Owning a home often means many tasks and chores that must be completed daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. The list is neverending, with chores like deep cleaning the upholstery, cleaning under the furniture, pressure washing the exterior, servicing the HVAC system, and so on. On this list should be to inspect your gutters for damage and fix any damage immediately.

Our gutter systems along with our roofs help protect our homes from drainage issues, keeping them drier and free of standing water around the foundation, entryways, garden beds, and yards. However, if a gutter system is damaged it won’t work properly, potentially leading to drainage issues that it was meant to prevent.

If your gutter system is older or you want to be proactive and prevent costly damage, continue reading for our DIY gutter repair guide with simple fixes for common problems.

 

Common Gutter Problems & Fixes

Traditional half-round gutter systems require frequent maintenance to perform optimally. Unfortunately, damage and gutter problems can occur even with cleaning your gutters often. Luckily, some common gutter problems have easy fixes:

 

The Problem: Overflowing Gutters

Do you think you have overflowing gutters? The next time it rains, go outside and look at your gutters – if you notice water spilling over the sides you have overflowing gutters. Not only are overflowing gutters unsightly, but they also pose a danger to your home and can result in costly repairs. 

Gutters overflow for several reasons, the most common being a blockage inside the gutter that prevents rainwater and meltwater from flowing freely through the gutters, forcing it to spill over the sides. Overflowing gutters can cause all sorts of issues: foundation damage, basement leaks, soil erosion, structural damage, and so on. You must fix an overflowing gutter as soon as possible to avoid extensive damage.

 

The Solution: Check the Inside of the Gutter

If you have overflowing gutters, you can fix it yourself. To check for a blockage, use a tall ladder and safely climb up and inspect the inside of the gutters. More than likely you’ll notice a blockage of some kind, whether it be a large branch or stick that fell inside the gutters, a collection of leaves, a bird’s nest, or other debris. 

With gloves on, safely remove the debris that is impeding water flow. To test whether or not removing the debris was the right fix, flush the gutters with a garden hose to ensure water is flowing freely through the system. If not, it’s probably time to contact a professional gutter cleaning service to take a look.

 

The Problem: Sagging Gutters

Sagging gutters are an eyesore that deters potential homebuyers and violates some HOA rules. If you notice an area of your gutters is dipping lower than the rest, you have sagging gutters and must remedy the situation immediately to avoid extensive damage. 

Gutters sag for many reasons, most often from clogs and storm damage that dislodged the bolts and screws in the gutter’s seams. Sagging gutters can lead to costly damage like damage to the soffit and fascia, roof damage, damage to the home’s siding, etc. 

 

The Solution: Clean Your Gutters & Tighten Screws

To fix sagging gutters, grab a tall ladder and check the inside of the gutters. Look for any signs of debris that is weighing heavy on the gutter and remove it. If there isn’t debris near the sag, check the seam for loose bolts and screws. Sectional gutters have seams that connect each piece, and they can become loose from high winds, hail damage, heavy debris, heavy snow, etc.

If there are loose bolts and screws, tighten them to lift the sagging gutter. Doing so will better align the sagging gutter with the rest of the system. If you do have a sectional gutter system, as part of routine maintenance, you should inspect for loose bolts and screws multiple times per year.

 

The Problem: Leaking Gutters

Have you noticed water slowly or quickly trickling from the gutters? If so, you have leaking gutters which can be just as damaging to your home as overflowing gutters. Leaks most often occur from debris that’s clogging the gutter, debris that has become lodged in between seams that create a tiny opening, or loose bolts and screws at the seams.

Like overflowing gutters, leaking gutters can also cause serious damage to your home like foundation damage, structural damage, basement leaks, landscaping damage, staining of the home’s siding, etc. Fix your leaky gutters as soon as possible to prevent extensive damage.

 

The Solution: Check for Clogs & Tighten Screws/Seams

A quick fix for leaky gutters is to check for clogs and to tighten screws at the seams of each section. Remove any debris that has created a blockage or put pressure on the gutter system. Once the debris has been removed, tighten the screws and bolts at the seam to close any small openings to prevent leaks.

 

The Problem: Clogged Gutters

As previously mentioned, clogged gutters are most often to blame if gutters overflow, sag, or leak. The accumulation of wet leaves, pine needles, acorns, sticks and twigs, roof sediment, and other debris can grow bigger each day until it becomes a blockage that impedes water flow. You’ll want to fix clogged gutters immediately to avoid extreme damage to the roof, soffit and fascia, siding, and so on.

 

The Solution: Clean Your Gutters

If you have a blockage impeding water flow, clean it immediately! Ideally, you clean your gutters at least twice a year to remove debris that can form clogs and gutter issues. Keeping gutters clean prevents many gutter issues like overflows and sags. If you feel comfortable you can DIY cleaning your gutters or ask a friend for assistance. If you don’t feel comfortable, plenty of reputable gutter cleaning services are in and around Columbus.

There are many benefits of repairing gutters, like preventing foundation damage, wood rot, roof damage, and more. Though fixing the gutter issues listed above offers benefits that will help prevent drainage issues caused by faulty gutters, gutter repair is a temporary solution that often leads to recurring gutter issues.

 

A Permanent Gutter Solution from K-Guard® of Central Ohio

The only permanent solution to avoiding common gutter issues is to install the K-Guard® Leaf Free Gutter System. It’s a full system with multiple components like a curved hood that work together to prevent clogs while keeping water moving through the system rapidly. Because debris can’t enter the system it’ll stay clog-free for life! That means never having to perform gutter maintenance or repair your gutters again. Plus, it’s a seamless gutter system so there’s no chance for seams to loose or the gutters to leak.

K-Guard® also comes with a transferrable lifetime warranty that protects your investment. Our lifetime warranty ensures your gutter system’s paint will never chip or fade, the system will never clog, and you’ll never need to perform gutter maintenance again. No other gutter system on the market can match the durability, capacity, performance, and warranty of K-Guard®.

Contact our team today if you’re ready to switch to our seamless gutters and guards or the K-Guard® System. We’ll be happy to schedule a free estimate and provide a detailed analysis of your current gutter system and a quote for installing our K-Guard® Gutters.