Homeowners in Pickering may not see eavestrough problems coming. We’ve been to many homes where small problems went unnoticed for months and the damage became too big to ignore. If your eavestroughs stop working right, you might get water stains on your siding, cracks in your foundation or a damp basement. The annoying thing is that most eavestrough damage starts out small and can be fixed easily if caught early but homeowners don’t think to look up and see how their system is doing.
When we talk about fixing eavestroughs, we’re really talking about keeping water from damaging your whole house. Your eavestroughs collect water from your roof and send it safely away from your foundation and walls. Water gets out of your pipes when they get holes, come apart at the seams or sag out of alignment. This is exactly where you don’t want it to go. We’ve answered emergency calls when water was pouring into basements during storms because broken eavestroughs couldn’t handle the flow. The cost of fixing water damage inside your home is much higher than the cost of keeping your eavestroughs in good shape.
When we fix eavestroughs at Professional Roofers Toronto, we don’t just look at the problem that’s easy to see. If one seam leaks, it might mean that other joints are failing. If one part of the system is sagging, it usually means that the hangers in that part are getting weak. We check the slope to make sure water flows towards the downspouts, look for rot on the fascia board and make sure the downspouts are sending water far enough away from the foundation. We do this so our repairs really fix problems instead of just giving you a quick fix.We most often fix eavestroughs that have come loose from the fascia board. This happens when the metal spikes or hangers rust through or when the wood they are attached to rots. We fix the problem at its source first because just putting the eavestrough back on the damaged wood wouldn’t work. In some cases that means replacing parts of the fascia; in other cases it means switching to a different mounting system that spreads the weight more evenly. We tell you what needs to be done and why so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Another common problem is seams that leak. Most eavestrough systems have joints where sections meet and over time these joints can come apart. The seals are put under stress when the temperature changes because the metal expands and contracts. Homeowners have tried to fix leaking seams with sealant from the hardware store but the leak came back after a few months. Cleaning the joint well, using professional-grade sealants made for outdoor metal and sometimes adding more fasteners to make the connection stronger are all part of proper repair. We check these weak spots during our Roof Maintenance visits to make sure they don’t start leaking.
Most people don’t know that clogs cause more problems with eavestroughs than they think. When leaves, twigs and other things get in the way of water it doesn’t drain and instead sits in the eavestroughs. This standing water makes any weak spot in the system worse. We have seen small pinholes grow into big rust-through spots just because dirt blocked the eavestrough and kept that area wet all the time. Cleaning your eavestroughs twice a year stops a lot of the problems we see with repairs.
Toronto believes in giving you an honest answer about whether it makes more sense to fix or replace something. Sometimes an eavestrough system is so broken that putting money into fixing it just puts off the inevitable. We will let you know when it’s better to replace something but we will also fix systems that still have a lot of life left in them if the damage is only in certain areas. We want to help you make choices that keep your home safe and stay within your budget. You can’t stress enough how important it is for your roof and eavestroughs to be connected. We always check how the two systems work together during a Roof Inspection. If your roof has problems it can hurt your eavestroughs. If your eavestroughs break they can send water back under your shingles. We know how to find these linked problems and fix them all at once.
The weather in Pickering puts a lot of stress on eavestrough systems all year long. Heavy rains in the spring, storms in the summer, leaves in the fall and ice in the winter all wear down on it. Regular inspections find problems early on when they are easy and cheap to fix. We are here to do a good job on your eavestrough repair that will last and keep your home safe from water damage.
