Gutter Problem/Question

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Christopher

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2018
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Location
Pennsylvania
Hello.
I have a gutter question that I hope somebody might be able to answer.
In the summer 2019, I had a large, well-known and highly regarded roofing contractor replace my house's badly worn soffit, fascia and and gutters. At first, everything looked fine but in February of 2020, I noticed that a few icicles had started to appear (photo attached) and I was concerned. I contacted the company which sent out a rep who assured me that there wasn't a problem. I was skeptical but took him at his word.
In the course of this past winter, many more and much larger icicles appeared and, as can be seen in the other photos, there are many stains left by water running off the roof and on to the fascia.
Can anybody tell me what has gone wrong here and what I should do to make it right? Any clarification and/or guidance would be most appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Christopher
 

Attachments

  • icicles.png
    icicles.png
    644.6 KB · Views: 28
  • gutter1.jpg
    gutter1.jpg
    88.2 KB · Views: 26
  • gutter2.jpg
    gutter2.jpg
    79.5 KB · Views: 21
a photo of how your roof connects to the gutter from above .
 
Looks like water getting in behind the gutters.
One thing I think I do see is there's not enough overhang on the shingles.
There should have been at least 1/2"
The one small section shown in the last picture of the gutter from the top look fine.
Did they install Storm and Ice Shield on the lower part of the roof?
 
No - the roof is about 25 years old. I'm pretty sure it never had any kind of shielding on the lower part and I know that the gutter guys didn't install it either.
 
3 Tab shingles?
If so there at the end of the there life.
 
Last winter was a bad one for ice dams, which will cause water to back up from the frozen gutters and leak into the shingles from higher up the roof.

So the problem is probably the old roof, and the lack of ice and water shield as mentioned above.

Also, the picture of your soffit does not show any vented panels.

The attic needs to breathe, and insulation needs to be thick enough and also air leaks need to be sealed from the house into the attic.
The attic and the roof sheathing should be cold in winter.

If the attic warms up too much, it melts the snow, which then runs down to the colder overhang, then it freezes and forms ice dams.
 
Jeff, look close at the first pic, it appears to be vented panels. I have the same on my house. The issue with any vinyl wrap is if the installer didn't remove the plywood soffit or didn't cut continueous vent strips before he hung the vinyl.
 
Looks like normal overflow from snow/ice filled gutters...
 
olddog you are right.
I had not noticed the vents hidden in the seams, not a style I have seen before.
And yes, the plywood needs to be channeled, or a series of round holes drilled, for intake air to get pulled into the attic.
And it is very common for insulation to fall into the soffit from up in the attic, or it often gets blown into there during a new insulation project.
And it never gets cleaned out, which then blocks the soffit vents, and the attic and roof warms up in winter, gets roasting hot in summer, and so on and so on.
 
Looks like water getting in behind the gutters.
One thing I think I do see is there's not enough overhang on the shingles.
There should have been at least 1/2"
The one small section shown in the last picture of the gutter from the top look fine.
Did they install Storm and Ice Shield on the lower part of the roof?
Yes the overhang is not enough , also the drip sheild is not well done , it should be like this
 

Attachments

  • 1622035835129.png
    1622035835129.png
    220.9 KB · Views: 4
Could the issue be as simple as the downspouts being clogged, so water builds up in the gutters and spills over the sides? I see lines where water has dripped from the edges of the gutters before forming icicles at the lowest point near the vented soffits.

After we got brand new gutters we noticed water spilling in front of our garage door during a heavy rain. I grabbed a ladder and climbed up to the nearest downspout, didn't even need to look, just reached in and pulled out a huge wad of maple leafs and helicopters. Instantly a ton of water rushed down the downspout and the spillage in front of my garage ceased.

If it had been freezing cold, the spillage would have taken the form of icicles.
 
Yes the overhang is not enough , also the drip sheild is not well done , it should be like this

Overhang/drip shield looks OK in that last photo... it's just hard to see the depth/overhang at that photo angle...
 
I've seen everything from not even reaching the fascia board to 3" plus over the edge. More is not better.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top