Gutter Talk

There may come a time when a roofing or gutter contractor may tell you that the fascia board has to be replaced because it has become rotten. There are a few reasons why this can happen.

First, gutters on older homes are usually attached by the spike and ferrule method. Sometimes, this method allows water to get into the fascia boards and causes them to deteriorate. Second, clogged gutters can also cause damage to the fascia board as they overflow and go behind the gutter.

Third, water goes behind the gutters from a damaged roof or from roofing without sufficient overhang.

If the spike and ferrule system has failed, the logical solution is to have hidden hangers installed with wood screw fasteners and rubber washers to pull the gutters up tight, eliminating any spaces between the gutters and fascia boards.

If clogging is causing water to run behind the gutters against the fascia, the solution is pretty obvious. Have your gutters checked and cleaned.

One way to protect the fascia board when water from the roof is not reaching the gutter and pouring behind it is to have a drip edge installed. Drip edge is metal installed under the first course of shingles and turned down into the gutters. This prevents any water from going behind the gutters when the roof shingles don’t have adequate overhang.

It’s that time of year when homeowners are checking the condition of their gutters and figuring out whether they’re good for another year or if they have to be replaced.

If it’s the latter, you’ll probably be looking for a gutter contractor. No matter how good a gutter or roofing contractor, no matter how fantastic his recommendation, and no matter how impressive his safety record, rooftop accidents can happen.

If a contractor or his employee are injured while replacing, installing or repairing a gutter, the contractor should have insurance to cover all his expenses.  Make sure he does. Check him out.

But even if the contractor does have a policy to cover his employee, that employee can turn around and sue you for additional money. We live in a litigious society in this country.

So do yourself a favor. Before anyone unloads a truck or climbs on a roof, contact your home insurance agent, explain to him what work you are contracting for and who is going to do it.  Ask your agent if you have adequate coverage and, if not, consider getting it before work starts. Also, ask the agent to find out if your contractor has insurance as well. You may also consider whether you wish  to have your contractor list you as an additional insured party for the length of the work. That’s something to discuss with your insurance agent as well.

Someone recently wrote in and asked what kind of fasteners should be used with copper gutters. The writer noted they had heard that using dissimilar metals together could cause corrosion.

They were absolutely right. Experts tell us that electrolytic corrosion (electrolysis) occurs when dissimilar metals are in contact in the presence of any water or moisture (we are talking about gutters here, after all) containing very small amounts of acid. They say dissimilar metals set up a galvanic action that results in the deterioration of one of them. The following is a list of familiar metals with numbers conforming to a galvanic “scale.” When you read them it becomes readily apparent what kind of fasteners will work with copper gutters and which will not.

When any two metals in this list are in contact, with an electrolytic present, the one with the lower number is corroded. The galvanic action tends to increase as the metals are farther apart in the galvanic scales. However, that is not always the case. In certain cases, one metal immediately following another may be very corrosive. In the case of brass, copper, bronze and stainless steel 300 Series, there appears to be little or no corrosion among them.

THE GALVANIC SERIES

1. Aluminum 7. Tin
2. Zinc 8. Lead
3. Steel 9. Brass
4. Iron 10. Copper
5. Nickel 11. Bronze
6. StainlessSteel400Series 12. StainlessSteel300Series

Be careful if a contractor or roofer has installed downspouts to flush out onto your upper roof, because the effects may be obvious. Debris, mud, and rust are flushed out from the down spout and may stain the roof. And the water flowing from the downspout may erode the roof granules of a shingle roof, damaging the shingles and shortening the life of the roof.

There are two solutions to this problem. One, have the upper story downspouts be extended to the ground. This can be more expensive than draining onto your roof. Just make certain there is a safe area to drain the water without doing damage to the home, concrete areas and landscape.

Some areas of the upper gutters may not be accessible to drain directly onto the ground. Another solution is to have the upper down spout tie in directly into the lower gutter system.

Gutters should extend past the roof line a couple of inches to catch the rain water coming off the edge of the roof instead of running down the side of your home.

If you have this problem it may be because the gutter is lined up with the roof line. Water then tends to flow over the gutter end cap, down the gutters, to the fascia and soffit with possible water damage as a result.

More often than not, the gutters are not positioned properly at the ends of the run. Call the installer have him correct the problem, making sure to position the gutters to go past the roof line.

When you have new gutter installed always think about the weather you can expect to face. For warmer climates your gutter installer can space gutter hangers supporting your gutters at a spacing of thirty-six inches. But in climates that get a good amount of snowfall each winter, your gutter hangers should be spaced every 18 inches so that they are able to carry the weight of the heavier and more frequent snowfalls. It may cost you a little bit more but it can be an important deterrent to sagging, defective gutters later on.
If you’re having a local gutter installer check out your gutter system for the winter, you may want to investigate whether you need snow guards for your roof as well. Snow guards are designed to prevent snow slides. They hold the snow evenly over the entire roof allowing it to melt gradually and drain off into gutters and leaders. If you are concerned about snow sliding off your roof over your main entranceway, backyard patio doors and side entrances, ask your contractor about snow guards. You can get them for just about any roofing material.

Each of us is always looking for ways to judge the quality of a product before we purchase it. And other than word of mouth, we are reliant on so-called home improvement experts to tell us what they think are the best products in the marketplace. Unfortunately, even some of the best known experts have been paid to tout the merits of home improvement products or to feature them on their websites or on their programs.
Nonetheless, there are a handful of resources that are usually trustworthy to provide an honest assessment of home improvement products and their suppliers—including gutters.
The Better Business Bureau in your market area probably has rated gutter installers with the best rating being an A Plus. And the Good Housekeeping Institute which awards the Good Housekeeping Seal and Consumer Reports—both test and rate leaf protection systems. If you’re curious how the leaf protection system you’re considering stacks up, check in with Good Housekeeping and Consumer Reports to get their input.

We always like to hear from you about new gutter products in the marketplace. And while we are not, and don’t plan to be a place where people can complain or criticize, it’s good for us to know your feelings about certain products. If you’ve liked a product, we certainly like to hear why.
And if we do hear from you, we certainly hope you are a homeowner sharing an experience. We’ve heard that manufacturers have posed as homeowners and used other blogs and home improvement websites to bash competitive products. Be assured we shall do everything we can to make sure this will not happen on our website.

It’s that time of year again when many homeowners are considering whether their rain gutters can stand up to another winter. Some will try to get through another winter without leaks and drainage problems. Others will be contacting gutter and leaf protection system contractors to replace gutters now before problems can start.
There is a wide variety of services out there and you have every right to expect the highest level of service quality when you go looking for a contractor. Here’s what you should expect when you make your calls to hire a contractor:

1. Never, ever let a contractor give you a drive by estimate.
2. Have the contractor or his salesperson visit your home
3. Make sure they listen to your concerns first before they begin a sales pitch
4. Make sure they do a walk around to investigate your gutters and any drainage issues you may have
5. A good contractor will discuss your concerns and what he finds as well. Some contractors will even take pictures of your home and download them to a computer screen, first, so you can clearly see any problems and, second, to bring them back to their installation team so it knows what equipment and materials it will need should you award them the contract.
6. A good contractor will provide you with an explanation and a drawing of what he plans to do involving either replacement gutters or repairs.
7. Make sure they show you the actual product they plan to install—gutter, downspout and brackets.
8. Finally, the contractor should provide you with a written estimate of how much the job will cost and what it will entail—right there.

Price is a very subjective topic. Remember, you get what you pay for. And every job is different. Your neighbor may tell you what he or she paid but the work may differ greatly from what you need and the product you have selected. Hooded leaf protection systems cost more than standard gutters. And even gutters come at different levels of quality and price. Your neighbor may simply have needed gutters replaced with no additional concerns. Another neighbor might have had rotting fascia that had to be replaced, adding to the cost of the job.
It’s a lot to consider, right? Good luck.