Gutters that are clogged, sagging, or pulling away from the fascia do not protect your home, they direct water exactly where you do not want it, which is down the side of the house and into the foundation. Gutter cleaning and basic repair is a once or twice a year job that takes a couple of hours and prevents thousands of dollars in water damage.
Step 1: Clean the gutters before anything else
You need a ladder that reaches your roofline safely, work gloves, a small plastic scoop or your gloved hands, and a bucket or tarp on the ground. Set the ladder on stable, level ground, never against the gutter itself, which can bend or pull it away from the fascia. Use a ladder standoff or stabilizer if possible to keep the ladder off the gutter.
Scoop debris from the gutter into the bucket, working from the end farthest from the downspout toward it. Once the bulk of debris is out, flush the gutter with a garden hose starting at the far end and working toward the downspout. Water should flow freely toward and into the downspout. If it puddles in the middle, the gutter has a low spot that needs slope correction. If it flows but the downspout is blocked, the clog is in the downspout.
Step 2: Clear a clogged downspout
Insert a garden hose into the top of the downspout and turn the water on full force. This clears most clogs. For stubborn clogs, a plumber’s snake fed down the downspout breaks up compacted debris. You can also remove the downspout entirely by unscrewing the strap brackets, clear it on the ground, and reattach it, sometimes the simplest approach for a badly blocked spout.
Make sure downspouts direct water away from the foundation. The extension at the bottom should divert water at least three feet away from the house. If yours is short or missing, a downspout extension costs about five dollars and snaps on in seconds.
Step 3: Fix gutters that are sagging or pulling away
Gutters are held to the fascia by either spikes (long nails driven through the gutter into the fascia) or hidden hangers (brackets screwed into the fascia through the gutter front). Spikes work loose over time. The fix is to replace them with gutter screws, long hex-head screws that thread into the fascia and grip far better than nails. Drill through the existing spike hole, drive the gutter screw with a drill and hex bit, and the gutter pulls tight to the fascia again.
If the gutter is sagging in the middle, a hanger has failed or is missing. Gutter hangers cost about a dollar each at hardware stores, slip the back edge under the back lip of the gutter, set the front edge over the front lip, and drive the screw into the fascia. Space hangers every 24 to 36 inches for proper support.
Step 4: Check and correct gutter slope
Gutters should slope about a quarter inch for every ten feet of run toward the downspout. If water is pooling, the slope is off. You can check slope roughly by running water with a hose and watching which direction it flows.
To correct slope, loosen the hangers in the section that needs adjustment, raise or lower that section, and retighten. On longer gutter runs, it helps to snap a chalk line from the high end to the downspout at the correct pitch to use as a guide for repositioning hangers.
Step 5: Seal leaking joints and end caps
Gutter joints and end caps can develop leaks where the sealant has dried and cracked over time. Clean the inside of the joint thoroughly with a wire brush and dry it completely. Apply gutter sealant (available in tubes at any hardware store) along the inside of the joint seam, smoothing it with a finger into a consistent bead that covers the joint from inside. Let it cure before the next rain, usually 24 hours for full adhesion.
Do this repair in dry weather with no rain forecast for at least a day. Sealant applied to a wet surface or washed out before curing will not hold.
Clean gutters twice a year, once in late spring after seed pods and pollen season, and once in late fall after the leaves are down. If you have overhanging trees, quarterly cleaning may be necessary. The Broke Mom Home Reset ($17) includes a seasonal home maintenance calendar that helps you track jobs like this so nothing gets missed until it becomes a water damage problem.
