DIY Home Improvement Forum banner

gutters

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  joecaption 
#1 ·
I've had a problem where when it rains hard the water comes down my roof, which has a 45 degree pitch, it hits and runs over the gutter causing problems with my soffit etc.

I have a K-style gutter that is a 5 inch top, 3 inch bottom. So I have 2 questions primarily

1) are the shingles supposed to over hang the gutter top by 2.5 inches? I feel like it's a bitter counter productive but I'm not sure.

2) Since my concern is to stop the water from running over the gutter is there a different style that would do a better job at stopping the water from running over? should I get a bigger size? does a bigger size appear bad?

Any help is much appreciated.
 
#2 ·
I don't know if there is a wider gutter but a simple solution would be to trim a little off the bottom of the first row of shingles, allowing the water to drop in the gutter before it overshoots it. If they wouldn't expose something else by doing that, 2 1/2" sounds like a lot of overhang for shingles.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Visiting with the contractor that shingled my house about over hang he said that over 1" often results in shingle edge droop and looks terrible. They usually go for 3/4"-1".

If the gutter is installed so it stays against the fascia 1" is enough. When gutters and pipes are free of debris and still flood consider more down spout pipes. The traditional 3 ell systems aren't a good design for flow.
 
#4 ·
If you have sufficient overhang, and the soil around your house is graded down and away from the foundation, you may want to consider removing the gutters entirely. We used to have occasional ice dams on my house, I got rid of the gutters 15 years ago, no problems since. I noticed that many others in my neighborhood have gotten rid of gutters also.

One of the original purposes of gutters was to collect water for irrigation, but that is not done so frequently anymore. Gutters are also nice to provide a dry spot to stand while you fish for your key at the front door, but this can be accommodated with a V shape metal diverter on the roof. As near as I can tell, the main purpose of gutters in current housing is to supply work for the gutter fabricators and installers, and to capture leaves and debris to make work for the gutter cleaners.
 
#5 ·
Daniel Holzman said:
If you have sufficient overhang, and the soil around your house is graded down and away from the foundation, you may want to consider removing the gutters entirely. We used to have occasional ice dams on my house, I got rid of the gutters 15 years ago, no problems since. I noticed that many others in my neighborhood have gotten rid of gutters also.

One of the original purposes of gutters was to collect water for irrigation, but that is not done so frequently anymore. Gutters are also nice to provide a dry spot to stand while you fish for your key at the front door, but this can be accommodated with a V shape metal diverter on the roof. As near as I can tell, the main purpose of gutters in current housing is to supply work for the gutter fabricators and installers, and to capture leaves and debris to make work for the gutter cleaners.
I can't just let it run onto the soil as the front lawn isn't graded the best and it would probably cause problems in my basement. I certainly understand that a proper roof overhang and graded yard can exist without gutters but I do not appear to have that. I might just have to trim the shingles first and than try 6 inch gutters.
 
#6 ·
When you saw it's "running over" do mean because the gutter is full and can not drain fast enough, or it it running down the roof so fast it's missing the gutter?

If it's full and can not drain fast enough you can add more or just install a bigger down spout.
Are you 100% sure the gutter or the down spouts not plugged up?

You mentioned it's messing up the fashia, only way I can see that happening is if the gutter does not have enough hangers or if there's old type gutter spikes there pulling out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Duckweather
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top