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Repairing Your Home's GuttersBy Jim Sulski Summary: Gutters are greatly ignored until they are not working properly. A defective gutter system can cause numerous problems including flooding and damage to the exterior of your home. Jim helps you avoid gutter problems and repair minor flaws. When rainy weather hits, most homeowners come to realize the value of their
gutters. Gutters serve as conduits to direct rainwater off the roof of a house
and into downspouts, vertical gutters that run down the side of the building. The water is then channeled to the ground and away from the house, or into sewer lines underground. A defective gutter system can bring about numerous problems. Rainwater can drip on a home's exterior, discoloring it, and cause problems in the siding or brickwork. Water can also work itself inside the house, damaging the insulation inside the walls, causing wood to rot, and causing plaster to deteriorate. Basement seepage and flooding can also result if a gutter system fails to direct rainwater away from a house and instead allows it to saturate the ground near a basement wall. Gutters don't usually get a lot of attention until something goes wrong with them. You can avoid gutter problems, however, with a little repair work. CLEANING AND CLEARING CLOGS Gutters often leak because they are packed with debris, which prevents the rainwater from reaching the downspouts and running away from the house. As a result, gutters should be cleaned twice a year, both in spring and fall. Use a secure ladder to reach the gutters and use a gutter scoop, a putty knife or a small shovel or trowel to scoop up any debris found in the gutters. Then flush them clean with water from a garden hose and watch for leaks (see below). If a downspout seems clogged, use a garden hose or a plumber's snake to clear it. Keep the hose running to thoroughly flush the downspout with water while you remove any blockage. To remove stubborn clogs, you may need to take apart the downspout. To prevent new clogs in the downspouts, you can install leaf guards, ball-shaped screens or strainers in the tops of the downspouts. Full gutter screens, meanwhile, can be placed along the tops of the gutters to also keep out leaves and other debris. The screens are far from a permanent solution, however, and will also need to be periodically cleaned. REPAIRING LEAKS AND OTHER PROBLEMS Leaks in a gutter system can be repaired in a number of ways. Start by thoroughly cleaning the area around the leak and then allow it to dry. Use a wire brush or sandpaper to roughen the area around the leak. Leaks in a seam can be repaired with a gutter and lap seal caulk, available at most home improvement stores. Apply the caulk generously and work it under joints with a screwdriver. Small holes can also be patched with gutter caulk. A piece of tape or fiberglass patch on the outside of the gutter and over the hole will prevent the caulk from flowing out of the gutter. Remove the tape once the caulk has dried. Larger holes can also be temporarily repaired by placing a piece of duct tape over the hole on the inside of the gutter. Another option is to replace the flawed area with a joining piece, a two-foot length of new aluminum gutter. Start by using a hacksaw with a fine-tooth blade to cut out the flawed section of existing gutter. The joining piece then snaps over the two ends of gutter pipe. Then use gutter caulk to seal both ends. A few words of caution: Not all gutter types can be matched up with joining pieces both color-wise and style-wise, especially older steel and copper systems. Finally, you can also replace an entire length of gutter to repair several patches. Again, the tricky part is matching up a new piece with the existing gutters. IMBALANCED GUTTERS Another typical gutter problem are imbalanced gutters. Icicles can cause gutters to pull away from the house and cause them to sag. So can rotting facia boards, the section of the house the gutters may be anchored to. As a result, water collects in the gutters but doesn't drain in the downspout. Normally, gutters will always pitch towards the downspouts at an incline of about one inch for every 40 feet of gutter. On long lengths of gutters, where there are downspouts on each end, the gutters tend to incline from the center towards the downspouts. You can correct the incline of a gutter by removing the bracket or spike that holds the gutter in place and repositioning the gutter so it drains correctly. To test the new gutter position, simply fill it with water to see if it drains correctly. You should also replace brackets or spikes that are worn or rusty. There are
several types of gutter brackets, each which attach to the house in a different
manner. For example, one type of bracket is anchored to the roof under sheets
of asphalt tile. To remove those, life the tiles when they are warm. © by Jim Sulski. All rights reserved. February 7, 2005. NOTE: This column is distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, Illinois, 60022. This column may not be resold, reprinted, resyndicated or redistributed without written permission from the publisher. © 2005 by Ilyce R. Glink. Distributed by Real Estate Matters Syndicate. |
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