derbyshire gritstone ends up with a permanent green stripe under the eaves.
How it was built back
New painted timber fascias first, because there is no sense hanging good copper off a rotten board. Then 34 metres of half-round copper on cast brackets at 800mm centres, set to a 1:600 fall so it clears in the sort of rain that arrives off the Peak sideways. It will dull to brown inside a year and start to go green in about fifteen. That is rather the point of it.