April showers not only bring May flowers but usually gutter problems as well.
Gutters serve as conduits to direct rainwater off the roof of a structure and into downspouts, the vertical gutters that run down the side of the building. The water is then channeled to the ground and away from the building, or into sewer lines below the ground.
A malfunctioning gutter system can cause numerous problems. Rainwater can drip on a home’s exterior, discoloring it, and eventually cause flaws in the siding or brickwork.
Water can also work itself inside the house, damaging the insulation in the wall cavity, causing the wood structure to rot, and plaster on the inside of the house to deteriorate.
Basement seepage and flooding can result if a gutter system fails to direct rainwater away from a house, allowing it to collect against in the ground near a basement wall.
Unfortunately, many homeowners allow those problems to happen. “Gutters usually don’t get a lot of attention until something goes wrong with them,” says Dan Stone of the Home Depot store at Normandy and Grand Avenues in Chicago. “But that’s too late.”
You can avoid most gutter problems, however, with a little maintenance and repair work. What follows are a few tips to keeping gutter systems in top shape.
Cleaning and unclogging
Gutters often leak because they are packed solid 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, in spring and fall. “You should try to remove as many leaves as you can at the end of fall,” Stone says. “And you wouldn’t believe how many leaves will make their way into the gutters over the winter.”
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. Otherwise, the rainwater will be prevented from entering the gutters.
Repairing leaks
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 only to the inside of the gutter and use it generously,” Stone says.
Work the sealer under joints with a screwdriver and be careful not to drip the caulk on the side of the gutter.
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 2-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.
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.
Another typical gutter problem is imbalanced gutters. Thick coats of ice and 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.
In a correctly installed system, gutters will always pitch toward the downspouts at an incline of about one inch for every 40 feet of gutters. 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 of which attach to the house in a different manner.
There are also a number of improvements you can make to a gutter system so that it performs better.
To direct water farther away from the house, install splashblocks under the ends of any downspout that spills out to the ground.
A a three- or four-foot-long downspout extension, which attaches to the end of the downspout with a couple of screws, can also direct water farther away from the house. It can be removed for mowing or can be folded up and out of the way.
Another easy improvement is to disconnect any downspouts that continue to travel underground to city sewer lines. Such connections are fairly common in older neighborhoods. If you have a downspout that continues into the ground instead of elbowing on the lawn, you have such a connection.
During heavy rains, rainwater that travels down the downspout and into the city sewers can cause the sewers to back up through basement drains, causing basement flooding. Disconnecting the downspouts reduces the amount of rainwater entering the sewer, lessening chances of a basement backup.
In addition, those underground sewer lines may also have deteriorated, and rainwater winds up saturating the ground next to a basement wall, again increasing the chance of basement seepage.
To disconnect the downspout from a sewer below, use a fine-tooth hacksaw to cut the downspout about a foot above the ground. Discard the piece of downspout pipe that enters the ground. Next, plug the ground level drain with crumbled up newspapers and cover that with about an inch of mortar cement.
Then, place an elbow pipe over the bottom end of the downspout so that it reaches ground level. Then, place an extension on the elbow and aim it at an area where the rainwater can drain, such as a lawn. Lock all the pieces together with sheet metal screws.
The City of Chicago promotes downspout disconnection, as do many suburbs. Call your town hall about local recommendations.
