Cleaning and Maintaining Your Homes Gutter System: Part Two

In my first article ( Cleaning and Maintaining your homes gutter system ) (1)  We covered some of the many ways  that your gutters get clogged up and eventually cause damage to your home and foundation. We also explained the process of cleaning and tightening up your gutter system yourself to save money that you would otherwise pay a contractor or handyman. Now in this article I will go through some of the processes to doing some of the repairs to your gutters to save you even more money. First of all lets say you cleaned and flushed out your gutters. After you wash them out with a water hose is when you will usually find out where they are leaking. Which is at a inside corner, outside corner, or at the end-caps. After you wash them out and you see standing water that doesn’t make it to the outlet to drain out. you may have to re-pitch that section of gutter so the water will flow to the outlet. If you had a company or contractor install your gutter system recently and your gutters are still under warranty. Naturally you will want to have them come back and fix the problem or re-pitching your gutter properly. The process to re-pitch a gutter is not a easy process but, you can do it yourself or with a helper depending on the length of gutter you have to re-pitch. All pitching your gutters means is to get the rain water to flow down hill to the outlet and drain out the downspout. A one quarter inch drop every ten feet of gutter is sufficient enough to cause the water to flow to the outlet. If the water is sitting at the end-cap end of the gutter once you have re-nailed and tighten up the whole gutter. Then you may have to pull out the gutter spikes (nails) on that end of the gutter and push up on the gutter to raise it enough to get the water to flow down to the outlet. To pull out the gutter spikes you will need a hammer and a flat bar with a hook end on it. Hook the curved end behind the gutter lip to catch the spike and hit the flat bar just enough to loosen the spike so you can fit the flat bar between the spike and the gutter lip and then hit the flat bar again to finish pulling in out. Remove enough of the spikes to raise up the length of gutter you think will be enough to change the pitch. Once you raise that end up and re-nail it enough the water will flow away toward the outlet. If the water does not make it to the outlet then you may have to lower the end where the outlet is to get the water to flow down to the outlet. In some situations you may have to take down the whole gutter and start all over in hanging it back up to get the water to flow properly to the outlet. This is where you may need a helper. Most gutters these days are made of aluminum or plastic which is really light weight and easy to handle. Any gutter say over fifteen feet becomes hard for one person to re-hang. The best way to nail back in your spikes without denting up your gutter lips is to use the side of the hammer head to bang them into a new part of the wood (facial board). A few hard hits of the hammer will usually get your spike to get through the facial board. Carefully aim when nailing to prevent denting up your gutter. Plastic gutter systems are just hangers screwed to the facial boards and the gutters, corners are snapped in along with end-caps where needed at the ends. You can adjust the pitch on plastic gutters as you hang each section. Once you have pitched your gutters properly and the rain water is flowing to the outlets. Its time now to seal any leaks that you have found. Usually at the corners inside or outside you will find the worst of any leaks you may have in your gutters. There are two kinds of sealers you can use on your gutters to fix the leaks. There’s the right kind and the wrong kind. The right kinds come in a squeeze tube or a caulk tube and they are clearly marked gutter sealer. The wrong thing to use in your gutters to seal leaks is caulk or tar. I am amazed at how many gutters I have re-sealed where someone has used caulk or tar to seal them back up. Caulks and tar only last a season or two if your lucky. Gutter sealers last for many years if your gutters are sealed properly. The best sealer is grey in color and levels out when you use it. The seam that’s leaking in your gutters is where the sections were connected by rivets or screws at the corners (inside or outside), or at the end-caps, or where lengths of gutters were overlapped and joined together. Rivets are the proper and best way to make connections in your gutters and downspouts. Zip screws are the worst to use because they have a head on them that catches leaves and debris and stops the flow of rain water in your gutters. Screws in your downspouts are really bad to use because the screw tip will catch leaves and twigs in your downspout and eventually cause a major clog in the downspout. So if you are having your gutters and downspouts replaced by a company or contractor. Make sure its known that you want them to use rivets only when making any connections in your gutter system. Rivets when used leave only a small almost flat head in the area where used so most everything passes over it once the sealer is applied and levels out. The end of the rivet that’s left inside your downspout is also very small and doesn’t catch leaves and twigs as much as screws do. To seal your leaks you will need to make sure the seam you are sealing is clean, dry and dust free before you seal it back up. If there is old caulk or tar that was used you must dig out as much as you can to smooth that area as best as you can so the water will flow over it once you seal it again. Take up some rags and paper towels to completely dry that area. Look over the area when you re-seal it and make sure you seal rivets and any openings where you think water can get into to cause the leak. Its best to seal your leaks on a nice day so the sealer has plenty of time to dry properly. Although some of the best gutter sealers that flow will seal even under water during a storm. A dry for-casted day is the best time to seal your gutters no matter what the product tells you it can do under bad weather conditions.  In this part of (CLEANING AND MAINTAINING YOUR HOMES GUTTER SYSTEM) we have explained the proper way to re-pitch your gutters and seal up any leaks in the gutters. In the next part (CLEANING AND MAINTAINING YOUR HOMES GUTTER SYSTEM) Part three. I will get into some of the downspout repairs you can do yourself to save you even more money.