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How Do You Repair Sagging Gutters Pulling Away From Your Home?
Sagging gutters is not a look that anyone wants for their home. Besides being an eyesore, sagging and bent gutters can cause a host of issues with your home.
The potential issues range from yard damage to foundation damage, which is not only costly to repair but could make your home unlivable.
Therefore, repairing sagging gutter systems should skyrocket to the top of your to-do list.
Here’s how you can DIY fix them. If you don’t want to risk a DIY fix and are looking for guaranteed results, contact our gutter experts or fill out our form below for help.
Locate the Problem Areas
First and foremost, you will need to locate the full extent of your gutter problem. Visually inspect the full length of your gutters from the ground.
This can be a monotonous task, but you want to be sure you’re fixing parts of gutters that are just slightly pulling away from your home along with the more obvious sections.
Once you have a good idea of all the weak points, gather up some gutter repair tools and extra hanger brackets and get to work.
Safety First
Before you get started repairing your gutters, make sure you’re safe and understand what you’re getting into. Even single-story homes’ gutters are high up off the ground, not to mention two-story homes. If you fall, you risk significant injury.
If you’re afraid of heights, don’t risk it– your anxiety could make you shaky and more prone to an accident. Instead, call one of our experienced professionals.
However, if you choose to DIY fix your gutter, practice essential safety tips–
- Wear gloves and a helmet
- Put your ladder on level ground
- Don’t climb a ladder when it is raining, snowing, or windy
- Maintain three points of contact on the ladder at all times
- Use a tool belt to bring up tools to keep your hands free
- Have a friend hold the ladder at the bottom
Note: this is not an exhaustive list of safety tips. Repair your gutters at your own risk.
Position Your Ladder Near the Sags
To fix the gutters pulling away from your home, you’ll want to position your ladder at either end where the gutter just begins to pull away.
From there, you’ll work your way inward, securing as you go along, much like applying a piece of long tape to a wall.
Inspect the Gutter and Fascia
Once you’re up on your ladder, you should take a close look at the gutters and fascia before you reconnect them. Are the fascia boards rotting? Are the gutters rusted out and riddled with holes?
If so, you’ll need new fascia or gutters or both.
If not, proceed with cleaning and rehanging the gutters.
Clean the Gutters
If the loose gutters are clogged with leaves, twigs, pine needles, and other debris, you might want to clean them out before you rehang them.
However, depending on how extreme they’re pulling away from your home, you might want to rehang them first before you clean them. The order is up to you and depends on your specific situation.
Rehang the Gutters
If your fascia boards are in good shape, rehang your gutters by installing gutter brackets. The brackets screw into the fascia and loop under your gutters to secure them.
If you have seamless gutters, work inward towards the part of your gutters that are hanging furthest away from your home until you have the entire length of gutter re-secured to the fascia. For sectional gutters, you can rehang one section at a time.
Typically, spacing the brackets 36-inches apart (center-to-center) will work fine.
However, if you live in an area with lots of snow and ice, or frequent heavy rain, install them every 18-inches instead.
If you didn’t clean your gutters before rehanging them, you should do that now.
Check for Leaks
Now that your rain gutters are reattached correctly to your home, you should spray them with a garden hose and check for leaks. If you notice leaks, you should patch them with a gutter repair kit before they turn into bigger problems.
Why Fixing Your Gutters is Important
Fixing your gutters isn’t just about livening up the curb appeal of your home. It also helps protect your property and prevents many larger and more expensive issues.
Here are some common problems malfunctioning gutters can cause and why fixing gutters pulling away from your home is important.
Prevents Worse Gutter Problems
If your gutters are pulling away from your home, given time, they will fall off entirely. This is much harder for homeowners to repair and, in most cases, requires new gutters.
Additionally, as the gutters come crashing into your yard, they can rip down the fascia boards, soffits, shingles, and downspouts along with them and even break a window.
Saves Your Yard and Landscaping
Gutters pulling away from your home generally do a poor job of catching rainwater. As such, the water will roll right off your roof in a perimeter around your home.
Excessive amounts of rain will flood your yard and wash out all of your landscaping, leaving you with runoff and a soggy, muddy mess.
Protects Your Foundation and Basement
Water leaking around the perimeter of your home is not only bad for your lawn and landscaping; it can cause catastrophic damage to your foundation and basement.
Water can enter cracks and seep into your foundation. During the colder months, it will freeze and thaw, making the water expand and contract and the holes even more prominent.
From there, it can destabilize your foundation and shift the structure of your house. This can result in cracks in your walls and ceilings and severe structural damage if you don’t get it fixed.
Plus, water leaking through your home’s foundation will enter your basement and cause water damage.
Why do Gutters Sag in the First Place?
Understanding why the gutter pulls away from your home is the first step in preventing it from happening at all.
Here are the top causes.
They’re Dirty
Leaves, acorns, pine needles, twigs, pests, and dirt all accumulate in your gutters as the year goes on. If you don’t clean them at regular intervals (once a year or more), more and more debris will join in on filling your gutters.
Debris not only causes clogging and blocks water flow, but they also weigh your gutters down too. This puts stress on the gutter hangers and can pull them away from the fascia boards. This is why regular maintenance is important.
Icicles, Snow, and Ice Dams
Icicles, ice dams, and snow can get very heavy as they fill your gutters. These winter weather gutter ailments are arguably the top reason why gutters pull away from houses. That is why it is so important to use extra gutter brackets if you live in a winter wonderland.
To prevent icicles and ice dams, you can install gutter heaters, insulate your attic, and add attic ventilation. Check out our guide on ice dams and gutters to learn more.
Rotting Fascia Boards
Most fascia boards are robust. However, they are still prone to rotting. And once this happens, the gutter screws holding the gutter hangers, or fasteners, will slip right out of the rotting wood. In this case, you will have to replace the fascia boards themselves and screw new holes for the hangers to fix your gutters.
Get Your Gutters Inspected Regularly
Let’s face it, your gutters are high up on your home and mostly out of sight. More often than not, it is hard to see issues until it is too late. That is why regular gutter service is essential.
If you schedule routine gutter cleaning, the gutter pros will also inspect your gutters for any issues, including:
- Dents
- Bend
- Loose brackets
- Holes, cracks, and leaks
- Sags
Once these issues are identified, the gutter professionals can repair them before they evolve into more significant problems.
How Our Gutter Experts Can Help
Gutters that are pulling away from your home not only look unpleasant, but they can also cause a variety of unpleasant and expensive issues. Plus, although you have excellent instructions on how to DIY fix them, it can be a real hassle and pain in the back.
If you’re facing a problem with gutters pulling away from your home, give us a call or fill out our form today.
We will provide a free estimate and quickly fix your gutter issue. Plus, if you need other assistance with your gutters, gutter installation, gutter maintenance, or gutter cleaning, our gutter experts can help with that too.
