Gutters & Downspouts in Wenonah, NJ

The detail at the handover

Water leaving a covering has to cross about an inch of open air before anything catches it. Whether it lands in the trough or behind it comes down to one strip of metal at the edge and how the last course sits over it. Get that wrong and a brand new roof will rot a fascia from behind while the covering above it stays immaculate. It is the commonest fault we find on roofs that were installed by somebody in a hurry.

The work itself

• Drip edge set properly

  Under the membrane at the eaves, over it at the rakes, and carried into the trough.

• Fall reset along the run

  Measured rather than eyeballed, so standing water stops sitting in the low spots.

• Hangers renewed

  Screwed into solid timber at proper centres, replacing spikes that have worked loose.

• Outlets sized to the roof

  A big slope feeding one small outlet will overshoot in heavy rain however clean it is.

• Seams and mitres resealed

  Corners and joins stripped back and redone, which is where most slow drips live.

• Discharge carried clear

  Extensions or a buried run, so water lands away from the footing instead of beside it.

The part people forget

The eave is also where a roof draws its air in. Pack the soffit with a solid board or bury the intake behind a gutter fitted too high and the whole ventilation balance stops working, which shortens the covering above it. So the edge is looked at as a roofing detail rather than a drainage one. The two are the same six inches.

Ice at the eaves

Gutters get blamed for ice dams and they are rarely the cause. Heat leaking up into a cold roof thaws snow halfway up the slope, and that meltwater freezes again where the deck is coldest, directly above the trough. Cleaning the trough will not fix that. Sealing the ceiling plane and getting air moving will, and we will point at the actual cause rather than sell you a gutter.