Eave Troughs – Care and Maintenance

  Winter and eave troughs – This is where most home designers fail to take winter into consideration when designing homes.   Most home owners buy homes in the Spring, Summer and Fall, and never think about their homes eave troughs and downspouts. As a  home inspector in the Barrie, Alliston, Orillia and Innisfil area it amazes me how many homes have downspouts that discharge water directly onto sidewalks and driveways.    This leaves the home owner scrambling to keep ice from accumulating on these high traffic areas.

  Most new homes have weeping tile that their downspouts discharge into, which working well in warm weather. As the cold weather sets in these usually freeze up and can cause damage to your downspout as the ice can build up enough pressure to split the aluminum seam. I usually recommend that the home owner install a Tee at the junction of the downspout and weeping tile. This allows the water to run off from downspout when the weeping tile is frozen. The weeping tile will always remain frozen long after the eave trough and downspout have started moving water. This simple tip will aid in preventing ice dams and those annoying drips from your eave trough.

Fall Clean-up

Always ensure your eave troughs are clean and leak free prior to winter. You can manually clean your gutters or use a leaf blower to blow away the loose debris. Always place your ladder in a secure area, tied off to secure object is recommended, and do not support on gutters or downspouts. Make sure your roof is not slippery if climbing onto for cleaning.   After removing all debris, soften any solidified debris with water, flush with water.   This is when any leaks should be noted and repaired with caulking or recommended gutter sealing product. If water is not freely flowing from downspouts you may have to take them apart to removed stuck debris, this is easier to do in nice weather rather than waiting for winter weather to perform any maintenance.

  Adding downspouts is a quick fix for some eave trough problems that occur in winter. Some designers will run a single gutter around front or rear of house and if located in an area susceptible to collecting snow, can lead to ice build up.

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This year during my inspections in Barrie I noticed a lot of people were draining their eavestrough into drain lines, some into french drains and some into low areas away from their homes.  This winter has been exceptionally different as we have had freezing rain followed by snow and then cold temperatures.  The always changing weather has created a lot of problems for drainage.

I visited a home a couple of weeks ago because of water entering the basement.  What I found was a rear drain pipe had been installed and the eavestrough pipe fed into the drain pipe.  This is a great set up in the summer, spring and fall but is a recipe for disaster in the winter.

This particular drain pipe has frozen up completely blocking any drainage.  The water then backed up the drain and overflowed against the foundation of the home.  The basement window was located adjacent to the drain and the water seeped through the window well and filled the drain with soil.  The water then filled up the window well and leaked through the window and down the basement wall.  Lucky there was no furniture and the wall only had insulation and vapour barrier installed, which was easily dried out.

A quick solution for this an other eavestrough freezing problems is this;  install an open plumbing T, I used PVC but ABS will do also, at the end of your downspout and before your drain line.  This will allow water to drain out the open T when the drain line freezes, thus preventing backup and freezing of downspouts and eventually your whole eavestrough.  You can add a short drain to this T if water needs to be directed away from foundations or windows etc., common sense will guide you here.  This fix is permanent and need not be removed, just install and forget it.

This homeowner tip is brought to you by the Alliston Home Inspector

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