I can't tell you how many times I have recommended that gutters be installed on a house. They are so important and is really a part of a system that controls water run off of your roof and away from the structure and foundation of the house.
The house I inspected the other day had a full set of gutters. It was a hip style roof so they were installed all around the whole perimeter of the house... nice! The only seams were at the corners, or just before the corners, so two seams per corner. All the facia boards were rotted in all the corners. Why you ask?
Well, the gutters are nice, and seamless is the way to go, but you still must clean them out once in a while!! Keeping the tree limbs away from the roof surface will help as well, or using one of those screen cap systems to keep debris out of the gutters works well too. Especially in the fall when all the leaves and needles are falling off the trees.
Any seam will leak eventually if water is constantly trying to get through them. Water was just laying in the corners till the seams say... "Ok, I give up, come on through!" Or, the gutter fills up and overflows to the inside. Of course, if the facia boards were real wood it may have helped.
The facia boards are made of pressed wood products... it's not really wood! They repell water pretty good, but they don't like to stay wet.
In the corners and all the seams, moisture will seep in there and eventually it will break down. So, even though you have gutters installed on your house, keeping them cleaned out so they can do what they're supposed to do is important!
This one is going to end up being a pretty big job now... The existing gutters will have to be removed and all the rotted wood replaced. The system I like to recommend are seamless with only one seam in the very corner. They are made right on sight from rolls of aluminum material through a jig to form the gutters to exact length. They put them up in one piece and can pitch them correctly and put the downspouts in the correct location.
But you still have to make sure they are cleaned out!
***************************************************************************************
Comments (7)Subscribe to CommentsComment