MY CONSERVATORY IS LEAKING
It's inevitable, as conservatories age they can develop leaks. Don't panic, we specialise in such things. Often the leak is coming from the ridge area and tends to come in where the rafters meet, particularly on victorian and edwardian conservatories. Generally this is due to a failure in the seal on he exterior where the finial and 'D' shaped cover meet. It is not possible to seal this from the underside and if you have removed the internal cover you will probably have emptied about a litre of water on your head. To repair the leak effectively and permanently we will dismantle this critical are, clean all the components and reassemble with new seals. Leaks against the wall are almost always related to the flashing. Many conservatories have a box, or valley gutter against the house wall, above the patio doors, particularly on bungalows. these are very prone to leaks and whilst they may be simply blocked with debris often the seal where the aluminium box section joins with the main gutter has failed. The problem here is access, a good part of the gutter is inaccessible beneath the roof panels or tiles, making it impossible to apply sealant to the critical areas. We remove the roof panels to gain access and apply a butyl flashing tape to these critical areas, permanently resolving the issue. Quite often a leaking box gutter can lead to water trickling down the window glass or frame, this is because the joint is directly above the window frame, although water can travel some distance beneath the internal cladding and water may enter some distance from the leak point. Regardless of the cause, we are able to identify and repair almost any leak.
Conservatory gutters, on the whole are quite flimsy and poorly constructed. The brackets are fitted internally and clipped to the ring beam. We quite often find that an insufficient number of brackets have been fitted from new, as it makes the gutter easier to install. Once the brackets begin to fail the gutter will literally unzip.
We often hear that there is standing water in conservatory gutters which does not drain, strangely this is normal and how they are designed. They are clipped to a ring beam which should be level and not adjustable. Conservatory gutters are slightly larger to take account of this.
This roof was leaking due to ill fitting panels, a problem which had been there from the day of installation
Lifting some of the roof tiles on this conservatory revealed this mess, we removed all the flashband and did it properly before re-building
Removing the ridge on this conservatory revealed another mess
Years of accumulated debris and no effective sealing beneath a pvc ridge cover
Conservatory guttering is rarely very substantial and often breaks when full of snow or ice. The brackets are unique to each manufacturer and fitted internally unlike house guttering. We stock a full range of brackets and unions, often doubling up on the number brackets to make the system more durable.
