5 tips for eavestrough maintenance

 Keeping your eavestroughs straight and clear can help prevent a host of roofing issues. Here are five tips for eavestrough maintenance.

• Most eavestrough (or gutter) leaks occur at the joints where two sections meet.
• To stop a leak, apply silicone sealant from a squeezable tube along the joint's inside seams.
• Smooth the sealer's edges so that they won't collect debris.
• If the leak recurs, disassemble the sections and put a bead of caulk between parts at each seam.

• Straighten a gutter by tightening the fastener that holds it to your house. The most common fastener is a spike driven through both the gutter and a ferrule (a sleeve inside the gutter that acts as a spacer) and into the end of a rafter.
• To pull up a sagging section of gutter, strike the spike head up and in with a hammer to drive it deeper into the rafter.
• If the gutter is fastened with metal brackets, use pliers to bend the strap that bridges the gutter, and the gutter will perk up accordingly.

• If a gutter section is rusty and leaky, replace it. But if there's just one bad spot, the few minutes it takes to patch it is time well spent.
• Just scrape the area clean of rust with a stiff wire brush and wipe with paint thinner. Cut a fibreglass patch large enough to overlap the damaged area by five centimetres (two inches) on all sides.
• Using a putty knife, cover the area with plastic roof cement. Smooth the patch into the cement using a dry, wadded cloth. Cover the patch with another coat of roof cement, feathering the edges and avoiding ridges that could impede water flow.

• If your downspout doesn't empty into an underground drain, attach a few feet of extra downspout to an elbow at the bottom of the downspout to carry the runoff away from the foundation.

• Using wire mesh screens to keep leaves out of gutters may seem a great idea. But leaves sometimes cling to the screens and divert water over the gutters.
• The screens can also be tricky to remove when you want to clean the gutters. A more practical solution is to put a bulb-shaped leaf strainer in the top of each downspout — just be sure to check them every couple of months to make sure they have not become clogged.