As part of our “go outside” initiative, we’ve been outside a lot. It isn’t always frolicking in the grass and catching fireflies, sometimes its dealing with gutters. People tend to make a really big deal about keeping their gutters clean. (Just Google it if you don’t believe me) I’ve always thought that those people were somewhat crazy and a tad bit extreme. We learned a pretty good lesson in the importance of routine gutter maintenance this weekend. We also learned not to trust whatever gutter guard was installed previously, or whoever installed said guard and drain spout.
To make a long story short, we’ve gotten a good bit of rain since our regional drought ended. Saturday morning, while doing yard work(which we are no strangers to), I noticed water dripping from the gutter. I hopped up on the roof, checked it out. Sure enough the gutter was filled with water. I stuck my hand down the spout and couldn’t pull anything out. Unfortunately, that meant the problem was in the spout. I climbed back down to the ground, climbed back up the ladder and removed the spout. (I made that seem fast. it was anything but a fast process) Out came all of the water but still nothing solid.
All of the solid stuff was hiding in an “s-curve” portion of the downspout. After all the water had drained, and I was able to look at the spout. Turns out this section was made of 3 sections. The middle portion had been so bent to fit inside the other two that nothing could pass. Except maybe water. Brilliant engineering! Removing this proverbial wrench in our works, and reassembling the downspout seems to have solved that problem.
Not to pat myself on the back, but I’d say we narrowly avoided catastrophe. Stay tuned for a follow up on our gutter issues.
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