When homeowners in Vaughan call us about water pooling near their foundation or stains on their outside walls, the problem is usually caused by broken gutters. We’ve been fixing gutters for a long time and we can tell you that this part of your house doesn’t get enough attention until something goes wrong. Gutters quietly do their job of moving rainwater and melted snow away from your house. When they break down it can be costly and annoying to deal with.
A lot of people don’t know how much water really flows through their gutters during a normal rainstorm. We need to safely move hundreds of gallons of water away from your roof, walls and foundation. All that water has to go somewhere when gutters get holes, pull away from the house or get clogged with debris. Sadly it usually ends up where you don’t want it and if you don’t deal with it, it can cause damage that spreads quickly.
We see the same gutter problems over and over again at Professional Roofers Toronto. The most common problem we see is sagging sections. This happens when the hangers that hold the gutter to your fascia board get loose or rusted. Water can’t flow properly towards the downspouts once a gutter starts to sag. Instead it stays in the low spots which makes the sagging worse and eventually the gutter to overflow. We’ve seen gutters that sag so much they pull away from the house and take pieces of fascia board with them.Another common problem is seams that leak. Most gutter systems have joints where different parts come together and over time those seams can come apart. The metal expands and contracts with temperature changes which puts stress on the connections. When ice builds up in the winter those seams can split open. We don’t just put sealant on leaking gutters and call it a day. We look at the whole system to figure out what caused the leak and make sure our fix will last.
Rust and corrosion are two different problems. Over time metal gutters wear out especially in areas where water collects. It’s hard to patch up metal once rust has eaten a hole in it. We can fix small rust spots sometimes but other times the damage is too bad and we have to replace the whole thing. We always tell homeowners the truth about whether it makes sense for their situation and budget to fix or replace something.
When we come to do Roof Maintenance, we pay close attention to how well your gutters are working because they are directly connected to the health of your roof. When gutters overflow they can push water back up under your shingles which can cause the roof decking to rot and leaks to form inside your home. We have answered emergency calls from homeowners who thought their roof was leaking but it turned out their gutters were the real problem. The leak was fixed by fixing the gutters so no work was needed on the roof.
Gutters and roofs affect each other in both directions. During a Roof Inspection we sometimes find that problems with the roof are actually hurting the gutters. For example if your roof doesn’t have the right drip edge water can run down the fascia board instead of into the gutter. The wood rots and the gutter hangers come loose because they are always wet. When we check out your property we look at the whole thing because everything works together as a system.Professional Roofers Toronto believes in fixing gutters right the first time. We use top quality materials and methods that can withstand Vaughan’s weather. In the winter our climate puts a lot of stress on gutters with freeze-thaw cycles and heavy rainstorms all year round. Cheap repairs may look good at first but won’t work when you need them most. We have fixed a lot of gutters that others didn’t do right and we know what makes work last and what makes it fail.
When you work on gutters you have to work at heights which means you need the right safety gear and experience. We have the right tools and training to fix gutters safely and quickly. People who try to fix their own gutters can get hurt badly if they fall and often make things worse by stepping on the wrong parts of the roof or using tools the wrong way. It’s not worth the risk to save money by doing it yourself.
We recommend that homeowners check their gutters often especially in the spring and fall. Finding small problems early on stops big ones from happening and saves money in the long run. Your home needs to be protected from water damage and gutters that work are a big part of that protection. We can help you with gutter repair that you can trust because we give honest estimates and do good work.
