The Spruce ran a piece at the end of September on gutter problems to look for before the leaves come down, and I was one of the contractors quoted in it. The article is Before the Leaves Start Falling, Contractors Say to Check Your Gutters for These Common Problems, by Tessa Cooper. I talked about two things in it, and both deserve more room than a quote gets.
The first was the corners. Most gutters on houses here in Georgia are aluminum, and aluminum moves with the temperature. On a 30- or 40-foot run, that movement is enough to work the sealant loose at the miters and seams over time, even though the sealant itself lasts a long while. You don’t need a ladder to catch it. Next time it rains, walk around the house and look at the corners and joints. If water is dripping from a seam instead of running to the downspout, the sealant has let go there. Resealing a joint is a small job. Leaving it means water running down the fascia every time it rains, and that’s how fascia boards rot.
The second was downspouts. A gutter can look clean from the top and still have a downspout packed with leaves and grit at the elbows. When it isn’t raining, the only sure way to check one is to take it apart, and that takes enough time and money that most gutter cleaning crews don’t do it. So the rain is your inspection tool again. Watch the bottom of each downspout during a decent rain. You want a steady stream. If a downspout is only trickling, or the gutter is spilling over its edge near the top of that downspout, something is stuck inside.
Neither check takes long. You just have to be outside for a few minutes while it’s raining and know where to look.
I’m a roofer, not a gutter company, but gutters sit right at the edge of the roof, and water that gets past them ends up in the fascia and the decking. You can read more about me and how I work on my about page.
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