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Gutters, Soffit & FasciaBill Lang2023-05-27T02:25:03-05:00

Gutters, Soffit & Fascia Services

Proper Drainage & Ventilation Is Essential

How Does A Home’s Drainage System Work?

Water flows off the roof and into your gutters, which are pitched 1/2″ every 10′ toward a downspout. Water drains out the downspout and through an extender that channels the water several feet away from your home’s foundation. It sounds simple enough, but a lot of natural forces can impede this process.

Leaves from overhanging trees clog gutters, low quality gutters or downspouts don’t maintain their shape over time and leak or get blocked, and downspouts that drain right onto the base of the home are ineffective altogether. Your siding is also at risk should water ever be allowed to run down the side of your home.

You deserve peace of mind knowing your drainage system is effective, functional and requires no maintenance. Get yourself some leaf guard and never clean your gutters again!

COMMON GUTTER PROBLEMS AND THEIR CAUSES

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OVERFLOWING GUTTERS

Cause: Leaves do to gutters in storms what a 3-car pileup does to the Dan Ryan on a Friday at 5:01 pm. Avoid it at all costs. Whatever the cause of the blockage, gutters and downspouts are supposed to drain out completely. Overhanging trees drop leaves that cause your gutters. Old, beaten roofs shed granules that can slow the flow of water. Small or bent downspouts can refuse to pass small debris.

Possible Damage: Your home’s foundation can and will leak. This is common and cause for quick action. The excess water also erodes your landscaping, can damage fascia and siding as water runs down the side of the house, etc… but we’re exceptionally worried about your foundation.

Solution: If you have quality gutters that just keep getting clogged, leaf guard will do the trick. If the gutters are too small to pass water or are not properly installed with clean, open connections to downspouts that drain to the proper places around your yard, it may be time to upgrade your drainage system entirely. This one more than pays for itself vs the cost of a cracked foundation and flooded basement.

Cause: Some kind of weight clearly caused them to sag or detach at one (or both) of the ends of the gutter section. Clogged gutters are over-weighted by heavy water, and unless they are of quality material (K-Style aluminum gutters)  and have plenty of support brackets, this causes them to deform, sag and sometimes just fall off the roof altogether! If you have trees overhanging your roof and your gutters need cleaning, you should strongly consider leaf guard to keep leaves and debris out of the gutters.

Possible Damage: From the Range Rover to grandma, falling gutters put everyone at risk. But the most likely damage dealt will be to your home’s foundation as a result of water not draining properly and pooling around the foundation of your home.

Solution: You guessed it, new gutters! Nothing lasts forever, so let’s fix you up with a nice set of  Oversize 6″ K-Style Aluminum gutters (with leaf guard if needed) and downspouts and you can watch storms roll in with comfort and peace of mind knowing your home is protected. Bring on the rain, Chicago; storm-watching just became fun again!

Cause: A warm attic in Chicago may sound ironic, but your attic is heating up too much in the winter and melting excess snow from the top of the roof. The water then runs down to the eves (which are cold) and re-freezes. This freezing process blocks your gutters and can severely damage your roof!

Possible Damage: Water & Ice are powerful forces. Freezing water expands and puts a lot of stress on any kind of seam or shingle. Water can get backed up behind the ice dam and over time cause roof leaks along the eves of your roof.

Solution: This is actually not a gutter problem at all! You may need 1) ventilation at the top of your roof to let excess heat escape, and/or 2) attic insulation along the floorboards to keep your home’s heat inside your home. Because most of an average home’s heat escapes through the attic, adding attic insulation is a double-win as it significantly reduces your heating and cooling bills all year long!

Cause: Water vapor is getting trapped in your attic and is unable to exhaust, creating an excessively humid environment at times.

Possible Damage: Get this: we sometimes diagnose “ghost leaks” where steam from a second floor bathroom enters the attic, condenses onto a cold surface like a pipe or rafter beam, runs down along this surface until falling off and forming a drip pattern on a certain section of your ceiling. After a cold months of hot showers, a leak can appear – even though there is no damage to the roof!

Solution: You need more vented soffit and/or ventilation near the upper sections of your roof to bring air in at the eves and exhaust it at the upper ridge.

Hi, I’m Bill Lang.

And where I come from, estimates are always free.

Every project starts with a question, so ask away!

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