How Far From The House Does My Gutter Stick Out

Lately whenever it rains water drips out of my house s gutters and onto the patio instead of out the downspout.

How far from the house does my gutter stick out. A normal gutter will have about 1 2 3 4 of its width sticking out beyond the shingles to catch the runoff. Is this something i can fix myself or do i need to replace my leaking gutters. The pitch of gutter heading towards a downspout can also cause overflow if it s too steep. Gardens growing in your gutter.

Prepare the gutter by scraping out as much old tar or caulk as possible. This problem is common with homes that have roofs that do not have much pitch to them. It s not uncommon for homeowners to hang the gutters so that the front edge is slumping forward too much. You can unclog your own gutters if you re comfortable on a ladder don t mind getting wet and dirty and don t have an extremely tall house.

When the roof shingles do not extend past the metal drip edge the water will suck back on the metal drip edge this is called capillary action and run behind your gutters. Otherwise they ll dump water right into your basement or pool on the ground beside the foundation. The pitch and tilt of your gutters make all of the difference. No stickout means the water coming off the roof especially in heavy rains when it is cascading off the roof rather than dripping will totally miss the gutter and go straight off onto the ground.

That said gutters need to be completely level from front to back or water could spill over either edge. After you ve cleared the muck flush them with a garden hose to make sure they re flowing properly. If the gutter is badly rusted or has been heavily coated with tar that you can t scrape out spray on a special adhesive primer before applying the tape protecto. Shingle manufacturers say to use a 1 4 to 3 8 inch shingle overhang over the eave where your roof ends.

Wire brush the metal thoroughly to get rid of rust and to give the tape a clean surface for bonding photo 1. 2 your gutters aren t positioned correctly. Gutters should slope an inch or two for every 40 feet. During house construction fascia boards are fastened to the ends of the rafters called rafter tails before the roofing and gutters are installed sometimes there are two fascia boards either the same width or different widths with a narrower board in front of a wider board and sometimes fascia is installed over a board of framing lumber called subfascia that mounts directly to the.

If you d prefer you can hire someone to do the job for you for between 50 and 250 depending on the size of your house. If the gutter is tilting away from your house it could be causing an overflow particularly during heavy storms.