Maintaining gutters and downpipes through autumn

Why autumn is the make-or-break season for your gutters

Edinburgh and the Lothians give our roofs a proper working over. We get the leaves, we get the wind, and we get the rain — often all in the same week. By the time the first proper storm rolls in off the Forth in late October, most gutters around the city have quietly filled up with a soggy mat of sycamore, lime and beech leaves, mixed with moss off the slates and the odd bit of grit.

Once that happens, water has nowhere to go. It backs up along the gutter, sits against the fascia, and finds the first weak point it can. That usually means a damp patch on an internal wall, blown render, a stained sandstone lintel, or water tracking down behind the harling. In tenements it can be worse, because a blockage at one end of a shared run often shows up three flats along. Clearing the gutters in September or early October is one of the cheapest bits of maintenance you'll ever do, and it prevents some of the most expensive repairs.

Before you climb up: safety and the right kit

Every autumn we hear of someone in the Lothians who has a nasty fall doing this job. Please take it seriously.

• Use a proper ladder with a stabiliser bar, on firm, level ground. Never rest a ladder directly against a plastic gutter — use a stand-off bracket so the weight goes into the wall, not the gutter.
• Tell someone you're going up, and keep a phone in your pocket.
• Stay off the roof itself. Walking on slates or concrete tiles in damp conditions is a recipe for a broken tile and a broken ankle.
• Wear gloves — gutters hide sharp edges, broken glass and the occasional wasp nest.
• Have a bucket that hooks onto the ladder, a trowel or gutter scoop, and a stiff hand brush.
• For anything above two storeys, or on a steep Victorian pitch, stop and get someone with a tower or a gutter vacuum. It isn't worth it.

Clearing the gutters properly

Work along the run towards the nearest outlet, so you're pushing debris to the downpipe rather than away from it. Scoop the bulk out by hand into your bucket — don't try to flush a full gutter down the pipe, as you'll simply block the drain at the bottom.

Once the worst is out, flush along the run with a hose on a gentle setting and watch how the water behaves. What you want to see is a steady flow heading for the outlet with no ponding. If water sits in a section, the gutter has lost its fall. A slight slope of around 1 in 350 towards the outlet is about right; anything flat or, worse, running backwards will need the brackets adjusted.

At the same time, check the joints. On modern uPVC, a bead of gutter sealant will sort a slow drip. On older cast iron, look for cracked sections, rust blooms and perished putty, and note anything that needs replacing rather than patching.

Downpipes, hoppers and gullies — the bits everyone forgets

The gutter is only half the system, and the downpipe is where most blockages actually live. At the top, most Edinburgh downpipes have a hopper or an outlet with a wire balloon guard. If that guard is missing, leaves will funnel straight into the pipe and lodge at the first bend. Fitting a new guard costs very little and saves a lot of hassle.

If the pipe is already blocked, don't force it with a hose from the top — you'll just compact the debris. Instead, work from the bottom with drain rods, or disconnect the shoe at ground level and clear upwards. When you've finished, run water through from the top and confirm it's flowing freely at the bottom.

Finally, check where the water lands. In older parts of town, downpipes often discharge onto a gutter apron or into a gully that is itself half full of leaves and grit. Lift the grating, clear it out, and make sure the water is heading into the drainage system rather than soaking into the base of your wall. That single job prevents more damp than almost anything else.

Small repairs worth doing while you're up there

Autumn is the ideal moment for the jobs that are awkward in January.

• Re-seat loose brackets — a sagging gutter holds water and corrodes faster.
• Replace missing stop ends at the closed end of a run.
• Clear moss off the roof edge — if it's shedding heavily, it will be back in the gutter within weeks.
• Fit gutter guards or hedgehog brushes on runs beneath trees. They don't remove the need to check, but they cut the frequency dramatically.
• Consider a water butt fed from a downpipe diverter, which is genuinely useful for the garden and takes pressure off the drains.
• Note anything you can't fix and get it sorted before the frost, when access gets harder and materials behave badly.

A simple routine that pays for itself

Two checks a year is usually enough: one in late September or early October before the leaves come down properly, and a quick follow-up in late November after the first gales. Add a glance after any named storm, particularly on exposed south and west-facing elevations.

If you're in a tenement, talk to your neighbours or your factor about a shared visit — it's far cheaper and easier to do a whole block in one go than to chase individual drips for months. And if you'd rather not go up a ladder at all, a local roofer or gutter specialist will typically clear a semi-detached house in an hour or two, which is money well spent against the cost of replastering a damp wall. Get it done now, while the weather is still on your side.