We have 4 windows in our living room, and every time it rains hard, water just POURS down two of the windows in sheets of water. I have looked at the gutters and they seem OK, I tried a drip edge from HD with no change, I used gutter seals around the casing where the nails pass through (that secures the gutters) to make sure it wasn't coming from there. Nothing I do fixes the problem.

The damn thing is, the roof shingles that hang a little over the gutters all look the same (same pitch, same length overhanging the gutters). It's only happening across the two left-most windows (as seen in the pics at the URL below).

This is a serious problem, as the water comes into the windows and the weep holes can get rid of the water fast enough, so the dry wall in a small spot of these two windows (maybe a 2"x2" piece) is getting soaked.

Can someone take a look at the photos (at the URL below) and maybe give me some ideas as to what could be causing this? It would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy


GUTTERS pictures by hikerguy1 - Photobucket

 

It appears in pic 5 that the gutter is bent/deformed right above the 2 left windows. I wouldn't doubt that if you take a 6 ft level and put it on the top and front you'll find that true. Looking at pic 8 it could be that from the left corner to the middle of the windows is bowed down and not correctly sloping to the down spouts.

Is there just the one spout...or is there one over to the right out of view.

 

Is the only outlet around the corner on the small room? Is it dammed at the end where it protrudes over the other roof? I'm like Vic, I think the middle of that span is lower than any nearby downspout and in a heavy downpour, a single downspout can't handle all that water at once.

 

There is only one spout, and that's around the corner (in the pic, if you look at the one where it shows the corner where two sections of cutter meet, if you were to imagine the
gutter extending further to the left, that's where the down spout is. There's also another down spout quite a distance to the far right. I will have to get a level and check that. If that were the case, why would it overflow just around those two windows? It seems it would pour out in more areas.

If that is the case, what's the best way to get the correct slope? Is that going to require a contractor to do, or is it something I could do? Any other thoughts?


Thanks,

Andy

 

First thing I would do is throw away all your 2x3 downspouts and put in 3x4 drops and use 3x4 downspout. They drain twice the volume of water. The faster your gutters drain, the less likely it will be that they will get full and overflow.

 

XSleeper, can you take a look at the additional pics I posted and tell me if I'll be able to upgrade to a 3x4 downspout? The gutters are just a hair over 3". Is that cutting it too close (so to speak)? I currently have 2x3 downspouts (of course!).

GUTTERS pictures by hikerguy1 - Photobucket

Also, is this a job I could do, or should I hire a "pro"?

Thanks,

Andy

 

That's pretty much a standard size of gutter, and yes, a 3x4 gutter outlet should fit in the bottom of your gutter. I'm no gutter specialist but I've done it a few times. If you have a Fein multimaster, cutting the holes for the outlets would be no problem. But cutting the holes isn't impossible, and it isn't rocket science. If I was you, I'd remove the old downspout and old outlet. Take your new outlet (seen here) And center it over the old hole, draw around the inside perimeter, then take a hacksaw blade (they make one that has it's own handle, so that just the blade is sticking up) and make 4 incisions at each corner of the old hole, and cut towards the corners of the new 3x4 hole. If your gutters are aluminum, score around the perimeter of the line you marked with a sharp utility knife, making the hole about 1/8" bigger than you have marked. Score it several times. Then take a pliers and bend the resulting tabs downward, and break off the part you scored. If you do it nicely, you should have a pretty clean hole for the new outlet to drop down into. You'd use gutter seal around the new outlet and then drop it in the hole. (Obviously the bottom of your gutter would need to be as clean as possible for the sealant to stick)

Drill a few 1/8" pilot holes down through the new outlet and put about 4 pop rivets down into the outlet from above. Then you should be ready to attach the new downspout.

Some guys will omit using the preformed outlet, and just bend some tabs down in the bottom of the gutter (if you do that, omit the scoring of the circle and breaking off of the tabs) you would just screw the new downspout to the tabs you bend down.


If you're handy, this isn't too hard of a task, but if you want someone to blame if it leaks then you better hire it done.

 

XSleeper, I had picked up one of those outlets, but after measuring it, I discovered I'm losing about 1/2". So, I think I'm going to cut out the tabs and attach the downspout to the tabs so I can get the full 3X4 inches. I'm planning on doing it this weekend and will post the results once the next big rain hits. Thanks for you advice once again.

Andy

 

Well, I got motivated a few days ago and drug a garden hose up on the ladder. I initially sprayed water down the downspout, and water started backing up almost immediately. I took off the spray nozzle and held the host back about 3' from the drain pipe and just let it run. Again, it backed up almost immediately. I took an auger and ran it through the pipe. It helped a little, but not much.

So, I ended up opening up the opening to a 3x4" hole and attached a 3x4" downspout (it was a 2x3). After doing this, I could run the spray nozzle at full blast with NO backup whatsoever (as well as take off the nozzle and let it run). I think this may be a big part of what was causing the over spill, but I have to wait for the next big rain to verify. Once it does, I'll post again.

Andy

 

Sounds like ur making progress! Thanks for the updates!

 

Glad you're finding a solution...but I can't believe a regular garden hose would cause even a small downspout to clog unless it was plugged solid initially.

 

XSleeper, you are the man!!! We've had three good downpours over the past month, and not once
have we seen rain spill over the gutters, nor have we felt any wetness on the drywall. Thanks VERY much for that suggestion. That was driving me (and my wife) nuts. lol

Andy

 

Glad to help! Thanks for the feedback. Chandler hit it right on the money when he said a single downspout wasn't enough to drain all that roof area. I don't know why anyone bothers with the smaller sized downspouts in the first place. You don't use 2 or 3" PVC drain pipe under a toilet so why would anyone use it on a 5" gutter?

 

Yeah, thanks to Chandler too!! They use the small stuff because it's all about the Benjamins