Les Jones: Overflowing Gutters

June 01, 2004

Home Life > Overflowing Gutters

The rains last week brought a familiar problem: overflowing gutters. I knew the rains were coming, so I had cleaned the gutters Wednesday. The gutters were clean, and the downspouts and drains are clear, but the gutters overflowed when the rain was most intense.

I have mesh devices in the downspouts that are supposed to keep leaves from blocking them. The devices are roughly the shape of a large lightbulb. The skinny part goes into the downspout, and the bulb part goes to the top of the gutter. They're OK, but a handful of leaves on either side will block them up. And a handful of leaves is nothing in our yard; we have a lot of big trees.

The original gutters had covers. They didn't really keep the leaves or maple seeds out, and they made it harder to to clean the gutters. Is there another solution?

Posted by lesjones

Comments

We had the same problem this round of storms -- our gutters are hopelessly clogged right above our window, and so when it rains hard, we get a torrent right into the window. Unfortunately, we rent so every decision to repair something is tempered by laziness and the risk of having our incompetent "repair" man just make it worse.

The original gutters had covers. They didn't really keep the leaves or maple seeds out, and they made it harder to to clean the gutters. Is there another solution?

Were they those "guttar guard" things that cover the tops? I was going to suggest that, but if that doesn't work I don't know what would

Posted by: Chris Wage at June 01, 2004

What? YOU REPLACED MY GUTTERS???!!!

The original gutters had covers. They didn't really keep the leaves or maple seeds out

You just weren't using them correctly.

Posted by: Steve K. at June 02, 2004

Chris: yeah, they were the flaps with one high edge (to tuck under the roof shingles) and one low edge (to go over the outside gutter edge).

Steve: had to. When we replaced the gables and soffits the old gutters were going to be a big pain to put back up. The siding company offered me a half-price deal ($300 for seamless aluminum gutters for the whole house) and I couldn't refuse.

How do you mis-use a gutter guard. It's a flat thing that lays on top of the gutter. >:-)

Posted by: Les Jones at June 02, 2004

I have noticed our gutters have begun to overflow and I am wondering if it has to do with the black tubing that we installed to direct the water away from the house. There are no leaves or debris in the gutters but even whebn it isn't raining too hard, the rain comes around the gutters and is a real mess. Any suggestions?
Thanks

Posted by: Cybele Cook at November 21, 2004

I think I know why your problem is occurring.If your house is a fairly long house where the gutters are continuious along the length and the only downspouts are on both ends this could be the problem.House designers noticed a long time ago that homeowners preferred them to be this way so that a downspout didn't have to be installed right in the middle of the house beside the entrance to the house.And besides this installation only works during really heavy rains when the gutter fills to capacity and not only runs out both ends but some actually runs out the middle while it is raining really hard.A better way to approach this problem is to simply install 5 inch gutters and have the one end raised just as high as you can so that the flow will be sufficient for the water to exit the preferred main exit end before ever running over.Five inch gutters simple hold more capacity over the smaller width gutters.Depending on the length of a house I believe this fact should be incorporated into the building code.Hope this helps.
Steve

Posted by: Steve Rechel at July 31, 2006