Unifold can be used to improve either the water containment capacity and/or the drainage efficiency of
the gutter and outlets by a variety of means.
In ideal conditions, for built-up roof systems, given ample water capacity and sufficient access, any gutter lining system will be installed to discharge the liner tray as well as the roof itself.
In practice, however, access beyond the eaves closure/drip flashing to the internal roof structure can be
extremely difficult without major roof work so it is sometimes inevitable that the gutter lining is installed "gutter side" of these flashings.
More significantly, even if access is available to the roof construction at the eaves, if there is an overwhelming need for depth improvement to the existing system due to existing gutter capacity problems, then in order to achieve this, it may be necessary to ignore the condensation discharge from
the liner tray as being "the lesser of two evils".
Composite roof systems are not subject to interstitial condensation problems so the depth of
insulation can be readily used to increase gutter depth.
Improvements to systems may use one or more of the following methods: -
Gutter capacities can be improved on many
occasions by using the roof construction depth
and allowing the wings of the Unifold to extend
to the underside of the roof sheet, installing a
new eaves closure with a sealed filler above, to
close the construction.
Gutters, particularly
ones with wide sole
dimensions, are rarely
freely discharging.
This situation can be
corrected or at least
improved, by cutting out
and removing the existing
outlet and replacing it
with a Unifold metal and
membrane coned orifice.This action will dramatically improve the
drainage performance of the outlet, which will
discharge more quickly and in doing so, will
relieve the water containment load in the gutter.
Extra outlets are easily added to a Unifold
installation to greatly improve the gutter
efficiency. There is, of course some internal
disruption whilst pipe work is installed to serve
these.
Nb: Additional outlets are provided with a
blanking plate to ensure the integrity of the
Unifold‘ system until the connection of pipework
underneath is completed. Once the
serving pipe-work is complete it is a simple
matter to open the outlet and render it fully
operational.
Inclusion of sumps at outlet positions. The
use of sumps in gutter runs greatly improves
the efficiency of the outlets served by the
sump, concentrating water at the outlet and
helping to increase the water to air mix,
allowing more water into the down pipe.
These sumps have great benefits; they
improve the flow capacity of the gutter at the
outlet position, ensure the gutter is freely
discharging and improve the general efficiency
of the whole system.
They can be installed quite easily either by: -
a) Utilising the space between the top of the
down pipe socket and the sole of the existing
gutter and by cutting the required amount out
of the existing gutter to allow the Unifold sump
and outlet to enter and mate with the existing
down pipe socket.
b) When Unifold is laid above rigid insulation
board the thickness of the insulation board can
be used as the sump depth. Even a 20mm deep
sump across the sole of the gutter will provide
some improvement to flow rates.
Inclusion of weirs, chutes and overflows.
A Unifold installation allows the greatest
flexibility to correctly include a variety of weirs,
chutes and overflows either as "tell tales" for
blocked outlets or as a means of removing
excess water during storms which threaten to
overwhelm the existing outlets.
Gutter capacities can be improved on many
occasions by using the roof construction depth
and allowing the wings of the Unifold to extend
to the underside of the roof sheet, installing a
new eaves closure with a sealed filler above, to
close the construction.