Guttering with no overhang (ancient house)

L1011

I've had to replace a bent out of shape / not working gutter on a ~1830s house with very limited roof overhang - roof tiles are cemented to the top of the wall basically, with maybe a few cm at most overhang

With 25mm timber and the thickness of a PVC fascia over that, the gutters are away from the roof entirely in a few places, so basically useless. They are close enough where the previous problem was, but I'm basically just moving the issue down the wall.

The old gutters in those places had some form of metallised (lead? maybe a bit too shiny for that) rubber sort-of flashing to guide water in to the gutters - is this the best approach? They were closer in, mounted to maybe 15mm of timber and no PVC fascia, that timber was completely rotten though which was part of the problem with the gutters bending away...

10-10-20

Was this lead flashing adhered to the wall under the slight overhang or were they inset or rebated into the wall like the 'counter flashing' in the image below, can you tell?

L1011

It was, at best, rammed between the bottom tile and the top of the wall; probably after the fact - but some of the tiles were removed and re-cemented about 20 years ago, not by me.

Basically this would have been a thatched cottage, concrete tiled at the absolute minimum cost in the 1930s possibly using the same main roof timbers (albeit they look in fine condition for 90-something years old let alone older)

10-10-20

So bit of a best-effort, or there-abouts.

A potential problem with that set-up is the way that the concrete can wick moisture directly off the tiles into the stonework creating a damp wall. Ideally it should be reroofed with rafters and thereby creating an overhang... then you would drop the underlying felt into the gutter giving the protection that you need on that wall.

There are flashing kits available as self-adhesive lead-alternatives which adhere very well to solid substrates, but they aren't for this specific task, but may work well all of the same.

https://www.goodwins.ie/lead-alternatives/c-1997.html

They would need to be applied under the tiles so that the run-off is captured, rather than tracking into the stonework. Not ideal.

Others on here might have different ideas, but I'm thinking that you may need to talk to a specialist sympathetic to the challenges in older houses to see what options are available to you. This thread went partially down that path this week:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058308558/100-year-old-house-who-to-have-look-at-it

L1011

A re-roof isn't on the cards for a good long time anyway. House has had constant full time (18??->1970s) or heavy part-time (70s-now) inhabitation for its entire life, except a pandemic gap of maybe 18m; its not a renovation from dereliction. This is a replacement of an existing gutter that had failed not a plan to re-gutter the entire house, the other 3 lengths of guttering are all fine still - although 1990s PVC will eventually fail too. On one side of the house, the gutters are resting on the iron pins that used to lash down the nets that went over the thatch!

Whatever tile to wall contact there is has been there for probably 95 years, there's a constant dehumidifier running in the house and its dry inside as a result.

What was there was bodge-attached flashing tape, albeit very thick flashing tape it seems looking at the options. I think I'll have to go with that, imperfect as it is.

10-10-20

Is the concerning part of the roof very visible? If not you could try lift the second or third row of tiles and adhere a thick Leadax sheet (such as the 600mm one) under that line of tiles and overlap the lower tiles right down to the gutter? Maybe that's how it is already, bit of a bodge, but it might get you some duration down the road...

L1011

Not visible at all. Tiles are pretty much all cemented to each other - this is 'the way' it's always done locally due to high winds, even if its entirely wrong.

I've bodged on a new version of what was there, namely this (bought from a local hardware store for less than this) - https://www.screwfix.ie/p/bostik-flashband-grey-10m-x-150mm/ - stuck to the cut remains of the old metallised stuff that went in to the gutter, up under the tiny overhang there is.

Its "working" but I'm going to pay attention to it over the next while. The attic of that area is completely inaccessible as the internal walls reach to the roof on the two end rooms as they were both probably extensions to a one room cottage originally. I'm rather glad there's plenty of other similarly old houses around that this one isn't listed or likely to be any time soon with the "quality" of the bodges I'm doing!