The gutter is one of those parts of your home you only think about when something goes wrong: water splashing over the edge in a heavy shower, a dark streak on the facade, a damp patch on the inside wall. Yet the gutter, together with the downpipe, is responsible for draining all the water that falls on your roof. This article explains which types of gutter there are, how to recognise a blockage or leak, how often cleaning makes sense, when repair is enough and when replacement is needed, and who does what: from the window cleaner who empties the gutter to the roofer or zinc worker who fits a new one. The rules for tenants, VvEs (owners' associations) and gutters shared with the neighbours are covered too.
What types of gutter are there?
What you see along the bottom of your roof can be one of several gutter types. The type determines how the gutter is cleaned, how it leaks and how it is repaired.
- Hanging gutter. A gutter that hangs in brackets under the roof edge or against the fascia board. Hanging gutters come in different profiles, such as half-round or angular, and in zinc and plastic.
- Mastgoot. A widely used hanging gutter with a rounded profile and a rolled front edge. In practice the word is also used as another name for a hanging gutter. Mastgoten come in zinc and in plastic.
- Box gutter. A gutter with an angular profile and a flat bottom. On older homes and listed buildings this is often a timber box built into the roof edge or the overhang and lined on the inside with zinc, lead, bitumen or EPDM (a rubber roofing membrane); from the outside you often only see a timber gutter cornice. There are also zinc and plastic box gutters that hang in brackets.
- Plastic gutter. A lightweight hanging gutter made of PVC or a similar plastic, often fitted with click or glued joints. Plastic does not rust, but it can become brittle under the influence of sunlight and temperature changes, and the joints can start to leak.
- Zinc gutter. Zinc is the traditional material for hanging gutters, mastgoten and the lining of box gutters. Zinc work is soldered together and can therefore also be repaired.
There are also valley gutters, the gutters in the corner where two roof slopes meet, and gutters on a flat roof that drain via an outlet or rainwater outlet. These fall under work on the roofing and are almost always a job for the roofer.
Signs of a blocked or leaking gutter
A gutter gets blocked mainly by leaves, moss washed off the roof tiles, twigs, birds' nests and the gritty debris from old roof tiles or bitumen. That dirt builds up at the outlet to the downpipe, and then the water has nowhere to go. Look out for these signs:
- Overflowing water. In a heavy shower, water pours over the front edge of the gutter instead of down the downpipe. Look outside during or right after a shower: that is when you will see it.
- Plants in the gutter. Grass, moss or even small saplings sticking up above the gutter mean there is a layer of soil and dirt in it that retains moisture.
- Streaks and stains on the facade. Dark, green or white streaks below the gutter, or flaking paintwork on the fascia board and gutter cornice, point to water running down the outside.
- Dripping seams and small holes. Water that keeps dripping from one point of the gutter for hours in dry weather points to a leaking seam, a hole or a gutter that slopes the wrong way.
- Sagging gutter. A gutter that sags in the middle or comes away from its brackets holds water and can deform further in frost or under the weight.
- Damp walls inside. A wet patch high up on the inside of an external wall that gets worse after rain may come from a leaking gutter or box gutter.
Damp patches inside can also have other causes, such as poor pointing, condensation or rising damp. How to tell them apart is explained in Recognising damp and mould in the home. If you have water coming in right now, first check Leaks: which tradesperson should you call? for what to do straight away.
How often should the gutter be cleaned?
As a rule of thumb, gutters are cleaned at least twice a year: in spring, after the winter storms, and after the leaves have fallen in autumn, when most of the leaves are off the trees. That autumn clean is the most important. If there are trees close to the home, especially trees that overhang the roof, you may need to check more often.
A full gutter is also a risk in winter: water that cannot drain away can freeze and expand, and the weight of ice and wet leaves puts strain on the brackets and seams. An overview of the gutter together with other seasonal maintenance can be found in the Maintenance calendar for your home.
During cleaning, the gutter is scooped out, rinsed with water and checked to see whether the downpipe drains properly. A blocked downpipe is rodded from the top or via a cleaning access piece at the bottom. A good gutter cleaner also looks at seams, brackets and fall, and reports what they see.
Leaf guards, mesh and leaf separators
If leaves are a big problem for you, you can protect the gutter or the downpipe. Milieu Centraal (the Dutch independent information centre on energy and the environment) mentions a leaf guard as a way to reduce the chance of blockages. There are several variants:
- A balloon grate or leaf guard in the outlet stops leaves at the opening to the downpipe, so that the pipe itself does not get blocked. The grate itself does need clearing regularly.
- Mesh or a gutter guard over the whole gutter keeps out coarser dirt, but fine dirt, pollen and pine needles sometimes still get through or stay on top of it.
- A leaf separator or leaf catcher in the downpipe, at eye level, catches the dirt at a point where you can empty it yourself without a ladder.
None of these solutions makes the gutter maintenance-free. They reduce the work and the chance of a sudden blockage, but the gutter still needs checking now and then.
Repair or replace?
Not every leaking gutter has to be replaced. A zinc gutter with a loose soldered seam or a small hole can often be soldered locally by a tradesperson. If the zinc has become thin, porous or full of small cracks over a long length, soldering will not hold and a new gutter is the better choice. How long zinc lasts depends on the quality and thickness of the zinc, the way it was fitted, air pollution and maintenance; so no fixed lifespan can be given. A gutter in which water always stands wears faster; a tradesperson therefore also checks whether the gutter falls sufficiently towards the outlet.
With a box gutter the problem is often in the lining or in the timber underneath. A leaking zinc or lead lining can be repaired or replaced; when replaced, many box gutters are lined with EPDM or bitumen. If the timber of the box itself is rotten, a carpenter or roofer must first repair the box before the new lining goes in. A leaking box gutter is treacherous, because the water often runs away into the structure and only becomes visible far from where the leak is.
A plastic gutter with a leaking joint can sometimes be resealed, but a brittle or cracked plastic gutter is usually replaced in sections. When replacing, ask the tradesperson which material suits your home. In homes built before 1994, downpipes and sometimes gutters may be made of asbestos cement. Do not saw, drill or break into them yourself; how to recognise asbestos and what to do then is explained in Recognising asbestos during renovation.
If you replace the gutter, look at the surrounding components at the same time: the fascia board and gutter blocks, the downpipes and brackets, the connection with the bottom row of roof tiles or the roofing, and the paintwork. If scaffolding or an aerial work platform is in place anyway, combining that work saves effort.
Rainwater drainage, sewer and disconnection
The water from the gutter runs down via the downpipe, also called the rainwater drain. In many existing homes the downpipe is connected to the sewer; in others it discharges onto the street, into the garden or into a water butt. A downpipe that is blocked at the bottom makes the water from the gutter back up. A subsided or cracked connection to the sewer can also leak, direct water towards the foundations or the crawl space, and is a job for the plumber.
More and more municipalities encourage disconnecting downpipes: the downpipe is disconnected from the sewer, so that the water is collected in your own garden or soaks into the ground. Milieu Centraal points out that during heavy rain the sewer cannot always cope with all the rainwater, and that by disconnecting you let the water from your roof go straight into your garden; many municipalities offer subsidies for rainwater collection. Neighbour law does set a limit, though: the roof of a building must be designed so that the water does not drain onto the neighbours' land (Article 5:52 of the Dutch Civil Code, BW). How to collect water in the garden with a water butt, infiltration or a wadi (a rain garden swale) is explained in Having a garden landscaped.
Safety: the ladder and the gutter
You can only reach most gutters with a ladder, and that is often where things go wrong. According to the RIVM (the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), consumer products play a role in some 60,000 accidents a year requiring emergency care, and about five per cent of the victims fall from a portable stepladder or ladder. Cleaning gutters is a typical scenario: you reach to the side, scoop with one hand and have nothing to hold on to with the other.
Never lean a ladder against the gutter itself. A zinc or plastic gutter is not made to bear the weight of a ladder and a person, can bend or come loose, and is therefore an unsafe support. Use a ladder with a stand-off or let the ladder rest against the facade, on a level, firm surface, and have someone hold the ladder. Also do not step from the ladder onto the roof to get to the gutter. If you cannot reach the gutter safely, for example on a second floor, leave it to a tradesperson.
Professionals are bound by the rules of the Arbobesluit (Dutch Working Conditions Decree), which for these provisions also apply to self-employed people without staff (Article 3.16 and Article 9.5). Where the potential fall height is 2.5 metres or more, there is in any case a risk of falling and measures are mandatory; lower too, if there is a risk of falling. Collective measures, such as scaffolding or an aerial work platform, take precedence over a harness, and a ladder may only serve as a workplace if the risk is low and the work is short or the features of the location cannot be changed. A gutter cleaner or roofer who comes with an aerial work platform or uses a gutter vacuum with long poles from the ground is therefore not being over-elaborate but working by the rules.
Who does what?
- Cleaning: a window cleaner or a specialist gutter cleaner. Many window cleaners offer gutter emptying as an extra service, sometimes with a gutter vacuum from the ground. Ask whether the downpipes are flushed through as well and whether you will be told about any defects.
- Small repairs to zinc work: a plumber or zinc worker. Soldering zinc and replacing downpipes have traditionally been plumbers' work. When to call a plumber or another installer instead is explained in Plumber, installer or heating engineer.
- Replacement, box gutters, valley gutters and anything related to the roofing: a roofer. They can also deal with the connection to the roof tiles, the lead and the roofing.
- Wood rot in the fascia board or box gutter: a carpenter or roofer repairs the timber; the paintwork follows afterwards.
- Sewer and downpipe connection: the plumber.
VvE, rented home and the gutter shared with the neighbours
If you live in a flat, the roof, gutters and downpipes are as a rule part of the common parts, and cleaning, repair and replacement are a matter for the vereniging van eigenaren (VvE, owners' association). Exactly what is common is set out in the splitsingsakte (deed of division) and the splitsingsreglement (division regulations). So report a leaking gutter to the board and have the repair handled through the VvE. More about the rules in a block of flats is explained in Renovating a flat in a VvE.
In a rented home, maintenance is shared. Under the annex to the Besluit kleine herstellingen (Minor Repairs Decree), regularly keeping gutters and rainwater drains clean is the tenant's responsibility, insofar as they are within the tenant's reach. Keeping the indoor drainage clean and unblocking it where necessary, up to the connection to the municipal sewer and insofar as the tenant can reach it, is also the tenant's task. Repairs and replacement of gutters and downpipes are for the landlord, as is cleaning gutters you cannot reach yourself, such as the gutter of a block of flats. So report a leaking or broken gutter to your landlord in writing.
With terraced houses and semi-detached homes, the gutter often runs across several homes. Who is then responsible for what depends on the ownership situation. In many cases each owner owns the part of the gutter on their own home. Each owner must, however, make sure that no water or dirt from their property gets into the neighbours' gutter (Article 5:53 of the Dutch Civil Code). The Civil Code also recognises mandeligheid (joint ownership of a shared boundary feature): an immovable thing that is jointly owned by the owners of two or more plots and intended for their common use, which under Article 5:60 of the Civil Code arises from a notarial deed registered in the public registers. Jointly owned items must be maintained, cleaned and renewed where necessary at the expense of all co-owners (Article 5:65 of the Civil Code). In addition, your title deed may contain arrangements in the form of an erfdienstbaarheid (easement), for example on draining water via the neighbours' gutter or downpipe. So check your title deed, and reach an agreement with the neighbours before any work is done: a gutter that is only half replaced connects poorly and may start leaking at the transition. Record agreements on cost sharing and execution in writing. How to go about that is explained in Renovating and the neighbours.
Permits and listed buildings
Cleaning, repairing or replacing a gutter with a similar gutter is ordinary maintenance, and for an ordinary home you normally do not need an omgevingsvergunning (environmental permit) for it. That is different for a rijksmonument (national monument). Necessary regular maintenance aimed at preserving the monumental values is permit-free there, as long as detailing, profile, design, type of material and colour do not change (Article 13.11 of the Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving, the Dutch Environmental Activities Decree). Replacing a zinc box gutter with a plastic hanging gutter, or choosing a different gutter profile, may therefore require a permit. For municipal monuments the rules are set out in the municipality's omgevingsplan (environmental plan) or heritage regulation, and in a protected town or village conservation area extra rules may also apply to changes to the facade and roof. If in doubt, consult the municipality in advance and choose a tradesperson with experience in restoration work.
What belongs in the quote?
For cleaning, an appointment per visit or an annual subscription is often enough. For repair or replacement, preferably request two or three quotes based on a visit to the home. Check that they include:
- the length of the gutter in metres and the number of downpipes and outlets;
- the type and material of the new gutter, and for zinc the thickness and profile;
- whether the old gutter will be removed and disposed of;
- work on the fascia board, gutter blocks, brackets and the connection to the roof tiles or roofing, and how extra work for wood rot will be charged;
- the fall towards the outlet and the connection to downpipe and sewer;
- how the firm works safely: scaffolding, aerial work platform or mobile scaffold tower;
- any leaf guards or mesh;
- the guarantee on the work and the business liability insurance.
In short: have the gutter checked at least after the leaves have fallen, look out for overflowing water and streaks on the facade, and have a leaking gutter repaired quickly before the water soaks into the wall. Soldering works for local damage; replacement is called for with a gutter that is affected over a long length. Do not work from a ladder leaning against the gutter, and with a VvE, a rented home or a shared gutter, first check who is responsible. On VerbouwPro you post your job free of charge and roofers and window cleaners from your region respond.