VT 9151 Gutters High Front Guide

High Fronted Gutters

High fronted gutters hide the lower edge of tiles or roof cladding which creates an aesthetically pleasing appearance. It is important

that sucient overow measures are included in the design of the guttering system and that high fronted gutters are installed in

such a way that if they overow, it will not result in water owing back into the roof or building.

The design of gutter and downpipe system installations also need to comply with specic rainfall intensities for the area of installation

Stormwater Drainage and AS/NZS 3500.5 National Plumbing

and Drainage, Domestic Installations. It is also important that

relevant State regulations are satised. For example, New South

Wales legislation requires all gutter and downpipe installations

be undertaken by a suitably licensed installer who holds a

current certicate issued by the NSW Oce of Fair Trading.

Natural Eects

some protection against water owing from eaves gutters

inside a building, when attached to Stratco steel fascia.

deform. The back of the gutter is restrained at 1.2 metre

intervals by xing clips but between these points the gutter

moves outwards from the fascia creating a gap that allows

the additional water to escape (Figure 4).

• For eaves gutters they must determine the rainfall intensity

values (ARI) shown in AS3500 part 3.2 “Stormwater drainage

• For a specic rainfall intensity they should determine the

cross sectional area of gutter best suited to their situation,

when the roof catchment area is taken into account. A table

is shown in (Table 2) and a further table (Table 3) allows you

to determine which Stratco gutter suits your needs. While

you can choose whether slotted or non slotted gutter best

then adequate leaf guards may need to be specied. Smaller

mesh leaf guards may be required for ne needle like leaves,

and these may need to be removable to prevent fungal

build-up. All leaf guards need to be removed regularly and

the gutter cleaned. In snow or hail prone areas, then gutter

either may not be suitable, or may need to be situated well

below the level of the fascia with snow breaks installed.

• Increasing the size and frequency of downpipes will assist

in the drainage of the roof. The downpipes used in the

drainage table (Table 3) must be at least the size used in the

that can be included in the design (Figure 5). They include:

These measures can either be used singly, or in combination

move the required volume of water. Figure 2 shows several of

Water can overflow from

outlet into the

Freeboard at the low end of the gutter,

where the gutter bead will usually be

lower than the top of the fascia.

Water can overflow between the gutter and

the fascia at the low end of the gutter.

Water can overflow from an overflow outlet

placed in the bottom of the gutter.

Rainfall Intensity

(mm/hr)

of leaf debris, branches and twigs, and both organic and inorganic materials. There is no one solution that can be relied upon to do

this, and the best solution may involve a number of strategies. Should the design provided prove inadequate due to local conditions,

many of the additional protective measures described above can be retro tted and may prove benecial.

Examples of continuous and non-continuous overow measures that may be used in conjunction with each other to meet the

relevant requirements are provided in the Building Code of Australia and examples are shown in Figure 6. Continuous overow

measures allow for overow along the complete length of the gutter, while non-continuous overow measures are located at specic

points along the length of the gutter. Care needs to be taken to ensure the system complies with the Building Code of Australia and

the current Australian Standards.

Gutters may become blocked anywhere along their length which means non-continuous overow measures may not be sucient to

‘Selection, Use and Maintenance’ brochure.