All parts or sections of your home play critical roles in keeping the integrity of your property and maintaining its durability while ensuring comfortable living indoors. Take for example your gutters and downspouts. The main role of your gutters and downspouts is to keep water away from your house. Water is the most common elemental enemy of your home and if your gutters and downspouts fail to do their job, structural issues of your home will come about one after the other.
In most cases, it is best to let professional roofing contractors get the job done when it comes to repairing or replacing old and worn-out components/sections of your home. However, it doesn’t mean that you can do minor fixes on your own. Apart from helping you save, taking care of your minor gutter and downspout repair needs can help you boost your self-confidence as well.
So here are some common minor gutter and downspout problems that any homeowner can easily take care of with a breeze:
- Sagging Gutters – Over time, most if not all of your home’s structural components, especially your gutters will wear off and break. The only question is when. Sagging gutters are a common sight particularly when it has already reached at least more than half of their guaranteed lifespan. To deal with this, simply install/screw additional hangers to areas where it is most needed. Gutter hangers can be purchased in home centers. Choose easy-to-install types to help lighten up the work. Screw the hangers at about 2-3 feet apart.
- Leaky Gutters – If water is dripping along your gutters it only means that you need to immediately get up on a ladder and seal those holes. To do this, simply locate the holes/leaks. Clear the sections from all types of debris particularly dead leaves and broken branches. Scrub off sticky and stubborn dirt as well. Seal the holes with a gutter sealant from the inside. When it comes to larger holes, use a gutter patching kit that you can easily buy from your local hardware store.
- Standing water in gutters – Gutters serve as a passageway for water to flow freely towards the downspouts. If you standing water in the middle of your gutter sections, this simply means that your gutter is out of alignment. Gutters need to have at least a quarter of an inch of slope for every 10 feet. This will make sure that water will flow properly to your downspouts. To come up with a slope for your gutter simply bend the hanger or rehang it if needed.
Before executing minor repairs on your gutters, make sure that at least one other member of your family knows of your planned task. This is also only applicable for properties that are just about 1 and a half stories high to avoid any untoward accidents. Use a firm ladder that is long enough to help you reach your gutters conveniently. Most importantly, stay away from power lines. If you think the task is too much for you to handle, simply call a licensed and experienced roofing contractor to get the job done in no time.