View ChannelsFeatured: Finance
View ShowroomsFeatured: Radiantec - Radiant Solar Heating

BobVila.com

Home

How to Inspect and Repair Gutters

Routine gutter repair and inspection is vital to the performance of your home's water management system. Inspect for blockage, holes, cracks and sags.

DIFFICULTY RATING:

Get Adobe Flash Player to see this content.

View text version of this Step-by-Step

Download for iPod

What materials were used in this video?

Abrasive pad Drill Gutter repair compound Hanging bracket Ladder Pop riveter Sandpaper Scrap, gutter material Screwdriver Self-tapping screws Stiff brush

Clip Transcript For:

How to Inspect and Repair Gutters

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" Gutters that are inspected and maintained regular. Will be far more reliable and last longer. First you have to get to the gutters so let's review -- safety. Place the latter on the level solid footing. There should be a one to four ratio between the height of the latter and the distance that the bottom of the latter is away from the wall. So for instance if the latter is going to be raised to twelve feet high. The bottom of the latter should be four feet from the wall or ratio of one to four. Inspect for three kinds of damage holes. Cracks and -- Sometimes what you think is a -- Is actually the gutters overflow because the drainage is blocked by old matted leaves and sticks. Leaves can also plug up a downspout. Particularly in the curve parts. Disassembled the first section of the downspout by either removing the screws or drilling out the rivets depending on how it was assembled -- initiate. Often you'll find that the elbow is clogged with leaves. At the bottom of the downspout remove the elbow and inspected downspout for leaves. These sections should be re fastened with self tapping screws made of the same material as the gutter or from stainless steel. Screws make it easier to disassembled later for cleaning. Now inspect the gutters for cracks between the sections of the gutter or possibly pin holes in the gutter. If you find a small hole roughly clean the area surrounding the hole -- abrasive pad so you can assess the damage. Cut a scrap of material about one inch larger on all sides in the whole. The material patch is made from must be the same material as the gutters -- me. Copper on copper. Or aluminum on aluminum. This will slow corrosion due to electoral losses. Clean and rough sand the area around the whole. Using the small trial -- stiff brush spread a small job of gutter repair compound on the area around the whole. A disposable flux brush used in sweating copper pipes works well for this purpose. Press the patch into the gutter repair compound over the whole. Now cover the patch with another coat of compound to make -- good seal. Cracks between the overlapping sections of gutter. Especially aluminum gutter can loosen and leak. First clean the area around the scene to remove all traces of dirt and debris. Drill 218 of an inch holes in the bottom and one on each side of the gutters possible."

" Pop rivet the sections to draw the sections together for tight fit."

" Laid down a coat of -- sealing compound over the scene and the rivets. Spread and smooth the compound with a stiff brush extending coverage up the sides of the scene. And out one inch on either side. Make sure all the pop rivet joints are well sealed. Lastly leaks are less likely. If the water flows freely to the downspout. The gutter should run steadily downhill. From the end of the gutter to the downspout. Into hanger has bent broken or slipped out of place. Water will pool and a low spot often causing the gutter to overflow or seemed to -- This is made worse scenarios were cold climate causes the water to freeze. The repair is simple. Either replace or add a new hanging bracket designed for your gutter system. Bringing the low spot backup in to pitch with the rest of the cut line."

[-]

More Videos »Related Videos

Gutter Cleaning Tips

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. While it s a job many of us would love to ignore, gutter cleaning is an important twice-a-year ritual all homeowners need to adopt. When clogged gutters overflow, they can cause ice dams on the roof that force water inside your house. They can also get so heavy that they ll pull the gutters loose and rot the trim and siding. Even if your gutter doesn t fill to overflowing each season, leaving any decaying debris in there is an invitation to carpenter ants and mosquitoes. If you have a lot of trees around your house, you might want to clean your gutters even more frequently. There are lots of ways to do the cleaning. You can find inventions like tongs on an extension pole, shop vacuums with gutter nozzles or even a remote-controlled gutter-running robot. But most methods eventually involve getting on a ladder. If you have gutters above the first story or aren t comfortable on a ladder, you re better off hiring a pro. To clean your gutters yourself, wear gloves, a dust mask and safety goggles. Make sure your ladder is well-footed at all times and use a ladder stabilizer, or stand-off, to keep from denting and damaging your gutters. Scoop the debris into a garbage bag with a garden trowel, then rinse toward the downspout with a high-pressure nozzle on your hose and scrub it clean. Try to avoid spattering the siding in the process. Next, clear the downspouts with a hose or auger. Installing leaf strainers at the drain tops will cut down on the large clogs. When it rains, check for leaks and mark them with a china marker so you can patch holes or correct pitch problems when it s dry. There s debate about whether gutter caps or screens are worth the investment of up to $7 a running foot. Because nothing keeps all debris out, you still have to have your gutter cleaned every couple of years at least, and screens and caps make it much more difficult and expensive to do it. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

Mulch Options

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. Mulch is probably the best tool you have to keep your garden healthy and green this summer. There are lots of different kinds of mulch to choose from, depending on what s in your garden and what s available where you live. Wood or bark chips, compost, straw, salt hay, cocoa husks, shredded leaves, plastic sheeting and even gravel can all make good mulch for different reasons. In the right quantities, they serve as a shield for the soil so it can do its best work. Mulch protects the soil from erosion and helps it retain its moisture so you can water less frequently and roots grow deeper and healthier. It also keeps weeds down, reserving precious nutrients for your vegetables, flowers and shrubs so you don t have to add as much fertilizer. You spend less time and energy weed whacking and don t need to use poisonous herbicides. After you ve mulched everything once, you don t necessarily have to spend a fortune every season on new bags of commercial mulch. As a matter of fact, be careful of mulching your garden with anything that attracts pests or contains dangerous chemicals, especially on vegetable gardens. Adding some organic material might be enough. Autumn leaves are a gift to your garden that literally just falls out of the trees. Instead of getting rid of them all, put them through a leaf shredder or just run over them a few times with the lawnmower, rake them up and use them as fall mulch on flower or vegetable beds with a little fertilizer. You can add compost to them and turn them into the soil in the spring. In play areas or anywhere you don t want to maintain a lawn, try a recycled mulch like rubber chunks from used tires that would otherwise sit in landfills. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com

Fixing the Home's Gutter System

Bob reviews how keeping water out of the basement is a central concern in any basement remodeling project. Bob talks with Larry Janesky of Basement Systems about the problem. This home has a gambrel roof and a gutter system with three conductor pipes to carry away the rainwater. Janesky explains that the home was built in 1921 and used clay pipes as downspouts to carry the water away to the street. Over the years, these underground pipes have clogged. The pipes need to be taken up to drain at the ground level where rainwater will not affect the home's foundation. The conductor pipe will be disconnected from the clay pipe and a product called Rain Chute will divert water away from the home. This solution is much simpler than attempting to clean the old clay pipes that are clogged up beyond the side of the house and may have collapsed in upon themselves.

LeafGuard Gutters Installed

Bill Powers of GutterPro joins Bob at the Mashpee, Massachusetts, affordable home sites for the installation of their LeafGuard gutters. These gutters are fabricated on site with a specialized installation truck that extrudes the aluminum, bends it, and crimps it to form the unique overhanging guard and gutter as a one-piece system. The fabricator creates each job on site, cutting each length to fit and drilling holes for connector pipes with little or no wasted material. Once installed with heavy-duty vinyl brackets to hold the gutters away from the fascia, these unique gutters will use the principle of liquid adhesion carry water from the roof to the surface of the gutter cover and over the lip into the gutter itself. Leaves and debris fall away, while water follows the pathway directly into the gutter. This system is priced by the lineal foot and typically runs $10 per lineal foot installed.