Altoona Gutter Replacement & Gutter Guard Installation

How many downspouts a system needs

Downspouts are the part homeowners think about least and the part that most often decides whether a system works. A gutter is a holding trough. It only performs as well as its ability to empty, and the way it empties is through outlets. The common rule of thumb is one downspout for every thirty to forty feet of gutter run, and less than that on long runs or steep roofs. Plenty of houses have a fifty-foot run with a single downspout at one end. During ordinary rain it copes. During a hard rain the far end of that gutter is holding water it cannot move, and it comes over the front lip. That looks like a leak, or a clog, or a gutter that is too small, and it is none of those. Adding a second outlet often solves it for a fraction of the cost of replacing the run. This is also why replacing gutter with the same layout that was there before can reproduce the original problem exactly. The layout is part of the design, not a detail to be copied.