Cast Iron guttering

[Tom.]

I'm going to have my bathroom completely stripped out and replaced, with edwardian-style appliances. Its going to be very expensive, what with the period tiling and all, so I'm getting the money from the mortgage provider.

I reckon I might as well take care of the guttering on my house, as its fairly old PVC stuff, and in poor repair. All the houses on my street had cast iron guttering, although most has now been replaced with plastic.

I hate plastic on houses, so I want to redo it all in cast iron, starting with the back of the house. Its a two-storey terraced, about 18 feet wide, with a two-storey extension for the kitchen and bathroom, and a modern flat roof extension next to the kitchen.

I estimate that I will need something like:

2 x 96 inch gutter (for the roofline)
1 x 96 inch gutter (for the flat roof - only has guttering on the front)
1 x 120 inch down (for the flat roof to the grid)
1 x 120+ inch down (from the roof down to the corner of the flat roof)
Various small pipes for the sink/bath (although I want the plumber to reduce the number of pipes used)
Brackets, joints and other bits...

I already have a cast iron part (don't know the name, its the large bucket that all the other pipes drain into at the corner of the flat roof) from a neighbour's house, its quite decorative so I'd like to use it. I'd also like to move the main downpipe around the corner slightly, to tidy up the back of the house. Is this feasible?

Can anybody give me a rough idea of what this will all cost? The guttering is all half-round. Will it be ok connecting the neighbour's plastic gutter to my iron gutter? I live in Manchester, anybody know a good company for this?


Please note that I didn't change the windows, doors or the dimensions, they were like that when I bought the house (and the extension) The front is much nicer with wooden sashes and original door Although I'm giving serious consideration to putting the bathroom window back as it should be.

 

[2scoops0406]

I would seriously consider the alternatives before reverting back to cast iron. Have you looked at any of the aluminium products, they have the "look" of cast iron, but the benefits of PVC (i.e low maintenence, weight, probably cheaper) Screwfix do a range, don't know what's it's like though, looks OK in the catalogue.

 

[Tom.]

Forgot to mention, I need a new soil pipe as well.

I'm going for Cast Iron because I've been restoring as much as I can of the house, removing any modernisation as I go. This is why I'm going for a separate cistern and toilet bowl, pedestel sink, etc.

I know its a lot of money, but aluminium only really lasts about twice as long as PVC, while Iron lasts 100 years+. Not that I will be there for 100 years, but I'd rather spend my money putting something right than on a plasma tv etc..

 

[Antwerpman]

I have never installed any, but I did take a cast iron soil pipe out of my old house - and it is extremely heavy. Also the joints (in this case) were soldered and then packed with what looked like hemp and some kind of natural resinous material - I am sure it is possible to do it yourself - but not easy.

Also looking at the complexity of your pipework, with CI you dont have the benefits of flexible joints etc, so everything needs to be tailored around what you can get and then positioned exactly.

What are you doing with the pipework in your bathroom? Replacing it with lead? I have to say (and I live in a beautiful old house) originality is great, but it is not always possible or practical

 

[legs-akimbo]

For someone who has a liking for traditional materials its a shame your taste does not accomadate ugly flat roofs and ultra modern u.p.v.c. windows. You will pay twenty times the price at least for new cast iron works and with the amount you have, even salvaged would not be an option ... sometimes we all just have to compromise.

 

[breezer]

for something different why not have copper guttering, looks nice

 

[legs-akimbo]

But doesnt it go green?

 

[breezer]

But doesnt it go green?

i believe it does, i havent got it, but i have seen it on a website

 

[Tom.]

For someone who has a liking for traditional materials its a shame your taste does not accomadate ugly flat roofs and ultra modern u.p.v.c. windows. You will pay twenty times the price at least for new cast iron works and with the amount you have, even salvaged would not be an option ... sometimes we all just have to compromise.

Woah woah! I can't do the whole house at once you know! When I got this place, those windows were rotting away! The flat roof is none of my doing, and even so, there isn't a lot of room to put a pitched slate roof on there. Besides, flat roofs are hardly a modern thing. I had to make it habitable quickly, and 500 quid on a few windows was a cheap way to do it, considering in future I'd like to change them back to the original shape. The front windows were original wooden sashes, and I took a great deal of time and care restoring them to fully working condition. Changing cheap 70's windows for UPVC ones isn't really a sin, changing 100 year old sashes for UPVC ones is. Guess which I didn't do?

The front of my house looks like: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.jeffs4/house/front window.jpg

I have completely restored the front of the house (with the exception of the guttering, to be done soon). The photo is out of date, because the upstairs windows have been done now.

The back is a different matter. I had to put upvc windows in, I needed the money to:

a) build a kitchen - because there wasn't one
b) repair the plumbing - because there was no heating
c) repair the wiring - because it was years out of date
d) repair the floors - because one was sagging

Now if I suddenly found myself with a wad of cash in the bank, rest assured I would be having the two upstairs windows changed to their original dimensions, and wooden units in, but I don't have the money to do that. What I can afford to do, is replace the guttering, which frankly is in very poor condition, and once done, I can forget about it (aside from the odd coat of paint).

As regards the cost of a CI soil pipe, it certainly isn't anything like 20 times the price of a PVC one. There is only one toilet in the house, the upstairs plumbing will be changing (those two pipes will disappear). I may decide to use Aluminium instead, but I absolutely will not ever use PVC on something so important.[/url]

 

[legs-akimbo]

Compliments on the frontage of your house it is fabulous, I love the windows and the deep lintels and piers ..sandstone???
and the corbelled brickwork is a picture.
If you can pick up some soil stack in pvc for a tenner it would not surprise me in the least to pay £200 for the equivalent in brand new cast, would be intrested to know the diffrence if you have priced, not saying you are wrong I was just taking a shot in the dark.
as for aluminium guttering ,if you think p.v.c. is ugly wait till ally has weathered for five years.........AWFULL!

 

[Tom.]

Well I'm finding it very hard to find a company that will supply and fit a CI soil pipe, so I may have to give up on that one. Perhaps somebody could manufacture a copper pipe, although I'm not sure how copper would look on my house. If I can't get that, I may have to settle for PVC (with a heavy heart)

I have some more images of the work I've done if you're interested:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.jeffs4/house/front door.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.jeffs4/house/front window interior lock.jpg

The windows are sandstone all the way through. The drainpipe from the picture in the previous post shouldn't be there, I have the decorative brick that the hopper currently replaces. One day, I'll pull that downpipe off, and replace the brick. The water can drain at the neighbour's house, where it originally was supposed to.

Basically, I don't like plastic. Its environmentally unsound, looks cheap, and removes any sense of style from older houses. My home is hardly a listed property, but its my first house, and a stepping stone to eventually buying something thats at least a couple of hundred years old

 

[Antwerpman]

Here in Belgium they have galvanised steel downpipes (I think that they do the guttering as well) I have a beautiful okd house with this on (sorry I dont know how to post pictures) and it looks ok, but to be honest I think that copper would look much better.

I have never seen it in the uk but I am sure you must be able to get hold of it. I am sure that you could then paint it (with suitable primer) and it would look better than plastic

 

[legs-akimbo]

Nice to see such respect for the beauty of original features Tom.
Like yourself my ideal home would be something of immense charachter and age that could be returned to its former glory. I am just completing a new build ..moving this weekend and although my original conceptions were of natural slate and hardwood windows the realities of life mean that theese things become luxuries that the majority of us can not afford so the need for practicallity means we compromise our dreams on financial grounds, I have the p.v.c. full compliment of ugly windows compounded by the p.v.c. cladding and white o.g. guttering ... but needs must!
How do you post those pictures ... tried photo bucket but could not figure out what I must have been doing wrong.

 

[Tom.]

I just ftp the images to my webspace, provided by my ISP. If your ISP provides you with webspace, check their page for instructions on how to use it. Normally, you just open internet explorer, type the ftp: address into the address bar, enter your username/password, and then drag and drop files, create folders, etc.

All you need to do then is goto the http: address you just uploaded them to, and link them here.