Story City Gutter Replacement & Gutter Guard Installation

What the gutter is screwed into

A gutter is only as secure as the board behind it, and that board is not always what people assume. Traditional fascia is dimensional lumber, usually painted, and it holds a screw well as long as it is sound. Once it has been wet repeatedly it does not, and a hanger screwed into softened wood will pull out under load regardless of how good the hanger is. This is why re-hanging a sagging gutter without addressing the fascia is a temporary measure by definition. Some houses have aluminum-wrapped fascia, which looks maintenance-free and conceals the condition of the wood underneath completely, so a system can be failing behind an exterior that appears perfect. Composite and PVC trim boards are increasingly common on newer construction and behave differently again: they do not rot, which is the point, but they hold fasteners less firmly than sound wood and benefit from closer hanger spacing. On some structures there is no continuous fascia at all and hangers have to reach the rafter tails. All of these are workable. What causes problems is assuming which one you have without looking.