The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
First Aid For The Ailing Houses
Trouble with copper gutters appears usually because allowance was not made for expansion. Sections should not be soldered or otherwise attached; the low end of one section should be laid within the end of the next with an overlap of a few inches, with the joint supported by a hook or otherwise. A leak in a gutter of wood or metal can be closed with a piece of roofing felt stuck to the inside with asphalt roofing cement. A wood gutter should be painted on the outside. The inside should be given a coat or two of liquid asphalt.
At temperatures above freezing, flooding of a gutter indicates the clogging of the leader or of the cage, or of the discharge pipe or the dry well. With reasonable tightness of discharge pipe and dry well, clogging of either will result in the filling of the leader and the overflow of the gutter. Clogging of the dry well will usually be shown by the flooding of the ground above it Excavation will be required to clear the obstruction.
Clogging in freezing weather is serious because the weight of the ice may tear the gutter and leader from their supports. It is often the case that, with a gutter and leader on an exposed side of the house, water from melted snow on the roof will freeze in them, causing clogging, and if not corrected, ice dams will form. If the roof is accessible, this can be prevented by scattering a shovelful or more of rock salt on the roof surface and in the gutter.
A very effective way to prevent water and snow from freezing in gutters is to run an electric heating cable along the gutter at the critical points. Controlled by a thermostat, such a cable will prove very effective. By preventing formation of ice, it will therefore be a great deterrent to those highly destructive ice dams which can cause such trouble.
One common winter complaint against gutters is that they hold ice, making it impossible for snow and water to run off freely and causing them to leak through the roof and wall. This is due to the wrong placing of the gutter. It should be so hung that its outer edge is in line with or lower than the angle of the roof. Snow and ice can then slide over the outer edge of the gutter where otherwise they would catch.
The life of worn copper and galvanized gutters can be extended by lining them with strips of roofing felt, stuck down with plastic roofing cement. An alternative is to replace them with wood gutters, which are on common sale at lumberyards. Depending on their design, they are placed on the roof near the edge or can be hung from it.
