A sagging gutter is easy to spot from the street. There is a dip in the middle of a run, or a gap opening up between the gutter and the house, and it gets a little worse every winter.
It is also one of the most common calls we get for professional gutter repair. The good news is that most sag has one of four causes, and you can usually tell which one from the ground.
Cause one: the hangers gave out
Every gutter hangs from fasteners screwed into the fascia board behind it. Older homes often have spike and ferrule hangers, a long nail driven through the gutter into the wood.
Those spikes work loose over time. Each winter of wet and dry cycles pushes them out a little more, until the gutter tips forward or drops.
Modern hidden hangers use screws and sit inside the gutter. They hold far better, and replacing old spikes with them fixes a lot of sag.
Cause two: too few hangers
Even good hangers fail if they are too far apart. We space them about every two feet, and closer under heavy tree cover or a steep roof.
A gutter with hangers every four feet will hold up fine when it is empty. Fill it with wet needles and water and it starts to bow between them.
Cause three: weight
Water is heavy. A ten foot run of five inch gutter full to the brim holds a lot of it, and wet fir needles and moss make it heavier.
A clog that holds water for days does more than overflow. It loads the gutter until the hangers start to pull. In the Pacific Northwest, that is often how sag starts.
Snow and ice add to it in a cold snap, especially on the north side of the house where it sits longer.
Cause four: the fascia is soft
This is the one to rule out before anything else. If water has been getting behind the gutter for years, the board the hangers screw into starts to rot.
Rotted wood will not hold a screw. You can add new hangers all day and the gutter will still pull away. Signs to look for are peeling paint along the roofline, dark stains behind the gutter, or wood that looks swollen or crumbly.
If you see that, read our guide to fascia board rot first. The board has to be fixed before the gutter goes back up.
Why sag is not just cosmetic
Gutters are supposed to slope toward the downspout, about a quarter inch for every ten feet. A sag reverses that slope in the low spot.
Water pools there, adds weight, and spills over the back edge. Now it is running down the fascia and the siding and landing next to the foundation, which is exactly what the gutter was installed to stop.
How sagging gutters get fixed
Loose or missing hangers. Remove the old spikes, add hidden hangers at proper spacing, and screw them into solid wood.
Lost pitch. Lift the gutter back into the correct slope toward the downspout and re-secure it along the whole run.
Clogs and weight. Clear the gutter and downspout so water drains instead of sitting. If clogs keep coming back, gutter guards keep the weight from returning.
Bent sections. A gutter that sagged for a long time can kink or deform. Those sections usually need to be replaced, not straightened.
Rotted fascia. Cut out and replace the soft wood, then re-hang the gutter on the new board.
Is it a DIY job?
Swapping a few hangers on a single story home is reasonable if you are comfortable on a ladder and the fascia is solid. Push a screwdriver into the wood first. If it sinks in easily, stop.
Anything on a second story, any job that needs the gutter taken down, and anything involving fascia repair is worth a call.
When sag means it is time to replace
If the gutters are sectional, sagging in several spots, and leaking at the seams too, repairs start chasing each other. At that point new seamless gutters with hidden hangers at proper spacing are usually the better spend.
An estimator can tell you which side of that line you are on.
Get it fixed before the next big rain
Sag only goes one direction. Every storm adds weight and pulls the hangers a little further.
High Point Gutter is family owned, founded in 2016, with in-house crews working out of Woodinville and Federal Way for homeowners from Bellingham to Olympia. We are licensed, bonded and insured, we hold 600+ Google reviews at 4.9 stars, and our work carries a 10 year workmanship and 20 year manufacturer’s warranty.
Call 425-449-6622 or book a free gutter repair estimate. An estimator will find the cause, show you what it takes to fix, and put the price in writing. No pressure, no obligation.
Always on Point.