How to Fix Loose Gutters 3 Different Ways.

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Everybody be cool and calm. TODAY I'm going to teach you how to fix your loose or sagging gutters!! Stop it. I told you to calm down.

Roof gutter with loose, old spikes that are falling out.

I know. It's hard to believe. You've waited so long for this exciting day and it has finally arrived. Some content creators think they can satisfy you with inconsequential information like "How to become a better person and save the world." or "How to make 40 million, bazillion, trillion dollars in just 10 minutes a day."

Thankfully I know what you really want, which is to be dragged into the gutter.

Without good gutters you risk a whole world of hurt; you know this. Rotting porches, leaking basements, crying family members surrounding your hospital bed doing their best not to fight over who gets your Beanie Baby collection as you recover from being hit on the head with an ice filled gutter in the middle of January. That sort of thing.

I am here for you. To improve your life beyond what being a better person or a krazillion dollars ever could.

Table of Contents

How to fix sagging gutters

There are 3 ways to tighten up gutters that have started to come loose from the side of your house. The method you use will depend on how far gone your gutters are.

METHOD 1 - Re-hammer existing spikes into existing holes.

METHOD 2 - Use gutter brackets

METHOD 3 - Re-hammering existing spikes into NEW holes.

What do gutters do exactly?

Older style gutters (I actually call them eavestroughs, but I think I might be the only one who says that) are held onto your house with just a long spike that's driven into the fascia of the home. BANG BANG BANG. And that's it, they're on your house.

The gutter then connects to a downspout which drives rainwater from the gutters either straight into the ground or away from your home's foundation.

If you can see large nail heads on the outside of your gutter, you have an older type of gutter system.

Over time the spikes can come loose which lets the gutter slump away from the roof. A big reason for loose spikes in colder climates is ice and leaves. If you don't clean your gutters in the fall the leaves are going to pile up and block the downspout.

That means no water will drain down the downspouts and your gutters will essentially become very narrow long swimming pools filled with rain.

Once the weather turns cold, this water freezes into a big hunk of ice, which is heavy enough to pull the gutter away from the house through the winter. The water thaws in spring, pours out of the gutter and you get a leaking basement, water pouring down the side of your house or a rotting porch or deck from it.

Moral of this story? Gutters are pretty important.

METHOD 1

This is the easiest way to fix your gutters but Method 1 won't work if your gutters have gone full-on Beverly Hillbillies on you.

If more than one or two spikes have loosened you should use Method 2 or 3.

A gutter spike pulled away from its hole.

HOW-TO

Get up on a ladder and take a look to see if any spikes have come out of their original holes. If they have, just align the spike with its original hole, and hammer it in.
If there's resistance when you hammer it in all the way you're good. If not, you'll have to move on to Method 2 or 3.

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Reinserting a gutter spike into its hole to hammer back in.

Newly re-hammered gutter spike, inserted into its original hole.

METHOD 2

The second way to fix sagging gutters is to use a hidden gutter bracket. There is TOO such a thing.

Several new 5" hidden gutter hinges laid out on a sheet of marble.

A hidden gutter bracket held in the palm of a woman's hand.

See? I told you. Gutter brackets are a thing. You hook them into your gutters and then screw the bracket into your fascia.

HOW-TO

Insert the bracket into your gutter hooking one edge under the lip and setting the flat end of the bracket against the side of the gutter that's nailed into the fascia.

Pushing a gutter bracket under the lip of the eavestrough before screwing it into the home's fascia.

A newly inserted hidden gutter bracket ready to be screwed into place.

2. Once it's in place, screw the self driving screw that comes with the bracket through the aluminum gutter and into the fascia. It'll take a bit of strength but don't be deterred.

A hand pushing a loose gutter tight against the fascia.

*To make screwing into the gutter easier makes sure you hold the gutter tight against the fascia. This is the only way you'll get the screw to go through by adding the resistance of the fascia behind it.

A hidden gutter bracket and screw seen close up before installing.

A newly installed bracket to hold a loose gutter in place.

The bracket will hold the gutter tight to the house now.

Gutter Brackets

Gutter brackets come in 2 sizes - 4" and 5". The 5" are the most common and usually the easiest to find. I got mine at my local hardware store but you can also get gutter brackets on Amazon.

If you've having trouble getting the screw into the aluminum, hammer it a bit so the tip will grip into metal and not slip around making it easier for you to get that leverage you need to screw it in.

METHOD 3

The final way to secure loose gutters is to hammer the existing gutter spikes into new holes.

This is my favourite method. It doesn't cost any money, you don't have to make a trip to the hardware store and most of the time when you realize you need to fix your gutters you need to do it quickly.

A worn and beaten looking gutter with spikes that have fallen out.

Like when you know a huge thunderstorm is coming and remember for the 153rd time that your gutters are loose and need to be fixed to prevent a waterfall.

HOW-TO

Get back up on that ladder with a hammer. Push the gutter TIGHT against the fascia and line the spike up just to the left or right of the original hole. While holding the spike WHACK it hard. Getting it to go through the gutter isn't going to be easy but I have faith you can do it because you're mad that your stupid gutter needs fixing so you have the power of anger behind you.

Lining up a gutter spike to the left of its original hole.

Loose gutter fixed by hammering the spike into a new hole in the fascia.

Once you're through the aluminum, keep hammering until you've made it through the wood fascia underneath and the spike is hammered all the way in.
Repeat for all the loose spikes.

Just like that you know THREE different ways to fix a sagging gutter which makes you a better person than you were just 35 paragraphs ago.

You don't have a gigabazillion dollars, true, but you're still a better person.

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