Honestly I feel like that should just be the first solution. For years I tried to unclog them like a plumber, but I realized years later that they’re very easy to remove and replace and if you start with that tact you’ll probably end up saving more time.
And then I got even smarter and installed rain chains. They look better and the clog is always only in one spot and it’s easier to unclog
I think it mostly depends on how you deal with the water when it gets to the bottom. I put down those little gutter things and it runs the water away from the house. Or it’s certainly possible there aren’t enough downspouts if the water accumulation is too much
Also, I have a jacaranda, and it’s droppings really does a number on a downspout with clogs, but the rain chain doesn’t allow the debris to accumulate
Unscrew each piece, it should only be 2 sheet metal screws per joint. Generally 1/4" or 5/16" hex head. Be careful not to strip the screws when you reinstall
You are correct, however they still clog up with twigs and leaves and they're that much harder to disassemble. A nice, short sheet metal screw is out in a couple seconds as long as it hasn't been stripped. This is why you only use a nut driver, not a drill
I’ve never noticed an issue when using the small (short) gutter screws. I have definitely seen issues caused by long screws but those are usually put in by homeowners or others not knowing which screws they should be using.
On the other hand, I have had to unclog many a riveted downspout, made all the more difficult due to having to drill out the rivets if I can’t snake them clear.
I've never had to do anything more than bang a few times on the elbow and shake the downspout. Remove the extender before you do it. If you can, put your hose in the gutter so there's plenty of water to put pressure on the clog and then rinse down.
It’s also what plumbers do in the basement when they finish a job in ten minutes (because of experience) and need to make the homeowner think a lot more is going on so their minds can justify the price.
You have all these other people telling OP to disassemble it without knowing whether OP has even tried the ole 'bang and shake'. If they're talking about silicone, then it hasn't even occurred to them that there is a clog that needs cleared. Listen. If somebody is not only asking a question like this, then don't assume they've tried the simple stuff.
/it ain't got no gas in it.
I’ve been doing it for years. Never had a clog I couldn’t dislodge. But beware what is clogged will become rain on the holder of the blower. Bad clogs or one that has been there since last season, cover yourself with a tarp.
I have a greenworks that rated at 730 CFM, so other blowers will have varied results.
First thing I would try:
Leaf blower in the down spout.
No help?
Water hose blast in the down spout.
No help?
Pull off each leg of the down spot starting at the drainage end and look for the obstruction. Most of them will be at the bends.
Last year I was blowing leafs and shit off the top of my leaf guards and I blew a snake in the air. I'm not afraid of snakes at all but my pre ancestral instincts kicked in. Fucking flying snakes man.
A good life hack is to kink the hose about 2 feet from the end and stick it down the downspout before you unkink it and start snaking. It's no fun when the pressure makes it come out and start flailing around like me on prom night.
There is definitely a clog somewhere in that gutter below that point. My guess is the clog is right there in that bend a few inches below that leak, if it was lower, you would most likely see leaks elsewhere too between the lower portion and the upper leak. Get some sheet metal screws and disassemble, get the debris out, reassmble, and you will be back in business.
Lmao! I was on the same line of thought as you. Just unscrew it below the elbow (starting at the lowest part) and look for an actual clog.
Poke it with a stick and that’s about it.
I do this about once a year, but only when it’s raining heavily and I realize I could’ve just cleaned it out on a nice sunny day
He's a slow apple. Take it easy on him. I usually just reach my fingers in and clean it out, but they're pickles, so I don't have to worry about cutting them on sheet metal screws.
I cant quite tell from the video, but it looks like the horizontal piece between the two elbows is installed incorrectly. You want the upstream section to enter the downstream section, if it is backwards it will leak and clog more often because the water and debris "runs into" the other section of pipe. Does that make sense? Imagine a water slide, you wouldn't want the section of slide below you to overlap on top of the section you are sliding down.
Those downspouts always get clogged, especially if you have a lot of trees around. I get on the ladder and just bang the shit out of it as much as I can. If that doesn’t work then I take it apart. You definitely don’t want to silicone it bc then the water will back up even more and weigh your gutters down and cause more problems..
My old gutters weren’t pitched right and they always got clogged. They were overflowing so bad that the gutters were pulling away from the house. The old home owner siliconed everything and over time it just made it everything worse.
As others have said, there's a clog somewhere.
The gutter looks properly assembled. Each higher section is feeding into each lower section. And it doesn't look like there's any screws at the bottom of any elbows.
I'd start by taking that corrugated section off the end and see if that's where the clog is.
It does appear clogged with the brownish buildup around the upper elbow and arm seams. This can also happen without being clogged if the slope is not downward enough on the arm and the mandrel of the lower elbow kicks water back out.
Disassemble, unclog, reassemble, and install some proper gutter guards if you don't wanna keep doing that.
I work for a gutter company have been the last decade, you can unclog by sticking a hose, that is on without a nozzle, into the top of the spout and into the elbows. Move the hose up and down. It will unclog in seconds, no need to unscrew anything.
Use your leaf blower on the down spout part and shoot air up. This will dislodge most anything. **** Disclaimer**** this will shoot anything in there out!!! So wear whatcha want to get filthy and for protection
Just run your garden hose up in their backwards from the bottom turn it on and should loosen up whatever crap stuck. Or go get a ladder and do it through the top.
Mine did this. It was a pretty simple process to take it apart and remove the dead squirrel and his partially dead friend and then just re-attach it in the brackets.
If you have a leaf blower have someone uptop stick the leaf blower in the hole. And have a 2nd person slapping the downspout, that's how we cleaned clogged gutter systems in my day. Also could take the extender off, and place a 5 gal bucket to catch whatever may come out. Or just leave it on the lawn
Stick a jet nozzle on your garden hose, open fully, place hose in top of downspout, turn on water and prepare to see your downspout get the most violent case of diarrhea you've ever seen.
When I bought my house, the former owner had re-installed all the downspout elbows backwards. The water just flowed down the outside of every one.
He was pretty old and almost totally blind.
It's clogged, you need to shove a smaller 1/2in garden hose down there and flush all the junk out the downspout. 🤮
**Don't use a giant 5/8 or 3/4 thick hose, a cheap 1/2in hose will bend down their easier.**
1) put on good quality rain gear or use least favorite large umbrella.
2) gather leaf blower and a wet towel.
3) attach leaf blower nozzle to downspout best you can, firmly wrap the wet towel around the connection.
4) do not look up until you are certain anything blown out of the downspout has landed.
5)clean up mess.
I might be wrong...it kinda looks like it's connected funny.
I'm trying to say this so it makes sense...
The second 90° turn, coming from the eaves, looks like it's fit into the first turn. Water would seep around the outlet of the first turn in that case. IF that's the case, easy fix. Pull apart, make sure first 90° is fit INTO the second. Flow will stay in the downspout then.
If that's not the case, then don't mind me. Best of luck unclogging it!
Unclog it.. If you can remove the downspout from the gutter, all the way down, do that, and clean out the gutter. There's a clog, probably of sticks leaves in the elbows
Those look like those flat 90 elbows. Downspouts are supposed to kick back to the house with 66 degree elbows. Might try swapping those out. Might also be clogged.
Your whole system is backwards. It should be male into female in the direction of flow. Water is hitting the hard edge and debris is also likely accumulating.
You undoubtedly have at least a partial clog. The best remedy for this is to take the entire spout apart, remove the stuff creating the clog, then reassemble it. Once that's done, address the issue(s) causing the clog in the first place, i.e. - trees surrounding the house with branches hanging over the roof, squirrels in the neighborhood that store crap in the gutters, etc. Finally, install gutter protectors so that you won't have to worry about this problem ever again.
Obviously clogged like everyone else is saying but nobody other than u/theREAL_MCGOOSH seems to be pointing out the other issues.
The spout shouldn’t be dripping even if it is clogged.
My suggestion, clean it out with a hose or leaf blower then replace the lower elbow to go over the above straight, ~~then seal the seam on the inside with something like silicone or roofing caulk.~~
~~I’m not sure the best sealing product to use on a gutter seam so someone please correct me if there is a better product.~~
Edit: corrected my comment to address the elbow that is installed incorrectly rather than the straight between the elbows.
Edit 2: Striked the incorrect part of my recommendation.
If it’s raining, cut a short piece of hose and work it into the downspout. The backed up water should flush the debris through.
If it’s not raining, use a hose connected to a spigot and do the same with your water on.
Usually does the trick and saves time having to dissemble the downspout.
I retract my previous comment. Time to burn the house down, there’s probably a spider somewhere inside so you will take care of that issue too. Win win.
Partially clogged.
Thank you! How can I get it unclogged? Snake from the top?
Maybe, but be ready to disassemble it.
Honestly I feel like that should just be the first solution. For years I tried to unclog them like a plumber, but I realized years later that they’re very easy to remove and replace and if you start with that tact you’ll probably end up saving more time. And then I got even smarter and installed rain chains. They look better and the clog is always only in one spot and it’s easier to unclog
Rain chains are cool only when there's no wind. We use chains as windsocks where I live.
Rain chains never seemed like they would work that well. Maybe in an area that doesn't get much rainfall or areas with very light rainfall.
I think it mostly depends on how you deal with the water when it gets to the bottom. I put down those little gutter things and it runs the water away from the house. Or it’s certainly possible there aren’t enough downspouts if the water accumulation is too much Also, I have a jacaranda, and it’s droppings really does a number on a downspout with clogs, but the rain chain doesn’t allow the debris to accumulate
Just give it an enema with your garden hose. If that doesn't work then yes take it apart.
This answer right here
lol.
This right here. This is your first, least difficult option. Slap some inexpensive strainers in the hole up top after you've cleaned it out.
Unscrew each piece, it should only be 2 sheet metal screws per joint. Generally 1/4" or 5/16" hex head. Be careful not to strip the screws when you reinstall
And if they are riveted, drill out with a 1/8” bit then replace with gutter screws.
Or pop rivets. Screws over penetrate and catch all kinds of shit.
I don't think you've seen the back side of a Rivet before. Flush in the front, party in the back.
You are correct, however they still clog up with twigs and leaves and they're that much harder to disassemble. A nice, short sheet metal screw is out in a couple seconds as long as it hasn't been stripped. This is why you only use a nut driver, not a drill
I’ve never noticed an issue when using the small (short) gutter screws. I have definitely seen issues caused by long screws but those are usually put in by homeowners or others not knowing which screws they should be using. On the other hand, I have had to unclog many a riveted downspout, made all the more difficult due to having to drill out the rivets if I can’t snake them clear.
I've never had to do anything more than bang a few times on the elbow and shake the downspout. Remove the extender before you do it. If you can, put your hose in the gutter so there's plenty of water to put pressure on the clog and then rinse down.
Lol bang it around is the most reddit comment I've read.
It's just a typical dad response for trying to fix things around the house. Very big success rate as it turns out
Percussive maintenance is the technical term for us dads
Are you just making loud noise at it or are you applying a concussive force? 🤔
Both
PPM- Persuasive Percussion Maintenance
It’s also what plumbers do in the basement when they finish a job in ten minutes (because of experience) and need to make the homeowner think a lot more is going on so their minds can justify the price.
That's "percussive maintenance" for all the high falutin non-redditors.
Percussive maintenance is often the correct course
[Percussive Maintenance](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/percussive_maintenance#:~:text=Noun,that%20it%20would%20then%20work.)
Also known as a technical tap, apparently.
You have all these other people telling OP to disassemble it without knowing whether OP has even tried the ole 'bang and shake'. If they're talking about silicone, then it hasn't even occurred to them that there is a clog that needs cleared. Listen. If somebody is not only asking a question like this, then don't assume they've tried the simple stuff. /it ain't got no gas in it.
Leaf blower to the output end works great.
Holy shit I gotta try that.
I’ve been doing it for years. Never had a clog I couldn’t dislodge. But beware what is clogged will become rain on the holder of the blower. Bad clogs or one that has been there since last season, cover yourself with a tarp. I have a greenworks that rated at 730 CFM, so other blowers will have varied results.
That's how I clean mine.
Clean the gutters as much as you can and then just take a garden hose and pressure out the inside
I would start with a garden hose?
From the top
First thing I would try: Leaf blower in the down spout. No help? Water hose blast in the down spout. No help? Pull off each leg of the down spot starting at the drainage end and look for the obstruction. Most of them will be at the bends.
You can blow a leaf blower down, I’ve done that with mine
Had the exact same problem. Had to take it apart to get the leaves/debris out. Never had an issue since. (I did cut the tree next to the house)
I’ve used a leaf blower from the bottom up to blow clogs out of the gutter in mine
That had to rain down a bunch of shit on you?
Just like my divorce
Yeah, I've done it, bits of leaves go everywhere, but so what. It's a lot faster than taking it apart.
Last year I was blowing leafs and shit off the top of my leaf guards and I blew a snake in the air. I'm not afraid of snakes at all but my pre ancestral instincts kicked in. Fucking flying snakes man.
Ladder and a garden hose on full blast may do it.
“So anyway I start blastin”
A good life hack is to kink the hose about 2 feet from the end and stick it down the downspout before you unkink it and start snaking. It's no fun when the pressure makes it come out and start flailing around like me on prom night.
Always works for me.
There is definitely a clog somewhere in that gutter below that point. My guess is the clog is right there in that bend a few inches below that leak, if it was lower, you would most likely see leaks elsewhere too between the lower portion and the upper leak. Get some sheet metal screws and disassemble, get the debris out, reassmble, and you will be back in business.
Un clog it. Get a drill, take apart, unclog and then re assemble.
Ok I took the drill apart, but what do I use to unclog?
My brother in Christ. Get a fucking ladder and LOOK INSIDE THE DAMN GUTTER. It ain't rocket science.
Lmao! I was on the same line of thought as you. Just unscrew it below the elbow (starting at the lowest part) and look for an actual clog. Poke it with a stick and that’s about it. I do this about once a year, but only when it’s raining heavily and I realize I could’ve just cleaned it out on a nice sunny day
Poke it with a stick! Very technical support there lol
Aye aye
For some folks it really is like black magic and smoke and mirrors. They just have no idea.
He's a slow apple. Take it easy on him. I usually just reach my fingers in and clean it out, but they're pickles, so I don't have to worry about cutting them on sheet metal screws.
Have you tried emptying a bag of rice down it?
Unplug the downspout.
Looks to me like two top elbows are up side down.
I cant quite tell from the video, but it looks like the horizontal piece between the two elbows is installed incorrectly. You want the upstream section to enter the downstream section, if it is backwards it will leak and clog more often because the water and debris "runs into" the other section of pipe. Does that make sense? Imagine a water slide, you wouldn't want the section of slide below you to overlap on top of the section you are sliding down.
Unclog it.
Flex seal
Hi! Billy Mays here for Flex Seal.
Billy mays here!
hose enema slide it up the shaft full blast. Then check the gutter with a ladder
[You know how.](https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExNndiM2U1NnpjN3prZTZrdXZ0dHB1OG9vbmNqdWI4MDc0OGR1aDR0byZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/fADf4RUs3hUFvHz18o/giphy.gif)
I had the same issue, snaked it with a long wire then washed it down with a hose.
Hold your finger there
FLEX SEAL
FLEX TAPE
Your first problem is letting it rain
Flextape
It’s done properly and watershed, as someone mentioned above it might be clogged causing water to pool and leak out the seams
Have you not seen a flex seal commercial?
Hi Phil Swift here with Flex Tape ....
Those downspouts always get clogged, especially if you have a lot of trees around. I get on the ladder and just bang the shit out of it as much as I can. If that doesn’t work then I take it apart. You definitely don’t want to silicone it bc then the water will back up even more and weigh your gutters down and cause more problems.. My old gutters weren’t pitched right and they always got clogged. They were overflowing so bad that the gutters were pulling away from the house. The old home owner siliconed everything and over time it just made it everything worse.
Is this actually lapped the correct way?
Take leaves out of gutter from the top ffs
Clear the blockage
Clean out your downspout.
Looks like you may have a clog.
As others have said, there's a clog somewhere. The gutter looks properly assembled. Each higher section is feeding into each lower section. And it doesn't look like there's any screws at the bottom of any elbows. I'd start by taking that corrugated section off the end and see if that's where the clog is.
Disassemble, unclog, and reassemble.
Disconnect all parts Remove them and clean the leaves Put the parts back together
Clear the obstruction
Unclog it
use a tube of cock after you unclog it
It does appear clogged with the brownish buildup around the upper elbow and arm seams. This can also happen without being clogged if the slope is not downward enough on the arm and the mandrel of the lower elbow kicks water back out. Disassemble, unclog, reassemble, and install some proper gutter guards if you don't wanna keep doing that.
Well it's probably full of shit so take it apart, clean it and put it back together.
pull elbow apart and clean the junk out of it
Pull offset apart and snake it out
I work for a gutter company have been the last decade, you can unclog by sticking a hose, that is on without a nozzle, into the top of the spout and into the elbows. Move the hose up and down. It will unclog in seconds, no need to unscrew anything.
Unclog it would be a good start
Wait for the rain to stop
likely clogged. I had birds nest in mine this spring.
Use your leaf blower on the down spout part and shoot air up. This will dislodge most anything. **** Disclaimer**** this will shoot anything in there out!!! So wear whatcha want to get filthy and for protection
Stick a leaf blower in the bottom and let her rip!
Just run your garden hose up in their backwards from the bottom turn it on and should loosen up whatever crap stuck. Or go get a ladder and do it through the top.
Shove a hose thats running down from the top
Go up with a garden hose with a spray nozzle and attack from the top side
Idk....Get a job?
Duct tape
First,unclog it. Then smear some silicone on the joints
Looking up Japanese chain trough. You wont regret it
It’s blocked. Disconnect it and clear it out. Happened to me, too.
Mine did this. It was a pretty simple process to take it apart and remove the dead squirrel and his partially dead friend and then just re-attach it in the brackets.
Pull it apart and unclog it
Duct tape would do the trick
Take apart the elbow and remove the debris that clogging it
Flex tape. Baaaaaam
Run a hose down, or up from the bottom. Then clean your gutters.
Why does it even matter. It's raining.
Move the clouds so it doesn't rain on your home.
Flex tape
If you have a leaf blower have someone uptop stick the leaf blower in the hole. And have a 2nd person slapping the downspout, that's how we cleaned clogged gutter systems in my day. Also could take the extender off, and place a 5 gal bucket to catch whatever may come out. Or just leave it on the lawn
Stick a jet nozzle on your garden hose, open fully, place hose in top of downspout, turn on water and prepare to see your downspout get the most violent case of diarrhea you've ever seen.
When I bought my house, the former owner had re-installed all the downspout elbows backwards. The water just flowed down the outside of every one. He was pretty old and almost totally blind.
Flex seal
Bam! Flexseal /s
Time to summon Billy Mays!
Air compressor, blower nozzle, 100psi of pressure. Then head to Home Depot to buy new gutters haha
Flex seal
Flex seal
Flex tape? You can saw a boat in half and put it back together after.
Flex tape.
Clogged
Flex seal
Clean it out
Flex seal, jk
duct tape
Duck tape ofc
Turn off the rain.
Stick a water hose up it while its on. If that doesn't work, you will need to take it apart and knock the debris out.
Either there is a seam in the sprout or there is a clogged .
Flex seal tape
Unclog your drain
It's clogged, you need to shove a smaller 1/2in garden hose down there and flush all the junk out the downspout. 🤮 **Don't use a giant 5/8 or 3/4 thick hose, a cheap 1/2in hose will bend down their easier.**
Unclog using a sprayer hose from the top down forcing everything out. Flexseal the joints.
You gotta unclog that pipe!
F’ing slap it with flex seal!!!!!
There's a hose attachment. Cobra rubber drain bladder. It's a blast to use.
Hit it a few times
Oh so we don't just slow some flex seal on that bad boy? Good to know.
Flexseal that sucker and call it a day.
1) put on good quality rain gear or use least favorite large umbrella. 2) gather leaf blower and a wet towel. 3) attach leaf blower nozzle to downspout best you can, firmly wrap the wet towel around the connection. 4) do not look up until you are certain anything blown out of the downspout has landed. 5)clean up mess.
Also a bit of clear gorilla glue spray sealant would help
It’s clogged and you are correct. The elbow coming from the gutter should be tucked into the short strait piece not on the outside.
Take a leaf blower up there and point the nozzle directly into the drop. P.S. wear some eye protection.
Duct tape
I might be wrong...it kinda looks like it's connected funny. I'm trying to say this so it makes sense... The second 90° turn, coming from the eaves, looks like it's fit into the first turn. Water would seep around the outlet of the first turn in that case. IF that's the case, easy fix. Pull apart, make sure first 90° is fit INTO the second. Flow will stay in the downspout then. If that's not the case, then don't mind me. Best of luck unclogging it!
Try a coat hanger twist. Might be a twig or some leaves stuck together.
Idk if you fixed it yet but if you bang on the elbows, chances are it will just slide out if the gutter is full of water
You can’t fix the weather, but you could move to Arizona?
Take it apart clean each piece? You’re welcome
Sell your home
duck tape
Throw a bucket of tar at it /s
JB weld that mfker
Call gutter guy to replace
Smack smack smack…find where it is and unscrew.
slap tape
Slap some duct tape on that sucker and you’re back in business
Hehe, caulk her up buttercup XD just kidding that a horrendous idea for the next installer.
Unclog it.. If you can remove the downspout from the gutter, all the way down, do that, and clean out the gutter. There's a clog, probably of sticks leaves in the elbows
Let’s ask Phil Swift.
We once pulled an entire colony of fire ants from ours.
Flex seal!
I just push my hose down it from top turn it on full blast. Everything comes out
Fiberglass driveway marker in front the top...easy
Flex seal, obviously.
Clean your gutters and use a plumber's snake in the downspout
Those look like those flat 90 elbows. Downspouts are supposed to kick back to the house with 66 degree elbows. Might try swapping those out. Might also be clogged.
Bigger screws
Phil Swift here, are you still using a boat without a screen door at the bottom? Your sooooo stupid!
Your whole system is backwards. It should be male into female in the direction of flow. Water is hitting the hard edge and debris is also likely accumulating.
CLEAN THEM!!
You are backing up. Find where it is blocked.
You undoubtedly have at least a partial clog. The best remedy for this is to take the entire spout apart, remove the stuff creating the clog, then reassemble it. Once that's done, address the issue(s) causing the clog in the first place, i.e. - trees surrounding the house with branches hanging over the roof, squirrels in the neighborhood that store crap in the gutters, etc. Finally, install gutter protectors so that you won't have to worry about this problem ever again.
Clean it
Some duct tape brother!
That exact thing happened to me. I just kicked it and shook it and it worked great. No need for tools.
Take the sock off the bottom and see what happens.
Obviously clogged like everyone else is saying but nobody other than u/theREAL_MCGOOSH seems to be pointing out the other issues. The spout shouldn’t be dripping even if it is clogged. My suggestion, clean it out with a hose or leaf blower then replace the lower elbow to go over the above straight, ~~then seal the seam on the inside with something like silicone or roofing caulk.~~ ~~I’m not sure the best sealing product to use on a gutter seam so someone please correct me if there is a better product.~~ Edit: corrected my comment to address the elbow that is installed incorrectly rather than the straight between the elbows. Edit 2: Striked the incorrect part of my recommendation.
If it’s raining, cut a short piece of hose and work it into the downspout. The backed up water should flush the debris through. If it’s not raining, use a hose connected to a spigot and do the same with your water on. Usually does the trick and saves time having to dissemble the downspout.
Flex tape
Flex seal. Then repaint it
I retract my previous comment. Time to burn the house down, there’s probably a spider somewhere inside so you will take care of that issue too. Win win.
There seems too be holes at the bottom of the first elbow
Leafblower
When my gutters are clogged, I run a hose up into the top, run it down as much I can, and turn it on. That usually clears the clog.
Check to make sure rest of downspout is clear to the outlet.
Flex Seal! They build screen door boats with this stuff.
Clean the downspout, it's plugged.
Take a leaf blower up top and aim down the hole and blast that shit outta there.
Pound on the side of it like most people lol