Rotting Fascia Mystery

One small section of fascia is soggy and rotting and I'm not sure where the water is coming from. All my fascia boards have been wrapped in aluminum. This Fascia is on the front of the garage. The bottom edge of the aluminum fascia wrap ends end in a 90 degree angle. After a heavy rain, there was standing water on the bottom of this angle. That water is rotting the bottom edge of the fascia board.

I have fully cleaned gutter and downspout, but problem still continues.

Roof has plywood sheathing with roofing paper and asphalt shingles. Drip edge is installed under the first row of tar paper and drip edge hangs into gutter. I lifted shingles and checked for soggy sheathing above the location, but sheathing seems completely dry even right after a heavy rain.

I have 2 theories, but don't really buy either of them.

Crazy theory 1: The ridge line where my garage roof meets my second story is directly upstream of the damaged fascia area. Maybe the heavy flow of water down the ridge tops over the gutter then flows runs around gutter back to fascia, then somehow curls around the edge of the aluminum fascia edge and back up to fascia board.

Crazy theory 2: Gutter fills up and water flows through the gutter mounting screw holes and soaks the fascia.

What is the most likely cause, and how do I fix it?

 

I've neglected my 2nd floor gutter cleaning, and just discovered that the gutter and fascia board has pulled away from the roof. Water has been draining directly into soffet for some time.

I do not plan to attempt any of the 2nd floor repairs myself. They will probably need to remove the entire gutter, repair the soffet, replace the fascia board, re-wrap it with the existing aluminum fascia wrap, and then reattach the old gutter or install new one.

I need help deciding if I should reuse or replace the existing gutters. They have always sagged in the middle. I'm also interested in maintenance free gutters to avoid future problems. I live in MD, so winters are fairly mild. Tree situation is not too bad, with conventional gutters a once a year cleaning should be sufficient, but I now realize I will need to pay someone to do that b/c I would probably neglect it again.

Current gutter is hung by nails that go through top of gutter into soffet. Gutters are 17' from ground, and I have 36" length in front, and 36' length in back, each with one downspout at the end.

When I called someone about repairing the sagging gutters before, he said "those cheap builder gutter systems are no good. "You need a whole new gutter with better hangers."

Is my hanger system really inadequate?

 

I'm pretty sure your gutters could be beefed up by using something like this:



image credit: hardware and tools dot com

Screws hold better than the old spikes and ferrules. Usually a bracket every 24" is sufficient, but there's nothing wrong with positioning them closer, except it makes the gutters a little harder to clean.

I'm sure the contractor you spoke to just doesn't want to be responsible to take down your existing gutter, salvage it (not bend it up in the process) and not have it leak at the joints when he reinstalls it. A new gutter would enable him to stand behind his work better.

If your gutters are not seamless, that is one route you could go... and even if you needed to have a joint using 16 or 20' gutter, a new gutter could be installed in the proper manner. Your old ones will have to come down to do the repair either way. Not being able to see the gutters from here, it's hard to say which route you will need to go.

 

I clearly saw water pouring out behind behind the fascia board. Most likely the tar paper is under the drip edge at some point. Anyway, I'm having professionals replace the roof and fix fascia and gutters.