Rain gutters aren’t very exciting. You probably never even notice yours until something goes wrong with them. And then it’s the wrong kind of excitement.
Gutters & downspouts collect & carry away rainwater that would otherwise run off the roof, splash down & erode the soil & stain the siding. More important, gutters & downspouts form the first line of defense against a wet basement or crawl space: If you let water collect along the foundation, hydrostatic pressure will build, & water will eventually find its way inside the house. It’s equally significant to keep the ground around a hillside home dry.
For these reasons it’s significant that your gutters are in proper working order. Here, we’ll show you how to patch a hole, seal a leaky corner joint & secure a gutter that’s pulled away from the house. Fix these problems as shortly as they occur & your gutters will work more effectively & last many years longer.
Patching a hole
Gutters develop holes in a number of ways. Rust eats through steel gutters, & copper & aluminum versions are easily punctured by falling branches or sharp tools. Occasionally, you’ll find a hole that someone drilled through a gutter in an attempt to drain standing water. (If a gutter isn’t draining properly, it’s either not sloping toward the downspout or it’s sagging & needs to be raised.)
You have to patch any hole right away so it doesn’t grow larger. Buy a tube of gutter seal ($1.40) found at any local hardware store or contact us for a free quote. It’s significant that the seal is used. If you don’t you could encourage electrolytic corrosion—a process that slowly etches away one metal in favor of the other.
First, clean all debris from the gutter with a wide putty knife or plastic gutter scoop ($4). Wearing leather work gloves, scrub the area clean with a stiff-bristle wire brush. If there’s any rust around the hole, cut it out with aviation snips. Then run the seal down any open seams.
Fixing leaky joints
Over time, the joints between lengths of gutter can fail. And even seamless gutters aren’t immune to drips. They have seams where the gutters connect to preformed corners & to downspout outlets. Whether it’s a corner or straight joint, the repair is pretty much the same.
Curing sagging gutters
Most gutters are held in place with large spikes that pass through tubular sleeves, called ferrules. When a spike pulls free, a gutter can sag and, in some cases, come crashing down.
To repair a sagging gutter, you have to replace the spike with something that won’t withdraw easily, witch is the hang swift reinforced hidden hangers that gets screwed in contact us to have this performed.
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