Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 September 18

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September 18

Is the mail coming from the uk to Canada slow?

I might be ordering an autograph from someone that lives in the UK. Not sure if they live in England or Wales. Because of the virus, is the mail that leaves the UK going by boat only if it goes to Canada right now? Thank you.

This might help - expand the Canada link for more. It says outgoing mail is as normal, but the delays will be when the item hits Canada. International delivery from the UK is 5 to 7 days. Lugnuts ^{Fire Walk with Me} 19:55, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Rain Gutters when no eaves and back of house right on the property line.

Hi, we are buying a house in France and, as happens often in France, the back exterior wall of our house is exactly coterminus with the beginning of the next property. There are no eaves or gutters on our house, roof ends at the back wall (and in fact there is just a temporary zinc cladding 1/2 meter wide strip along the roofline keeping water out for now), and we need to find a way to protect the house from having water run down or into the back wall and into the ground / foundation. It's a house that was built in 1920s and does not currently have any water damage as far as we can tell, so we just want to be safe. I think we can probably coat the brick and stone exterior wall with something but we are not sure if we can, for example, put lots of cladding on because maybe cladding will be in adjacent property's airspace. We do not own the house yet so have not spoken with the neighbors -- maybe they will be chill -- but on the one hand we are not entitled to put gutters in their airspace, and on the otherhand, we are not supposed to let a bunch of water fall on their land.

Is there a normal engineering / bricolage fix for this problem ?? Thanks in advance <3 Saudade7 19:45, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

If the house has existed this way since the 1920s the system is probably working the way it was intended to. Why change it? Rmhermen (talk) 00:03, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for your response -- it hasn't all been this way since the 20s the zinc cladding was put up more recently to hold the rain out while the back wall was being worked on... part of the back wall had originally been wood and this has been replaced by bricks because the wood had rotted, probably because of no gutters or eaves. So now we will have to fill in the parts where the bricks are still missing and then remove the temporary cladding, but then what do we do about the water coming off the roof? That's the question. surely engineering or solutions have advanced in 100 yearsWe just don't know what those advancements are or look like :( Thank you :) Sorry grammar so poor, it is 4am here and I should go to sleep. Saudade7 02:05, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

The first thing would be to talk with your neighbours. I don't see why they would object to a gutter as long as it drained round the corner onto your land. Even if they prove uncooperative, they must allow you reasonable access to your property for maintenance purposes.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:00, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Yes thank you, we always strive to be great neighbors and members of the community, never have had a problem with neighbors in the past, which is why I wanted to find an engineering fix in advance just in case new neighbors feel uncomfortable or pressured. Saudade7 13:28, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

I can't be sure from the description, but I suppose the back wall is a gable wall. It should be possible to erect a vertical (zinc) fence along the edge of the roof there that keeps rain water from going over the edge there, forcing it to go down sideways – like most of it would anyway – into the gutters along the sides, all in your "airspace". The lack of eaves on the back side means, though, that the wall will get wet from the rain when the wind is coming from that direction, and a gutter along the back wall will not be of much help there, so if you are in one of the more rainy parts of France, you may still want to waterproof the bricks using a penetrating brick sealer.  --Lambiam 13:03, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you Lambiam, it's not a gable wall alas -- here is a picture on tumblr since so many copyright questions uploading things to wikipedia these days [picture of back of house | https://honeyrococo.tumblr.com/post/629693172219592704]

If the back wall is the wall around the corner that we can't see but the arrow seems to be pointing at, it is a gable wall; see the image here. If it is the wall that is in full sight, it is not. We cannot give you legal advice (and if "we" could, I cannot), but I wouldn't be surprised if the house owner is legally allowed to install a reasonably sized roof gutter, neighbour's airspace or not. It might even be illegal not to have one. But forging a good relationship with your neighbours is invaluable, so invite them over for a tea, and then a housewarming party with good French wine, which might bring about just the mood you need to broach the subject.  --Lambiam 18:27, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

In Australia, you would fit a boundary gutter, sometimes called a concealed gutter. This sits just on your side of the boundary line, in the roof, and drains the runoff onto your property. Where I work in the UK, one of the newer buildings has a concealed gutter - I don't know why, as it is completely in our grounds. --TrogWoolley (talk) 10:44, 21 September 2020 (UTC)