Why do my neighbor gutters work and my do not?

"I live in a town home where my house is attached to my neighbors. Why do my neighbor gutters work and my do not? Their gutters work all the time and mine overflow in the heavy rains. "

We were called to a Sandras home to inspect her gutter system. We were attempt number three for a possible solution to the problem she was experiencing. She had two other people look at her gutters and they both offered a solution; Sandra did not feel like they would solve her problem.  Jason the design specialist with Gutter Shutter of Sioux Falls was on site to inspect the gutters to see what was really going on. What he noticed was a few different things causing some issues with the gutter system. The First Issue is the gutter are very old style called: spike and ferrule. This particular style of gutter is very hard to slope and adjust.  This caused a low spot in the homeowners' gutters. A very visible one.

Aside from this be quite unsightly to look down, (most people do not see it from this angle.), It causes water to and debris to hang up in that low spot. If a gutter is sloped properly across the length in this picture above the inside of the gutter should all look the same as well. In the picture below you can see that the section that is low closest to the house where the low spot is, it is full of shingle granular. The part of the gutters where the gutters are sloped properly have no shingle grit in it at all, Totally Clean! 

Now we can say all kind of things to this, but the life of that roof is all the same, if the shingles are losing the grit, it's the same across the whole roof. Not just that one section of the roof. This is a huge telltale sign that the gutters are not working properly. Now with these gutters being that spike and ferrule design, to pull out that spike and try to re-slope these gutters would be very tough to do. In most cases pulling that spike will cause damage to the face of the gutters system. 

Now with the picture below we can see that the corner does not have a lot of debris sitting in it. This is a sign that the corner is functioning well.  Now if this corner had more shingle grit in it, this would cause water to sit in the corner. The more water and wet debris that sits in a corner the more drastic effect it will have on the life span of the sealant keeping these corners watertight. As you can see in this picture there is multiple signs of wear and tear on the system. If you look close just before the corner, you will see a nail that has pulled out and is quite rusty. This can be a big issue with the water system due to water adhesion. Water adhesion is where water will follow a surface. For example, if water gets on that nail, it can follow the nail into the wood and start to cause rot around the nail. This would cause quiet the problem in your fascia board.  

Here is an inside angle of this same corner as above. From this view you can see that the seam in the corner is cracked the length of it. This is definitely a leaking point in the system right now.  With this being a standard inside corner there is probably a lot of over shooting in this valley, that could be a reason why the screws are so rusty on top. 

Here at Gutter Shutter we like to install the Gutter Shutter System as this is a way to prevent a lot of these issues. We use a patented design bracketing system that has two three-inch screws going in at an angle. This allows the gutters to be strong for many years to come. We also offer High Volume Inside Corners. This is a great option in the corner of valleys that you may see some over shooting. Our High-Volume corners come into your gutter system at 45-degree angles making it look like crown molding along your roof line while also ensuring its functionality, catching all the water coming down the roof lines.   The next piece to the system in the high volume, high back trough that allows us to support the gutter hood right on the fascia board with the gutter system. This keeps everything off your roof. We finish out the Gutter Shutter System with a high velocity hood. This hood features the reverse curve system with perforations to call as much water as possible. The reverse curve system works on the water adhesion (Just like that nail in the picture above.), once the water gets to the hood system of the gutters the water will adhere to the surface and wrap around the curve falling into the gutter system, while the debris falls off the curve.