Recently, I have been a victim of a flood. Yes, and it’s okay because I have insurance, but here’s what’s funky. Only about a week after i wrote about water damage restoration companies, it happened to me and boy is it important to hire qualified peeps to help you get things back in order.
I decided to go cheap and make some profit on the insurance money… BIG mistake! Twice, the guys haven’t showed up and now half of my stuff is beginning to get moldy! I’ve already lost over $1500 in electronics and furniture. Be sure to actually follow my advice and get the crew that WILL get the job done ON TIME AND HASSLE FREE. Rant over!…
The gutter on a house is kind of a funny thing. It’s something that we rarely think off – until it goes wrong.
Then all we can think of is the hefty bill from the gutter contractor to repair or replace it.
However, the guttering is one of the areas of the home where it can be easy to make simple fixes that can often alleviate a problem entirely.
There is however one condition to these repairs – by their nature they will require you to climb up a ladder and work at height. Only do this if you are confident you can work safely – don’t take any risks, don’t do anything silly up there!
Before we start, here’s a great walk-through video on DIY simple seamless gutter leak repairs:
Loose Gutters
Loose gutters can be a real pain in the backside. For one thing they are liable to start banging around in high winds, which is just annoying.
Secondly, as water flows through them, this additional weight is not supported properly, which can cause them to actually fall off of your house, this is especially true for seamless gutters and structures with similar supports mechanisms.
A simple repair is to grab yourself some fascia hanger brackets. These brackets screw into the fascia (which is the wooden panel backing found immediately behind the gutter pipes) and the bracket holds them upright. A really straight forward way to solve an annoying problem. Follow this gutter installation video as a tutorial.
Loud Drips
Another annoying problem! When the gutter is virtually empty after rain, the last bits of rainwater seem to take an age to slowly (and loudly!) drip their way down the downspout.
To eliminate noisy drips, hang a rope down the downspout. Drops of water will cling to, and run down, the rope instead of free falling all the way from the gutter to ground level.
Just bear in mind two things with this easy fix. One – the rope will of course restrict the water flow a little. So if your gutter is already close to over spilling on rainy days ignore this tip. Also, make sure you use a nylon rope, as one made of natural fibers will rot over time.
Spillages
If you find that a lot of water is spilling over the edge of your gutter, then this could indicate a blockage.
On the other hand, if you’ve gone up and cleared away any debris and are still seeing spillages, then there could be another problem.
A friend of mine, David, who’s a gutter tech recommends: “Have a look at the length of the piece of guttering that is giving you problems. A very long piece of guttering can lead to spillages simply because the volume of water that rushes along it during rainfall.” David has been in the industry for over 15 years. You can learn more about their company on Virginia Beach Gutters website or by searching their social media pages.
Where the gutter meets the downpipe or if there is a 90-degree angle, this can lead to spillages. Install a diverter to counter this problem. It’s basically a thin piece of metal that screws into the top of the gutter, essentially doubling the gutter wall height and keeping all that water inside the gutter system where it belongs.
Best Cleaning Tool
One of the most common gutter repairs is actually one of the simplest – cleaning muck like moss and dead leaves out of the gutter.
The best tool for this job might surprise you – a simple, plastic spatula, like you’d flip burgers with on the grill. You can trim it to fit the exact width of the gutter, making it a breeze to just run it along underneath all the collected crud and flip it over the side.…
