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Screwing Up The Gutter - Repair Or Replace?

By
Home Inspector with Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 3380-000723

As regards screwing up the gutter - repair or replace?

Homeowners must ask themselves this all the time!

First of all, this is not the first time the gutter on this vacant house has been "repaired."

How can you tell?

The soffit and fascia material has been caulked and painted, although not recently.

And the gutter has some kind of material, what I don't know, oozing out the seams.

But obviously it had come apart again.

So, this time they decided to screw it up!

Literally!

There are 12 sheet metal screws visible in this photo.

There are more on the other side of the corner, not seen from this side.  And from inside the attic there was more yet to see!  I think you spell it R-O-T...

The gutter is full of debris and it rained the previous night, so this corner is still dripping, which is probably the thing that precipitated this "repair."  I suspect that corner material was falling off too.

So, in order to "get the house ready for sale," they decided to screw the gutter up.

IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!  LET ME TELL YOU, THAT ISN'T THE ONLY THING THEY DID TO THIS HOUSE!

My recommendation:  a brief swing around the house will probably reveal what things have been done to get the house ready for sale.  The "repair" above looks fairly recent, but may not be!  If this is a form of "maintenance," then likely there is other similarly unprofessional "maintenance" elsewhere!


 

Posted by

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC  

Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia.

Office (703) 330-6388   Cell (703) 585-7560

www.jaymarinspect.com


Comments(60)

Scott Seaton Jr. SLS Home Insp
SLS Home Inspections-Kankakee Will Iroquois Grundy Counties - Bourbonnais, IL
The Home Inspector With a Heart!

It's just like playing detective. I ask myself more than once on some inspections... What were thinking and how in the world did they think this was going to work? Love to see the crawl space on this house. 

Feb 08, 2012 01:01 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

No crawl space Scott, but the basement wall had two 40' horizontal cracks.  The rear gutter, attached to this corner, had been introducing huge amounts of water pressure to the house.

Feb 08, 2012 01:36 AM
Jim Miner
Miner Noh & Associates - Phoenix, AZ
Loan Modfication & Short Sale Specialist

Gutters what Gutters? Seldom does it rain here in Phoenix, but when it does it becomes "Katie bar the door"

Feb 08, 2012 01:52 AM
Donald Hester
NCW Home Inspections, LLC - Wenatchee, WA
NCW Home Inspections, LLC

Jay, Dang I was hoping the guy would of used the spray rubber then we could of had a test case for the stuff. I can't help but think that all of us see that commercial and thought if that works it may be the next greatest duct tape ; )

Feb 08, 2012 02:43 AM
Marshall Brown
Mid America Inspection Services, LLC - Fargo, ND
BSEE, CHI

I waas going to try to make some cute comment, "Get your mind out of the gutter.", "The guy must have had a screw loose." "If it ain't broke don't screw with it." etc. But I got here too late.  ;-(

Feb 08, 2012 02:49 AM
Pat Rentz
VIP Inspection Services Inc - Cary, NC

Jay, we do seem to see quite a few weird things on inspections, don't we?  My favorite is still Michael Thornton's switch in his article "Just When You Think You've Seen It All".

Feb 08, 2012 03:24 AM
Steve Barker
Movement Mortgage - Bel Air, MD
Steve Barker

Jay, I love following your blogs, always informative and always with some humor...this posting seems to have drawn lots of comments and insight and some very funny comments...I look foward to more

Feb 08, 2012 03:30 AM
Lyn Sims
Schaumburg, IL
Real Estate Broker Retired

Yep, Billy Bob up there with his drill & screws 'fixing' that gutter all right. It might not ever come down but it isn't really fixed.  I would totally agree the rest of the house also has more wonderful bits of 'drill love'.

Feb 08, 2012 06:06 AM
Patricia Beck
RE/MAX Properties, Inc., ABR, GRI, SRES - Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs Realty

It seems like more of a pain repairing that gutter than replacing it, that's a lot of screws!

Feb 08, 2012 07:16 AM
Jack Gilleland
Home Inspection and Investor Services, Clayton - Clayton, OH

Hey Jay, is that "oozing stuff" Billy Jays wonderful spray leak sealer?

Feb 08, 2012 08:09 AM
Gene Riemenschneider
Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA
Turning Houses into Homes

Sounds like the repair would cause problems just clogging the gutter with those big screws.  The new gutter is pretty cheap isn't it?  I mean just to section in a few pieces.

Feb 08, 2012 09:23 AM
Mike McCann Nebraska Land Broker
Mike McCann - Broker, Mach1 Realty Farm & Commercial Land Broker-Auctioneer Serving Nebraska - Kearney, NE
Farm & Commercial Property For Sale 308-627-3700

sweet workmanship...however...I'd bet a bag of donuts that the repairs was done by a "professional" rather than the homeowner... you know...the "jack of all trades...master of none"!

Feb 08, 2012 10:36 AM
Margaret Rome Baltimore 410-530-2400
HomeRome Realty 410-530-2400 - Pikesville, MD
Sell Your Home With Margaret Rome

Thanks to Tom for the reblog. You picked a perfect title for this post! Curious...did the buyers go through with this purchase?

Margaret

Feb 08, 2012 11:08 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Jim - we need the gutters here and with basements it's important to drain the water wll away from the foundation.

Don - oddly that stuff might have worked well here!  At least for a while!

Snooze and lose Marshall.  Let this be a lesson to you - tune in early!

Pat - Michael and I have discussed that, and we will NEVER see it all!

Steve - you will love the sarcasm in tomorrow's post!

Feb 08, 2012 12:56 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

Lyn - the rest of the house was a jewel!  It was a fun, and full, inspection!

Patricia - it was more work to do that than to do it right!

Jack - you know Billy's products are better than that!  That ooze you see is pure ooze!

Gene - there is actually a corner piece that would have fit right in there!

Could be Mike and this guy was truly a master of none!

Margaret - I think things were in negotiation for a while.  I don't know where they are now!

Feb 08, 2012 01:00 PM
Eric Middleton
Closer Look Property Inspections Inc. - Uniondale, NY
Professional Property Inspector

Yea Jay that gutter repair job is busted.

Feb 08, 2012 02:45 PM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

In two other places tree limbs had fallen on it and bent it terribly Eric.  So this corner, even if it didn't leak, wasn't the only place that needed screwing up!

Feb 08, 2012 09:18 PM
Sylvie Stuart
Realty One Group Mountain Desert 928-600-2765 - Flagstaff, AZ
Home Buying, Home Selling and Investment - Flagsta

It's amazing how often we see signs of this type of repair. A homeowner trying to do a quick "fix" that a lot of times seem to do more harm than good. I always love these posts, thanks for sharing!

Feb 09, 2012 01:07 AM
Bob Miller
Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL
The Ocala Dream Team

Hi Jay, nothing that a little gorilla glue and silcone caulk can't fix! lol

Feb 09, 2012 09:01 AM
Jay Markanich
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC - Bristow, VA
Home Inspector - servicing all Northern Virginia

You're welcome Sylvie.  Just when you think you've seen it all, creativity shows its head in yet a different way!

Bob - I will have to suggest that to them!  Thanks!

Feb 09, 2012 01:13 PM