After enough years on Dublin roofs, you can usually guess the fault from the address. The housing stock in this city falls into a handful of eras, and each one fails in its own way.
Georgian and Victorian: parapet and valley gutters
In the city centre, Dublin 4, Rathmines, Ranelagh and along the coast, the gutter is often not on the front of the house at all. It sits behind a parapet wall or in a valley between two roof slopes, draining into a hopper head and down a cast iron pipe.
These leak inward. By the time you see a stain on a bedroom ceiling, water has been tracking through the structure for months. They need inspecting on a schedule, not waiting for a symptom.
1930s to 1950s: undersized and cast iron
Crumlin, Cabra, Kimmage, Marino, Whitehall, Drimnagh — mile after mile of well-built houses with gutters sized for a different climate. Original cast iron is heavy, rusts from the inside, and the profiles are narrow.
The common call here is overflow in heavy rain on a gutter that is perfectly clean. The gutter is simply too small, and upsizing it is the honest answer.
1960s to 1980s estates: everything ages at once
Tallaght, Coolock, Finglas, Donaghmede, Knocklyon, Ballinteer. These estates went up quickly and to a common pattern, which means the gutters reach the end of their life across a whole road within a few years of each other.
It is why we often do three or four houses on the same terrace in a week — and why neighbours going in together usually get a better rate.
Modern estates: fitting, not failure
Adamstown, Citywest, Ongar, Leopardstown, Clongriffin. The gutters are new, so the material is fine. The problems are how they went on: falls that run the wrong way, joints that were never properly seated, and — most commonly — one downpipe serving a three-storey roof that needs two.
These are refit jobs rather than replacements, and they are usually straightforward once someone actually measures the fall.
Coastal, at any age
From Howth round through Clontarf and Sandymount, down to Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey and Shankill, salt is the deciding factor. It attacks fixings far faster than anything inland. Brackets fail while the gutter itself is still sound, which looks baffling until you know why.
We fit stainless or marine-grade fixings as standard on coastal work. It costs a little more and lasts many times longer.