Ogee Or Traditional Gutters? You Decide

The Ogee gutter system, with its distinctive fluted front edge, is an exceptionally popular range. But what makes people decide to fit a decorative gutter rather than the usual half round or square gutters? Here are a few facts to help you decide which you would be best suited to your project.

Kerb Appeal

This is the number one reason for choosing an Ogee gutter – the decorative effect. The moulded feature lines on the front face of the gutter look great on any style of house – old or new. In white it looks good with modern PVC Fascias but equally, it can be used to complement old style shaped timber barge boards. In darker colours it combines tradition with style. In Cast Iron Effect (see below) it simply looks outstanding!

Large Capacity

It is a little known fact that Ogee gutters generally have larger flow rates and carrying capacity than most other gutters – with FloPlast ogee this is certainly the case. With flow rates of over twice that of half round and greater than both square and (surprisingly) deep flow guttering, our Ogee system is the perfect choice for large or steep roof areas.

Choice of Brackets

With the Ogee system you can use either traditional fascia brackets, that support the gutter from underneath, or top hung internal brackets that clip to a lip on the inside of the gutter. These are popular on bungalows and conservatories as they give a very clean, unbroken visual line of gutter when viewed from underneath. Don’t forget though that whichever you choose, you need more fascia brackets for Ogee guttering – one for every 0.8m of gutter, as opposed to one per metre on half round or square.

Colour Choice

The choice of colours is very similar to square gutters – black, white and brown all sell well. Ogee is also available in cast iron effect, and anthracite grey.

Cast Iron Effect

Probably the nicest-looking gutter that we sell, cast iron effect guttering is a satin, textured finish that is reminiscent of guttering from the Victorian era.

Cast iron effect ogee is available with either round or square downpipes – and both look stunning. The Ogee fluted hopper head is designed to go with the Ogee gutter system, and actually it looks so effective that some people buy them to hang on the wall and plant flowers in!

Things to watch out for

As Ogee gutters are not symmetrical due to the fluted front edge, some fittings such as stop ends are handed either left or right. To clarify, as you look from the front, a right hand stop end would be fitted to the right hand end of the gutter run.

For the same reason, gutter angles are either internal or external. But don’t worry, again it’s quite simple - there is an easy way to work out which yours is. Stand in front of the corner in question, and if it you can see both sides of the corner, it is internal – usually at the bottom of a valley. If however one side goes around a corner that you can’t see, it is external – usually found at the bottom of a hipped roof.

If you need to join up with the guttering next door, it is still possible even if isn’t an Ogee system. Our range of adaptors will fit to most manufacturers’ half round and square system – just remember again that these will adaptors will be either left or right handed.