I have lost all hope for my gutters at this point. They have always overflowed with heavy downpour rain. I have pitched them a little steeper on each side to no avail. I have disconnected them from the underground drain pipes assuming they must be clogged or overwhelmed. I thought that did the trick but we had a thunderstorm last night and it was raining hard and the gutters were once again overflowing and causing a small waterfall that's destroying my flowerbeds and has caused me to have to buy tons of dirt to put underneath my porch (still working on that). I have even had a handy man check out my gutters to see if something else was wrong but he said they looked good and we're pitched like they should be. I have basically done everything short of replacing the gutters all together. What else can I do? Will I just have to suck it up and replace them with larger gutters?
Gutters
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What size units do you have. I have never seen a properly laid out gutter plan overflow when you are talking about 6" seamless units.
I haven't seen 5" overflow either, but 6" just gives you that additional fudge factor.
I haven't seen 5" overflow either, but 6" just gives you that additional fudge factor.
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Sounds like you've done everything you can to alleviate the problem. WoW's idea is the best idea of course. 6" gutters almost always take care of any amount of rain that hits your roof.
Were the downspouts taken down and checked? I've found all kinds of stuff in downspouts that caused a plug and an overflow of the spouting. I've found balls, remnants of birds nests, twigs/leaves, maple tree seeds, etc. The last place I worked on (in prep for painting) the HO said the downspouts were fine but they still were getting overflow. So, I removed them and found rubber balls in each of the front downspouts that were causing a blockage. The HO's kids were throwing the balls up on the roof and playing catch. Only thing was they didn't tell mom and dad that the balls got stuck in the gutters and eventually washed down into the downspouts.
Were the downspouts taken down and checked? I've found all kinds of stuff in downspouts that caused a plug and an overflow of the spouting. I've found balls, remnants of birds nests, twigs/leaves, maple tree seeds, etc. The last place I worked on (in prep for painting) the HO said the downspouts were fine but they still were getting overflow. So, I removed them and found rubber balls in each of the front downspouts that were causing a blockage. The HO's kids were throwing the balls up on the roof and playing catch. Only thing was they didn't tell mom and dad that the balls got stuck in the gutters and eventually washed down into the downspouts.
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Typically 5" gutters have 2x3 outlets and downspouts while 6" gutters have 3x4 outlets and downspouts.
It is possible to put 3x4 outlets and downspouts on a 5"system. That may solve your problem. If you need to go to a 6" gutter the downspouts are reusable and the outlets are only a couple bucks apiece.
It is possible to put 3x4 outlets and downspouts on a 5"system. That may solve your problem. If you need to go to a 6" gutter the downspouts are reusable and the outlets are only a couple bucks apiece.
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They aren't old galvanized 4" gutters are they? If so they need to go away.
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It isn't hard to tell the difference between vinyl and aluminum. Can you take some pictures and post them?
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measure your downspout width and depth. They should be close to 2x3 inches
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As I mentioned earlier you can take your 2x3 outlets out, cut a bigger hole and put 3x4 outlets in your gutters. Then replace all your 2x3 downspouts with 3x4. That will double the capacity of your downspout system.
Would that do the trick you think? Wouldn't have to replace the entire gutter? I'd only want to do that to 4 downspouts since the other 2 are connected to maybe 1.5' sections of gutter each on either side of the porch.
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Hard to say. How steep is your roof?
How many downspouts do you have for how many feet of gutter?
How much roof area dumps in the gutters?
A rough rule of thumb is each 2x3 downspout should handle 600 square feet of roof. a 3x4 1200 square feet. Obviously that is a rough rule and heavy downpours can trump the rule.
If you switch to 3x4 and it isn't enough maybe you need to add more downspouts. That may make more sense than changing to 6" gutters. If you switch to 6" gutters the 3X4 downspouts you already bought will be reused so your not wasting that money. The only thing not reused is the outlets which are cheap anyway.
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aluminum is way way way better. Vinyl is the bottom of the barrel in gutter and downspout.
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+1
Vinyl is a throw away system if you ask me. Run seamless aluminum units and be done with it.
Vinyl is a throw away system if you ask me. Run seamless aluminum units and be done with it.
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