Since gutters are attached to the eaves of your roof and your roof might extend out away from the side of the house, you usually cannot just have the downspouts go straight down from the gutters. The weight of the water flowing through them would make the gutter and the downspout separate if there was not a way to attach the downspouts to the house. In order to get the downspouts over to your siding you need to use an elbow. Elbows change the direction of the downspout forty five degrees. You can attach an elbow to the gutter attachment and angle back towards the house. Then you can use a small extension piece to reach the house. Another elbow will angle downward where you can attach the long downspout pieces.

It is possible that there is a lip or section of the house that is farther out than the rest of the house. If this is the case, you will need to angle around it or out to meet it. Short elbow pieces can make a tight turn and shift your downspout out or in only a few inches.

The other place that elbows come in handy is at the bottom or discharge area of the downspout. You never want to let your downspout empty right onto the ground next to your home’s foundation. There are a number of problems that can be caused by too much water in the soil next to your house. Improper or too infrequent gutter cleaning can be one way that water problems crop up, but a poor downspout design can also be the reason. There are special show shape gutter elbows that are meant to be used at the bottom of a downspout. The elbow angle out away from the house and a long straight piece carries the water a safe distance away from the foundation.

The next step is to take accurate measurements of all the areas where you will be installing gutters. Make sure to account for mitres or elbow and seams. Hold up the corner pieces and mark how far they come in from any turn. Then allow a quarter of an inch for the seams. The remaining space is how long the straight pieces need to be. After you have checked and rechecked your measurements, you can cut the gutter pieces. Some how to guides suggest that you use a miter saw to cut the gutter pieces, but if you are using aluminum or vinyl gutters then you can get the job done with a heavy duty pair of tin clips.

The third step is to install the brackets and mount the gutters on top the eaves. Follow the manufacturers recommendations as to how often and how far from the edges you should install brackets. Make sure to make marks on the gutter pieces and on the eaves and then match them up accordingly. You will need a power drill to screw the brackets into the eaves.

Before you hang the pieces of gutter that will contain the downspouts, you need to make a mark where the downspout will go and then cut the holes. Once you have pencil marks showing where the downspouts will be use an attachment sleeve as a guide to trace an outline for the rectangular hole. You can punch four small holes in each corner with a crew driver and then enlarge the holes with a power drill and bit. Use a jigsaw to cut out the rest of the hole and then file down the edges. You should then install the downspout attachment by placing a layer of silicone sealant on the attachment and dropping it into the hole you cut in the gutter piece. Then screw the attachment into place with short screws.

When you need to cut pieces of downspout, make sure you pay attention to which end you are cutting. One end of the downspout is tapered so that it can fit into another piece without the aid of a connector. You always want to cut the large end so that the tapered end is still available for connecting other pieces. Another helpful tip is to always connect the pieces so that the large end is facing up and the tapered end is down. This will prevent leaking at those seams. Downspouts are attached to the side of the house with mounting straps. The straps get screwed into the side of the house and then wrap around the downspout to keep it in place.

The next to last step is to connect the straight pieces of gutter to each other and the corner pieces. Remember that there is a quarter inch of free space between all of these pieces. The solution is a two inch wide strip of aluminum or vinyl called a sealer. The sealer wraps around the gutter pieces and covers up the quarter inch gaps. The seals are made water proof by applying a heavy bead of silicone sealant on the inside.

After waiting for the sealant to dry, the last step is to test your gutter system by putting a garden hose in one end and making sure that the water flows freely from one end to another and to the downspout. If there are any areas where water pools you will need to adjust the pitch of your gutters to correct that. If there are any leaks, then reapply your sealant. If you want to limit the amount of gutter cleaning you will need, then you might also consider installing leaf guards or a more complicated gutter guard system.

Straight Gutter Pieces

The majority of your gutters will be straight gutter pieces cit to various lengths. These pieces can be made of a variety of materials. The most common gutter material of construction is aluminum. Most aluminum gutter pieces that you buy come already painted or finished in some way, but you can also purchase galvanized gutter pieces that are untreated. In this case, you can treat them to match your siding or façade. Another popular material, especially for do it yourselfers, is vinyl. Vinyl is a good choice if you are trying to install your gutters yourself because it is lightweight, easy to cut, and easy to move around. Plastic is also a material possibility, but they are not very durable and do not hold up well over time. There are even copper gutter systems.

There are two main shapes for your gutter system and three popular sizes. You need to make sure you pay attention to these options in your straight pieces so you know what types of connectors and elbows to get. You can have gutters that are half round or K-style. The half round gutters look like half of a cylinder. The K-style has the side next to the house go straight down and the bottom is straight across. The outside of the gutter goes out is a shape that resembles a K. This style does not really matter when it comes to how affective they are, but there is an aesthetic difference. In terms of the sizes, gutters can come in four, five, or six inches. If you think you need a larger size, it may be possible to special order something. Of course, the last thing you need to think about when choosing your straight gutter pieces is the color and texture. You want to pick a color or texture that matches or siding or whatever the façade of your house is. Make sure to keep in mind the color of your roof shingles.

Downspouts and Elbows

The downspouts are the pieces that go from the gutters at the roof line to the ground. They are an essential piece because they are what carries the possible damaging water away from your home’s foundation. When choosing the size and number of downspouts you need to think about how much rain water you need to accommodate. It doesn’t matter hoe big the gutters are, your downspouts are the limiting factor when it comes to water capacity. If you find after installation that your gutters are overflowing occasionally, then you might want to go back later and add an additional downspout. The shape of downspouts is generally rectangular. Popular sizes are two by three inches, three by four inches, or four by five inches.

Sometimes downspouts need to change direction or be diverted around an obstruction. If that is the case, then you need an elbow or two. They are pieces that can change the direction of a piece of gutter downspout by forty five degrees. There are special shoe style elbows with a longer exit length that are used at the bottom of a downspout to divert water away from the house and foundation.

Mitres and End Caps

Every house has corners and turns that will need to be accommodated when you are hanging your gutter system. To accomplish those turns you use mitres. There are outside mitres and inside mitres. An outside mitre is used for an inside turn and an inside mitre is used for an outside turn. That means if your house was a regular square or rectangle with only inside turns you would need four outside mitres. There are also cases where you do not want to continue the gutter system and the line needs to end. For these instances you want to use an end cap.

Gutter Hanging Solutions

There are three systems used to attach different parts of the gutter system to the house. First there is the spike and ferrule system to attach the straight gutter pieces to the eaves of the roof. The ferrule helps to maintain the width of the gutter pieces and the spike is inserted into the roof through the ferrule to hold it in place. The hidden hanger and screw method is more common in modern construction because they make gutter cleaning easier. With this system the gutters are held up by a hanger which is attached to the house with a screw. Straps are used to attach the vertical downspout pieces to the side of the house.

Most importantly, you want to make sure that the base of your ladder is on solid, level ground and not on any ice, snow, grease or mud. The rule of thumb for where to place your ladder: for every four feet high that the ladder is going to go up, the base of the ladder should be one foot away from the house. So, for a typical one-story house, the top of your ladder will be about 10 above the ground and the base of the ladder will be about 2.5 feet from the house. This means that you need a ladder that is between 10 and 11 feet long.

Make sure that you always face the ladder when moving up or down and never carry anything in your hand while climbing. You will probably need a garbage bag and gloves to clean your gutters so you should carry these things in your pocket or wear the gloves when climbing up and down. I find it works best to attach the garbage bag to a rope and then tie the rope to my belt loop while I climb. Then when I get to the top I can raise the bag up and down. Experts will tell you that you must always maintain three points of contact when on a ladder. That means that either two feet and one hand or two hands and one foot must be touching the ladder at any given moment. Therefore, once you get the garbage bag up to the top, use the rope to tie it to the ladder so you can hang on with one hand and clean out debris with the other.

There is one other safety concern that I can think of. I recommend that you wear gloves when cleaning out your gutters because you will be exposed to molds from the wet leaves and debris in your gutters. That moist environment is the perfect place to grow mold and bacteria. Most people will be fine if they wear the gloves and may only suffer the occasional sneeze. However, there are people with severe mold allergies that might suffer worse side effects. If you are one of those people then I recommend that you let another family member clean your gutters and downspouts or hire a gutter cleaning service.

When you climb up the ladder and can reach your gutters the next step is to remove the debris causing your blockages. To do this you will need a pair of gloves. I suppose the gloves are not mandatory, but I do not know many people who want to handle moldy leaves without protection. I usually just proceed by scooping out the mess with my hands, but some people prefer to use a gutter cleaning tool such as a gutter scoop to do this job. If you want a tool, you can purchase a small trowel or even gutter scoops of various sizes at your local Lowes or Home Depot. Just make sure that the size of the gutter scoop matches the size of your gutters. Once you remove the refuse from the gutters, you can throw it on the ground or into a garbage bag. If you chose to throw it on the ground, you will only have to go around and collect it in a garbage bag later so I recommend disposing of the debris as you go. If you do the same, make sure you attach the garbage bag to the ladder so that you have both hands free to continue working.

You will have to move the ladder from section to section so that you can clean out all the debris. The alternative is to use long handle gutter cleaning tools. A gutter cleaning wand allows you to clean sections of your gutter that are out of your normal reach. An alternative to doing this part of your cleaning by hand is to purchase a gutter cleaning robot. iRobot makes a gutter cleaning machine they call the iRobot Looj. This contraption sits inside your gutter and propels itself along while it blasts away leaves and debris. You will only have to move the ladder once from the starting point to the end. Of course, gutter cleaning robots do not clean the vertical part of your gutter system or the downspouts, but they convenient for the rest of your gutter cleaning.

After you make sure you have all of the large pieces of mess out of the gutters you will need to make sure the downspouts are clean. The easiest way to do this is to put a garden hose into the opening. The running water will force any debris down the spout and out the bottom where you can collect it into a garbage bag. Next, some people like to use a leaf blower to blow out any smaller pieces that you did not get out by hand. I find handling a large piece of equipment like that on ladder too hard so I usually skip this step. The final step is to rinse the entire gutter system with your garden hose.

As you can see, you probably have everything you need to clean your gutters within easy reach. To summarize, you must have a ladder, gloves, garbage bags, and a hose to clean your gutters. Optional pieces of equipment include a small trowel or gutter scoop and a leaf blower.