Can my gutter be balanced?

2 years ago

last modified: 2 years ago

I had new gutters installed and you can see in the attached photo I have a downspout on each side with a gutter in between them. However, all the water goes to the left downspout.

My gutter installer says balancing the water flow so it goes to both sides will make the gutter in between look lopsided because the roofline isn't straight so he'll have to overcompensate. But to my eye the roof looks fine and I don't see why the gutter can't be adjusted to make the water flow in both directions.

Does anyone who knows about gutters think my roofline is so off that the water flow can't be balanced without making the gutter in between look crooked?

The problem is that when all the water goes to the left side, there is so much water coming out of that downspout it "jumps" over the lower gutter and onto the ground below which creates a waterfall in that spot. So I'd like the water to be distributed to both sides to prevent this.

Featured Answer

T T

2 years ago

With the additional context that they didn't originally have a downspout on the right, and charged you extra to add it, I would demand that they fix this. When they originally installed the gutter, they intentionally sloped it so that the right side would sit high, so that all the water would drain to the left. They didn't do their job when they added the second downspout on the right in terms of fixing the slope. Loosening screws and adjusting isn't that much work, and I bet they could get this done in an hour or so at most. It's possible they might need to do minor bending or even cut in the middle, but it's all doable and fixable. I would demand they fix this, as they didn't do what they needed to do correctly when adding that right downspout.

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Comments (11)

chispa
2 years ago
Maybe you need another downspout? I had my gutter guy be conservative with the number of downspouts on the front of the house, but after we had some rain and saw how the water flowed, I had to call him back to install one more.
uscpsycho
Original Author
2 years ago
I think you may be misunderstanding the problem. I already have two downspouts but all the water is going to the one on the left and none of the water is going to the one on the right. I want the gutter adjusted so that the water flows in both directions instead of all the water going in one direction.
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PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
Where are the lowest points of the gutter?

Where is the highest point of the gutter?
T T
2 years ago
With black gutters, I don't think it would be that noticeable if they adjusted the center of that gutter run to be a bit higher so that water would flow in both directions. They might have to loosen and adjust every screw along the right half in order to get water to flow to the right.
bpath
2 years ago
If adjusting the slope turns out not to be doable, can you extend the left downspout down to connect directly to another downspout to the ground?
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
2 years ago
In a run like that, the expectation would be that the gutter would drain pretty evenly to either downspout.
uscpsycho
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
@T T Is loosening and adjusting every screw along the right side a lot of work? Is that why they might not want to properly fix the issue? Because as @Windows on Washington Ltd said, the expectation is that the gutter would drain evenly.

A little more context, originally there was only the one downspout on the left side so all the water was going there. But it was getting too much water resulting in the waterfall issue I described above. So they installed another downspout on the other side (and charged me extra for it) but I really don't think they did anything to adjust the gutter to make it flow in the other direction, I was just told it wouldn't look right if they did that. So I have a second downspout that does nothing.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
If they install another downspout and did not adjust the gutter, I question their intellect.
klem1
2 years ago
Haven't we seen this movie before,,,,,maybe twice or once a week for the past 10 years? No scope of work,no contract, no referances,no license,no insurance,no recourse ,just a new Cheby truck with magnetic door placards then POOF they are gone. So far everyone agrees water can be made to run any direction but that means nothing to the installer.
PRO
Windows on Washington Ltd
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Hopefully it's not a "Chuck in a Truck" situation and the OP can get them to come out and make the necessary adjustments to fix the slope. As mentioned above, adding a downspout = good (should have had it from the start).

Adding a downspout and not adjusting the gutter slope = not great.