DIY gutter repairs are essential for keeping water flowing through your gutters and away from your house. To repair damaged gutters, follow these steps:
- Clean the area around the leak by locating the leak’s source, such as seams or end caps. Use a wire brush and water to clean the area around the leak.
- Use a hole saw, downspout sections and elbows, self-tapping screws, straps, and sealant to remove the existing gutter. If there are small holes in the gutter, fill them with roof-and-gutter sealant. If there are larger holes, use glass-fiber filler.
- Straighten a sagging gutter by tightening the downspouts, sealing up gutter leaks, and clearing out clogs. Clean and dry the area with the hole or crack. Apply roofing cement around the hole’s edges and apply metal flashing.
- Install a new gutter section by preparing the area, removing old gutters, cutting them to length, and installing the new section. Apply a liberal amount of roofing cement around the hole with a caulking gun and spread it a few inches beyond the hole on all sides.
- Use a claw hammer, pry bar, or locking pliers to remove the spikes holding your gutters to the house.
In summary, maintaining your home’s gutters is crucial for protecting your foundation and preventing water damage. By following these steps, you can ensure your gutters continue to function properly and keep your home dry.
📹 How To Repair Gutters | Ask This Old House
In this video, This Old House general contractor Tom Silva helps a homeowner solve a problem with leaky gutters over their patio.
📹 How to Repair a Sagging Gutter
Installing new gutter screws can keep your gutters from sagging and pouring water on your head.
Great article, thank you. My aluminum gutters are a different shape. Mine have about a 2″ flat piece as part of the top inside edge of the gutter (so it’s L-shaped at that edge) and that flat section all along the length of the gutter slides beneath the roof shingles. So I can’t figure out how you would slope the gutter since it’s aligned with the shingles, actually all the shingles are pushed up a little by the gutter. Thanks for any help.
This article is terrible for many reasons. The first being he rehung the gutter WAY too low, the gutter should be sloped 1/16″ for every 1′ or 1″ every 16′, the back side of the gutter should be tucked or flashed under your drip edge as to prevent water from running behind the gutter, not to mention now the home owner has terrible looking fascia exposed on the front of his or her home. Plus hanging the gutter so low you’ve now just eliminated any chance of that gutter run being able to have Gutter Guards installed. The second reason being the Down Spout strap used to secure the piping to the house was installed INCORRECTLY. And thirdly that inside Miter Joint should have a splash guard installed which he DID NOT do, not that he could have anyways without it looking terrible considering how low he hung the gutter in the first place. Ya’ll have failed on this one. I really hope folk don’t head your advice🤣
As a gutter guy who does this professionally, all I gotta say is that this is all wrong. So many things that made me cringe but hey everyone els has their way of install or repair. Way too low water is either gonna shoot over the gutter because of the slope of the roof, or just go behind the fascia and rot out the roof. Second she should have sealed the center of that corner because he sealed where the gutter seam is but not the actual inside corner in the box miter. Third he should have relocated that downspout because the way i saw it just shoot out it’s going to make a mess on the ground as time passes.
Well, though relatively unrelated, this brought some memories, from when I was not even 10 and “helped” my father and uncle making gates. I would sit on top of the gate (as it was horizontally placed on the workbench) with some rivets in my hand. My father or my uncle would drill a hole, I would put a rivet in, they would set it in place and repeat. I know it was nothing, but those were the times.
Big fan of Tom. Always does things the right way and has a great way with explaining things. However, this time I’m wondering why he re-hung the gutter so low? I’d think you would start from near the bottom of the shingle and slope down from there. Won’t water running off the roof just shoot over the gutter? Maybe to allow snow and ice to run off in winter?
I have a question regarding Gutter guards, I just installed the ones from Costco, they slipped up under my roof shingles with out an issue. There is a downward slope to the gutter so everything looks correct. My question is as an added prevention of water blowing back against the roof from the wind and that is might slide up under the shingles, would it be a good idea to run a bead of cocking along the guard and the shingle? I hope I explained this clearly enough.. Thanks..