Signs Your Eavestroughs Need Replacing in Saskatoon

It catches rain and snowmelt off the roof and hands it to a downspout, which moves it away from the foundation. When it stops, the water goes down the siding, into the fascia board and straight to the basement wall.

Saskatchewan makes the job harder than it looks. Troughs carry ice all winter, the freeze and thaw works at every joint, and then a winter's worth of snow comes off the roof in a few weeks of spring. Poor drainage feeds ice dams in the cold months and pushes water against the foundation in spring, so fall is the time to catch a system that is on its way out.

Eavestroughs hang from hangers screwed into the fascia, pitched slightly so water runs toward the downspouts. If a section droops in the middle or leans out from the board, water sits in the low spot, adds weight, and in January turns into a block of ice pulling on those same hangers.

A loose hanger or two is a quick refasten. Sagging along several runs usually points at the wood, especially if the hangers are backing out of fascia that feels spongy, and new hangers in rotten fascia will not hold for long.

Stand outside in a good rain for a few minutes and watch. The water should disappear into the downspouts. If it sheets over the front edge instead, something is in the way.

Clean them first. Leaves and shingle grit cause most of this. If the troughs still overflow once they are clear, it is a design problem: the pitch is running backwards, there are not enough downspouts or they are in the wrong spot, or the trough is simply too small for the roof area draining into it. Sizing, slope and downspout placement fix that, and on an older system it is often simpler to replace the run than rework it.

Older sectional eavestroughs have a joint at every length and every corner, each one held with caulking that dries out. Spring melt finds the weak ones, and you get drips at the same spots year after year.

The continuous-run eavestroughs we install have no joints along the straight runs, so the corners and downspout outlets are the only places left to watch. Resealing a joint or two on an old system is normal upkeep, but drips at most of the seams mean the system is done.

Look at the fascia board and the wall right under the eavestroughs. Dark streaks or peeling paint there mean water is getting behind the trough instead of staying in it. If you can reach the fascia safely, press on it. Wood that gives under your thumb has been wet for a while.

That matters because the fascia is what the eavestroughs hang from, and the soffit under it closes in the overhang and lets the attic breathe, so water getting in there turns into a ventilation problem too. We look at eavestroughs, soffit and fascia together for that reason.

Puddles along the foundation after a rain, or a basement that gets damp every spring, can start with eavestroughs dropping water straight down beside the wall. Sometimes it is only a downspout extension that got knocked off, or never went on. Other times the troughs overflow so badly the water never reaches the downspout at all. Walk around the house during the spring melt and watch where it goes.

Thick icicles off the same stretch of eavestrough every winter usually mean an ice dam is forming above it. The trough did not cause it. Heat escaping into the attic melts the snow and the water refreezes at the cold edge, which our guide to preventing ice dams goes through in detail.

What the ice does do is fill the trough so it cannot drain, and the weight bends hangers and twists sections out of line. Bent or pulled-loose runs after winter will need work before the next one.

Eavestroughs often last about twice as long as the shingles above them, so a new roof does not automatically mean new eavestroughs. One section coming down is still a repair. Leigha Wilson had a rain gutter blow down overnight, and her Google review says Nathan was "fast and efficient fixing my rain gutter after it blew down during the night."

Replacement makes sense when the trouble runs the length of the house, like sagging on more than one side, seams leaking every year, overflow a cleaning does not cure, or fascia rotting behind the trough. Big trees close to the roofline are a good reason to ask about gutter guards while new eavestroughs go up. If you are going over the house before the snow anyway, our fall roof checklist covers the eavestroughs with everything else.