The Gutter Club » gutter

How to Install Gutter Heating Cable

Team — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:25:51 +0000

This winter has been great so far! My gutters have really appreciated it! Last year we were plagued with massive ice dams that had water dripping inside windows and into bedrooms. As a last ditch effort to deal with those dams last year I went out an bought a length of gutter heating cable and basically just thew it up on the roof. It actually worked. It cut through the ice and allowed all of the trapped water to drain out.

Over the summer I got up on the ladder and prepared that heating cable for the approaching winter. Completely disregarding the manual I ran the cable up a downspout and into the gutters where it sits to this day. The manual wants you to spread the cable out on the bottom of the roof line like this…

Sure, that’s ideal, but it uses a heck of a lot of cable, looks ugly, and appears to be overkill.

I’ve only had to plug my cable in once so far when we had snow the other day, and that was just as a precaution. Now it’s 50 degrees F outside and the cable is sitting idle. Love it.

New Downspout To Deal With Poorly Graded Gutters

Team — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:52:26 +0000

We have this gutter run that is about 40 feet long along one side of our home. Over the past few years it has developed a sag (probably due to ice dams) that cause it to fill up and overflow during heavy rains. And even when it’s not raining, water obviously sits up there stagnant.

I was worried about what it would cost to get this run re-graded. A guy came to look at it and said that it would be much simpler to simple add a new leader (downspout) at the low point. That totally made sense to me, so we gave him the green light to make it happen. It looks and works perfectly now.

Total cost $127!

User Review of Home Depot Gutter Guards

Team — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:48:02 +0000

You guys may know that I’m a fan of Do It Yourself gutter guards. A few years ago I posted about the success I’ve had with the American Plastics gutter guards that you can buy at Home Depot and other home stores. They aren’t perfect, but they are an incredibly economical solution to the comedy of the gutter guard contracting industry.

Here is a realistic review of the Do It Yourself gutter guard plastic mesh shields:

I installed this same DIY Depot guards on my gutters in CT. They install easily and work well…..well, in the summer.

After getting overflow due to gutter blockage the next spring, I climbed up to view the problem. Their lack of rigidity (thickness and strength) had allowed all of them to sag in the middle from snow and ice weight, and their width did not allow them to slip far enough under the shingles and some fell into the gutter at the shingle side. Also, those that had not collapsed had taken on a permanent bend allowing debris to collect in their centers, which like the gutter themselves, required cleaning out.

These would be super if you do not live in the northeast or anywhere snow and ice can accumulate on the eves. You don’t, the choice is to have something professionally installed, like one of the high rated micro-mesh systems, or find a way to prop up the DIY plastic ones so they don’t sag. Else, might as well get used to cleaning gutters every other year….or more ofter depending on how many trees are with reach of your roof.

I am also in CT and I pretty much agree with the general opinion. My gutter guards have not collapsed anywhere and they appear to be holding up fine. They do sag a bit in the center. Though I’ve noticed that this sag is enhanced when the guards are installed upside down, which is EXTREMELY easy to do. In fact, I installed the product upside down in a section of gutter, realized it, and left it that way on purpose… just to see what happens. That is the only section where I can see any significant sag.

Sure, some debris collects on top of the gutters, but it is much easier and quicker to clean this off than to dig into filled gutters and remove gobs of leaves, seeds, and twigs. I almost never clean anything and they seem to work fine.

And when the time comes to re-install, I’ll pay the $100 or $200 and do it myself in a couple of hours and be set for another 5 years.

This Old House Gutter System Review

Team — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:32:24 +0000

Here’s a video we came across on YouTube where This Old House does a tiny review… overview… really of some unnamed gutter systems. I have a few problems with this video.

It sounds like they are all half asleep, especially the host.
Their “test” of the various systems is ridiculous at best.
They seem to be pushing gutter systems as the “obvious” choice.

But I suppose, what are you going to do in a 5 minute television segment? The only one of the bunch who doesn’t appear to be pandering is the woman. At least they mention the ridiculously steep price of these gutter systems. They didn’t bother mentioning the price of the Do It Yourself option (which is our pick!).

Seriously, with the DIY option you really only have to go up to clean the gutters once every 3 to 5 years… and the cleaning is simple. I’ve only ever found a thin layer of gravel-muck. Spending $4000 to $8000 for a gutter system that *might* work is just retarded. As many others have experienced, you might spend all that money and be worse off than when you started.

Anyway… here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWLV_iJBaYM

Cheers!

Gutter Contractor’s Opinion on Gutter Guards

Team — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:14:17 +0000

Reader J. Woodson offers some advice born of experience in the are of selecting a gutter guard system for your home. Here are his comments:

I would like to tell all consumers who are interested in purchasing gutter guards of any kind, that as someone who has installed gutters and guards for almost 20 years now that all guards can work very well if everything is perfect. But what people have to realize is that every house is different and there will always be some kind of maintenance.

You have to realize that when you are dealing with salesmen they are not the ones that will have to service them or deal with the customer face to face like the installer, so they will guarantee you the world so you will buy their product.

I have installed just about every guard there is, and as much as it pains me to say this there is no point in spending ten times as much as the gutters to protect them, even though the more expensive ones can work very well when installed correctly and with a little tweaking, as each house has its own problems, some of the more reasonable priced guards are just as effective. But they will ALL need some type of maintenance. There are no magic guards that stop all the leaves from either building up on the roof, or on top of guard, and handle torrential downpours. You can’t stop it all with [one particular product].

So just be sure you research the contractor you are using so if you do need service they are someone you can count on to be there. If you are using a product that has to go under your shingles and your roof is 20 years old that probably is not something you want to use. If you have a very steep roof with a lot of valleys you probably don’t want to use a guard that completely covers your gutter. A lot of these products say that they can be installed on any type of house, when that is not the case, some are better for different types of houses. Research, research, research, and save yourself a lot of headache and money.

Home Owners Recovering from a Tough Winter

Team — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:43:46 +0000

The Wall Street Journal recently post an article tabulating the various ways in which your home may have been damaged this winter. Here are a few excerpts:

Kathleen Hassinger and Brandon Halbert in Wynnewood, Pa., are among those whose home sustained multiple winter wounds. Ice dams damaged their 100-year-old home’s slate roof and left new gutters “twisted like a piece of tinfoil,” says Ms. Hassinger. Snow sliding off the roof broke branches on shrubs while gutter runoff wore bare spots into the lawn. Ms. Hassinger says they’ll be spending about $1,000 for roof and gutter repair, and she’s rethinking placement of plants and downspouts for next year.

and…

It was a banner year for ice dams, which typically build along roof eaves in periods of extended cold, causing leaks and other damage.

Not only is the resulting moisture inside a roof or wall “like putting gravy on meat” for carpenter ants and termites, Mr. Young says, it can lead to longer-term woes like mold.

Replacing wet drywall and insulation is top priority. Also, fix broken gutters and shingles.

“You’re going to see gutters where exceptionally heavy snow storms separated them” from the house, says David Dail, Home Depot’s merchandising vice president for building materials.

“A leaky roof is pretty much something you’ve got to deal with,” he says.

Read the full article over at the Journal.

So how did your gutters hold up this winter?

Team — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:27:38 +0000

Here in Connecticut it was a rough winter for gutters. We had massive ice dams on a section of roof line that has experienced them in the past. Everybody else had them too. There were a couple of days in February where it was a “perfect storm” for ice dams in our area.

Luckily we didn’t have any internal water damage, but the gutters will definitely need some re-sloping. The ice dams sort of dragged them down in the middle of the run. There must have been hundreds of pounds of ice up there.

I’m also going to see about properly installing the ice dam heating cable that I had to purchase mid-winter in order to mitigate the problem. You aren’t supposed to “install” heating cables after you’ve already got ice dams, but this cable was a life saver for us. I zip-tied it to the outside of our leader because it was completely frozen up. Then I threw the rest of the cable up onto the ice dams. I plugged it in and waited. It took about 24 hours, but even tied to the outside of the leader, the cable was able to completely open it up. And it cut nice channels in the ice dams for the water to escape.

What was your experience this winter?

Ice Dam Poetry!

Team — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:14:51 +0000

Those crazy Minnesotans are so sick of ice dams that they decided to get poetic about it thanks to a little prompting by Jon Tevlin over at the Minnesota Star Tribune. Here are a couple of the examples along with a link to the full article.

Whose roof this is I think I know:

It rests atop my bungalow.

I cannot see it now, of course;

It’s covered up by ice and snow.

I chip away with brutal force

And cuss until I’m nearly hoarse;

I want this dam to go away,

But cussing cannot melt the source.

And then there is this one with is sung to the tune of, you guessed it, Ice Ice Baby.

Ice Dam Baby, (Minnesota) Ice Dam Baby

All right stop, get out the insulation

Ice dam’s back bringing more devastation

Fling pantyhose in the air – unsightly

Up on the rooftop daily and nightly

Will it ever stop? Yo! I don’t know

Livin’ in the land of the ice and snow

Got me a blowtorch, gonna keep rakin’

Bring it on winter, ’cause I ain’t fakin’

Back on the roof, start heating the periphery

Southwest corner is gettin’ pretty slippery

Fall off the roof face-first in a snowbank

Neighbor wanna help, but I say “no thanks”

Gotta be tough in the arctic nation

Weekend forecast only feeds my consternation

Ducts in my exhaust fans best be tight

‘Cause the weatherman says: no relief in sight

Ice Dam Baby, (Minnesota) Ice Dam Baby

You can read the full article over at StarTribune.com.

How NOT to Remove Ice Dams!

Team — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:41:27 +0000

I would not recommend removing ice dams using a chain saw. I guess these guys felt that extreme circumstances call for extreme measures! The better way to remove (or prevent) ice dams is with roof and gutter heating cable.

Don’t try this at home! And turn off your speakers because the music in this video is horrible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CroS818Mb7E

Here is another scary method! FIRE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH0KP4gTD3U

Ice Dams and Gutter Heat Cables

Team — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:47:06 +0000

Ugh, this was the winter of the ice dams. My gutters along one stretch of my roof definitely sustained some damage this winter. This is an older section of the roof where the sharply pitched roof was dormered in the late 70s to create more room upstairs. This reduced the pitch of the roof significantly and we get serious ice dams in that area almost every winter.

Ice dams and the resulting icicles

This year was the worst ever with giant blocks of ice forming in the gutters all along this 30 foot run. I had to go up there with a ladder (that barely reaches) and cut channels in the blocks of ice to drain any pooled water behind them. This worked, but it was dangerous. A number of people in my community were injured… and one died… falling from ladders and roofs.

How ice dams form

It got so bad at one point that I needed any solution. I ended up going to Home Depot and buying a snow and ice melting cable that you are not supposed to use “after the fact”… but it worked extremely well! You are supposed to install the cable in a certain way before ice dams form. Too late for that. So what I did was run the cable up the outside of the leader (which was filled solid with ice), up onto the roof, and then back down the outside of the leader. I used cable ties to secure the cable to the leader.

Typical roof and gutter heat cable

It took a day, but sure enough the subtle heat emitting from the cable freed a channel in the leader and got the water flowing. I took the loose length of cable up at the top of the leader and just tossed it up onto the roof. Eventually it cut a nice channel through the ice dam and really did a nice job abating the water. I moved the loop around a few times and it really helped eliminate the problem.

So far so good. I hope we are done with snow and ice for this winter!