Your home is a place where you feel relaxed and happy and it is also the place where one finds quality time to spend with their family. To assist your happy living there are many plumbing fixtures which help to make your day to day life easy, but do you also reciprocate in the same way with them? In the season of winter, when heavy snow combines with rainfall, one particular area of the house that gets affected the most is your water pipelines, rain gutter and downspouts.
Excess of water present near your foundation can make it weak and can cause a bigger damage than you would ever imagine. So it is ideally important that you fix your rain gutter and downspouts before an emergency situation arrives.
If you are looking to replace gutter or downspout by the DIY process, the time and energy which you will have to spend is $15 and 3-4 hours of hard work. Cost of replacement gutters and downspouts. An important tip for you while fixing the plumbing fixture is that you will find aluminium and vinyl gutter components are much more cheaper than you think and totally affordable.
Let’s take a look at the prices of components needed to replace rain gutter and downspout:
* 10 foot sections of gutters cost you anything between $7-8, whereas a 10-foot downspout costs you not more than $13.
* A clip-up downspout extender that snap out of the way, when mowing costs anything around $8, while a gutter sealant is about $5 for a 10-ounce tube.
* To avoid the damage caused earlier ignorance, buy additional hangers and clips, which only costs a minimalistic 25 cents each.
* Some other components and add-ons that are needed to replace a rain gutter is end caps, cost $7, joint connectors, cost $3 and self-tapping screws that’s around $3.
Steps To Replace Missing gutters
* While replacing a missing gutter it is often observed that an entire 10-foot section of gutter is most of the time damaged or missing. Using a hacksaw and tin snips to cut shorter lengths of replacement gutter is mainly advisable.
* You won’t be able to do it yourself, so its better you grab two ladders and assign a helper or a family member to help you out.
*One important thing is to remove old joint connectors and scrape off sealant or gunk from the existing gutter. You can try a test fit with new joint connectors.
* The next step would be to fill the ends of the new joint connectors with sealant before installing the gutter. Loosen up the adjacent hangers, if you need to add the replacement section.
* Keep in mind to add hangers at every 3 feet. See to it that the gutter is pitched towards the downspout, at a slope of ¼-inch for every 10 feet distance.
Adding a downspout
* After replacing the missing gutter, fit the new downspout up into the drop outlet. Ensure that the drop outlet fits inside the downspout section to maintain the flow and keep the joints from leaking.
* Tighten the joints with a couple of self-tapping gutter screws, add additional sections as and when needed.
* End the procedure by positioning the downspout with an elbow position, which is at least 6 inches above grade.
* Lastly, attach the downspout extender and remember that it should not extend at least 5 feet into your yard.
If the operation of replacing your rain gutters and and downspouts is somehow giving you trouble, do not hesitate to call a trained and best quality plumbing service providers. Professional plumbers to take up general plumbing services as well as house and maintenance services. So, it’s better to hire a plumbing company if things do not go accordingly.
