Flexible eaves trough

Around here many people don't have gutters because of ice dams and heavy winter conditions. The ice just rips them off.
What i'm thinking is to attach the eavestrough with short loop of bungee cord, use an eye-let screw through the facia and attach a piece of bungee every 2 feet to the trough hangers. The gutter hangers attach in the middle but i think it needs to just be tied to the edge? Or will it come apart that way?





This way if the would just hang down if the ice gets too much. But maybe the hangers will come off?
The other idea would be removable clip on eaves, not sure how that would work?

I don’t know the answer but if you figure out a better way to do gutters you would be a rich man around here. Between leaves and ice and snow sliding off they really get a work out and they are made so flimsy to start with. The house we just bought has some of the main roofs done with steel and no gutters that works pretty nice but you get a waterfall coming up the steps, so I put a short piece of gutter with no ends above the steps and it worked well last winter.

Let us know what you come up with.

Not sure what a bungie would accomplish but the issue can be reduced by insulating and venting the attic to prevent ice dams. I would also make sure you have enough hangers and they are attached through the fascia and into the rafter tails.
frankly, with concealed hangers I would install one on every rafter.

The piece of bungee would be 2" long loop and tied with knot. The idea is the gutter would not be fixed to the fascia at all just hanging 1/2" by the bungee cord every 2 feet. As the weight of the ice increases the bungee would stretch to maybe 4-5" bellow the fascia letting the ice just flip out. Vinyl gutters for sure. But i wonder would the gutter hangers fail?

Since the gutter is never attached to the house there would never any danger of it ripping the fascia off the house causing leak etc. Worst case is the eyelet gets pulled out or the bungee breaks.

Light weight troughs work fine when you solve the ice dam problem from inside the house. High pitch metal roofs should have a snow gaard to stop the snow from sliding down.

Do you really want to listen to the gutters banging along the roof every time there is a stiff breeze? But then I guess you could have a bungee for the bungee.
It would also be difficult to get them to drain properly if you're relying on flexible cord to hold them up.
There are thousands and thousands of houses with gutters in locations with snow and ice that hold up work fine. You're trying to reinvent the wheel by making it square and attaching wedges to make it roundish.
The solution is really quite simple, as I, and nealtw, stated above.

Hi guys!

"Light weight troughs work fine when you solve the ice dam problem from inside the house. High pitch metal roofs should have a snow gaard to stop the snow from sliding down. "

Even new houses in my area had ice dam problems due to the ice storm. Many people had leaks and damage from gutter ripped right off from the weight of the snow and ice. Others had wet spots down the side of their houses where water had leaked in. Nice houses too.

In my case there are plastic stoppers on the metal roof, guess what? they got ripped off too! Actually there are part of the problem. This year i plan to take the rest of the survive stoppers off completely. The ice and snow should slide off easily as to avoid forming a large mass as it did this year. The stopper or blades are not a good idea at all IMO. Same with heating cable, one house caught on fire because of them.

"It would also be difficult to get them to drain properly if you're relying on flexible cord to hold them up. " That part should work, if they arranged on a slope and tie the bungee tight. But it will look ridiculous.

Another neighbor says he has hangers or clips and takes them off in the fall. That might be the best idea. I guess the bungee might not be that great for re-sale value. LOL. Some sort of fail safe or stretchable hanger would be ideal. If the is 100 lbs of pressure there the hanger should fail, how hard is that to design? Why don't i just sabotage the hanger, cut a bit into the metal so it will break off?


There is that time in the spring and fall when it is a bit of ice and rain. I guess i can live with that. Actually my 'house skirt' --3 feet of poly on a slope around the circumference of the house seems to work fine. Except this year there was so much snow and ice build up around the house there was a mini flash flood and the basement flooded. It was big clean up to scrub the entire basement down.

What i plan to do is raise the slope a bit higher with grave this year and finish with patio tiles and bit of sand. Maybe some interlocking
This should make it really tight. Also a some weeping tile just after the poly ends, a trough with sloped gravel and pipe.
The key will be to remove all the snow and ice from around the house on a regular basis.

The eaves drought would be some extra protection for $100 or so it is cheap protection but not if it rips of the fascia off. That was very hard job to get the flashing around there in nice way.

I'd like to hear your idea about a removable gutter? I'm thinking drill a hole and glue in a 1/2" thread . Then is can use some wing nuts and and take them on and off.

or.................................... with 2 nuts locked together you can drive them in with a wrench