Gutters that keep the water out of your basement

What usually goes wrong with gutters

Gutters are the cheapest part of your exterior and the part most able to cause an expensive problem somewhere else. These are the symptoms worth acting on.

• Water sheeting over the front edge in a downpour

  Three usual causes: debris blocking the run, the gutter is undersized for the roof area feeding it, or it was pitched wrong so water sits instead of moving. The third one is an install problem and no amount of cleaning fixes it.

• The gutter is sagging or pulling away from the fascia

  Standing water and wet debris are heavy, and the old spike-and-ferrule fasteners work loose under that weight — then each freeze widens the gap. Hidden hangers screwed into the fascia hold where spikes don’t.

• Dirty vertical stripes on the siding under the gutter

  Overflow running down the wall instead of through the downspout. The stain is cosmetic; what’s behind it isn’t, because that water is getting in behind the siding at the same time.

• A wet basement, or a crack in the footing Don’t wait on this one

  Usually downspouts dumping straight down at the foundation instead of carrying water away from it. This is the single most expensive thing a hundred dollars of downspout extension prevents.

• Peeling paint or soft wood on the fascia board

  Water sitting behind the gutter rather than in it — typically a failed back seam or a gutter hung without proper apron flashing. Left alone it rots the board the gutter is attached to, so you end up paying for carpentry and gutters.

• A solid ridge of ice in the gutter run all winter

  This is an attic heat and insulation problem showing up at the gutter line, not a gutter defect. Guards and heat cable manage the symptom; sealing and insulating the attic addresses the cause.