National Guttering Day 2019

Did you know there was such a thing?

SPAG (a Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) founded this national day in 2002 to encourage people to look at their roofs and gutters as we go into winter. You can read about it on the SPAG blog where they have a useful ‘top ten tips’ for this year’s maintenance week.

Water is a menace to all buildings, old and new, and a small unnoticed leak can have serious consequences. When I lived in Muswell Hill meeting house it was flooded three times. On one occasion from both the guttering and the sewer at the same time – as both were overloaded from the amount of water coming down. London wasn’t designed to deal with to such heavy downpours! Unlike this Florida roof which clearly was designed for a lot of rain arriving in a short period of time.

Florida roof guttering

Building tours are highly recommended, and are useful for a wide variety of reasons. Take photos of the building from various angles, filing them in a central storage place (on line or printed into a folder) and if repeated on a regular basis this will build up to be a useful resource for yourself and future Premises committees, as well as historians.

I’ve given details about building tours previously, and recommend an annual building inspection as they’re useful at any time of year. However, they’re also a good thing to do for new committee members or trustees who may not have looked at the building in this way. A thing to remember if you have new cohorts starting in January.

  • Have you checked your gutters recently?

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