After you ve cleared the muck flush them with a garden hose to make sure they re flowing properly.
How far from the house does my gutter stick out.
Gardens growing in your gutter.
It s not uncommon for homeowners to hang the gutters so that the front edge is slumping forward too much.
This problem is common with homes that have roofs that do not have much pitch to them.
Prepare the gutter by scraping out as much old tar or caulk as possible.
Shingle manufacturers say to use a 1 4 to 3 8 inch shingle overhang over the eave where your roof ends.
Otherwise they ll dump water right into your basement or pool on the ground beside the foundation.
When the roof shingles do not extend past the metal drip edge the water will suck back on the metal drip edge this is called capillary action and run behind your gutters.
We ve seen other references that suggest extending the shingles a bit more than the manufacturers suggest to compensate for wavy eaves but they do not indicate extending more than 1 inch over the eave.
If the gutter is tilting away from your house it could be causing an overflow particularly during heavy storms.
Lately whenever it rains water drips out of my house s gutters and onto the patio instead of out the downspout.
Is this something i can fix myself or do i need to replace my leaking gutters.
Gutters should slope an inch or two for every 40 feet.
That said gutters need to be completely level from front to back or water could spill over either edge.
2 your gutters aren t positioned correctly.
For example most ranch style homes have a 3 12 or 4 12 pitch roof.
The pitch of gutter heading towards a downspout can also cause overflow if it s too steep.
A normal gutter will have about 1 2 3 4 of its width sticking out beyond the shingles to catch the runoff.
If you re installing downspouts on your gutter system be sure that they extend several feet from your home.
If the gutter is badly rusted or has been heavily coated with tar that you can t scrape out spray on a special adhesive primer before applying the tape protecto.
You can unclog your own gutters if you re comfortable on a ladder don t mind getting wet and dirty and don t have an extremely tall house.
Wire brush the metal thoroughly to get rid of rust and to give the tape a clean surface for bonding photo 1.
If you d prefer you can hire someone to do the job for you for between 50 and 250 depending on the size of your house.