Page 552 - The City and Guilds Textbook: Plumbing Book 1 for the Level 3 Apprenticeship (9189), Level 2 Technical Certificate (8202) and Level 2 Diploma (6035)

The City & Guilds Textbook: Plumbing Book 1

Handling and storage of materials

Care should be taken when handling PVCu gutter and rainwater pipes. Excessive
scratching can ruin the aesthetic appearance of the gutter and affect joint
sealing. Cold weather reduces the impact strength of PVCu and extra care is
needed in wintery conditions.

When pipe is delivered to site, it is recommended that loading and unloading
of pipe and gutter lengths is performed by hand without the use of mechanical
lifting aids.

Always store pipes and gutters on flat surfaces, ensuring that the surface is free
from sharp protrusions. Bundles of pipes and gutters can be stored up to 3 m
high without support. Loose gutter and pipe requires supports every 2 m. Fittings
should remain in their packaging until needed to reduce damage by scratching.

Testing completed rainwater systems

Once the system installation is complete, testing can be carried out by
discharging water, from a hosepipe, at all high points in the system and checking
to make sure that the water discharges down the outlets and through the
rainwater pipes without leakage or pooling of water in the gutter.

3 THE MAINTENANCE AND

SERVICE REQUIREMENTS OF

GRAVITY RAINWATER SYSTEMS

Maintenance of guttering systems is an essential activity to keep systems
working correctly. In this next section of the chapter, we will look at those
essential items of maintenance that are carried out during planned preventative
maintenance or fault rectification.
These include:

l visual inspections and fault finding
l leakage repairs
l replacement of defective gutters and fittings
l cleaning and clearing blockages.
Different gutter materials require different methods of working and repair, and
it is important that we have knowledge of the basic repair techniques required.

Visual inspections and fault finding

Visual inspections are the first part of the maintenance and repairing activity.
Visual inspections help in establishing the overall condition of the gutter
and rainwater pipe installation, joints and fittings, and in pinpointing specific
problems, such as those listed in Table 8.10.

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