# Just had gutters installed...should I complain about this?



## qwiksilvertrav (Sep 10, 2015)

Just had some gutters installed by Home Depot (well a company hired by Home Depot). I just took a closer look at everything and noticed a lot of the gutters do NOT sit flush with the fascia at all. There's about a 1 inch gab in a lot of areas and I can see the underlying deck wood through the gab etc. Is this acceptable or is it uncommon?
Here's some pictures:

Here you can see some of the existing fascia covering is bent. The middle seam at the corner leaks (well just drips but still). And then you have the 1 inch gap.




Just a different angle. If you look close you can see screws going through to the fascia...barely drilled into it.





This is the other side of the house. Same deal. Big 1 inch gap. 





This is the back side of the house. Most of the gutter is flush on this side except for this end.




My main concern is pests and also the underlying deck wood being exposed. Would I be crazy to call and complain? They've already been out a second time to fix some leaks I noticed...then the guy just completely rerouted the drain saying that was why it was leaking (made zero sense to me). 

Any advice would be great!


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## oldognewtrick (Sep 10, 2015)

I would call and complain. Not a very good installation if you ask me. If the rafter tails are cut so the ends are completely verticle on the fascia, the bottom of the gutter should be tight against the fascia.


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## havasu (Sep 10, 2015)

Yep, pretty sloppy work if you ask me.


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## nealtw (Sep 11, 2015)

Did you have the same kind of gutters before they replaced them? If you did, did they fit better?


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## beachguy005 (Sep 11, 2015)

I think you need to view them from above because the gutter needs to be under the drip edge and along the roof.  When you view them from below your perspective is based on how the soffit is aligned with gutter and not how the gutter is aligned with the roof edge.


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## oldognewtrick (Sep 11, 2015)

Looking at the pic of the inside corner, it appears the one run was cut to short. 

A view from the top would help, what happens when it rains. Notice any drip between the gutter and fascia?


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## qwiksilvertrav (Sep 11, 2015)

nealtw said:


> Did you have the same kind of gutters before they replaced them? If you did, did they fit better?



The gutters prior were all flush with the fascia. 

The gutter ARE properly aligned with the roof though and function. But I'm sure there's a way to maintain this while having it flush with the fascia. I called Home Depot about it already. We will see.


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## nealtw (Sep 11, 2015)

qwiksilvertrav said:


> The gutters prior were all flush with the fascia.
> 
> The gutter ARE properly aligned with the roof though and function. But I'm sure there's a way to maintain this while having it flush with the fascia. I called Home Depot about it already. We will see.



I agree it looks awfull but we can't see what he had to deal with, but id there were issues that should have been fixed, he should have discussed that wih you before starting.


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## qwiksilvertrav (Sep 21, 2015)

Well Home Depot called back and told me the installer had come out to take a look and said that the gutters are all perfectly straight where the fascia in that location is not and that there's nothing he could do. 
Whats weird is this was not an issue with the prior gutters installed! My main two issues are critters (BATS) getting up in there and into my roof and also the gutters not holding weight of any ice dams in these locations.


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## nealtw (Sep 21, 2015)

So do you still have the old or did he haul them away. If you have them you could measure them and see if he made mistakes there.
The only other thing you could do is find another gutter company to come out and give you a written report, you will have to pay for that.


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## oldognewtrick (Sep 21, 2015)

Call Home Depot and have them come  out and tell you everything's fine. Ask the HD rep if he would accept that installation on their house.


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## chrisn (Sep 22, 2015)

qwiksilvertrav said:


> The gutters prior were all flush with the fascia.
> 
> The gutter ARE properly aligned with the roof though and function. But I'm sure there's a way to maintain this while having it flush with the fascia. I called Home Depot about it already. We will see.[/QUOTE]
> 
> Good luck with that:banana:


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## beachguy005 (Sep 22, 2015)

Unfortunately, I think this is a case of having a brand new fender installed on an old beat up rusty truck and complaining that something's wrong because it doesn't look like like the rest of the truck.


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## oldognewtrick (Sep 22, 2015)

beachguy005 said:


> Unfortunately, I think this is a case of having a brand new fender installed on an old beat up rusty truck and complaining that something's wrong because it doesn't look like like the rest of the truck.



Well, complaining about shoddy workmanship isn't putting a new fender on a old truck. You can clearly see where the runs were cut short on some and long on another. Age of the house shouldn't matter, what does matter is a company was retained to preform a service and the customer wasn't satisfied with the results. IF it wasn't possible to install the gutters and have a good end result, the customer should have been notified before or during the process. 

I work for a roofing company, if we have an issue during install we make the homeowner aware before the project completes. It makes life a lot easier to keep them in the loop.

I've been on a lot of houses and seen a lot of gutter installs, this one looks like the third grade class did it. Sorry.


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## beachguy005 (Sep 22, 2015)

I don't think he's complaining about shoddy workmanship, but about the alignment of what appear to be properly installed new gutters to the fascia.  The fascia boards on my house are not plumb, the pitch in toward the house about 5 degrees.  When I had a gutter installed along the front, if they installed it flush with the fascia, it would of tilted the gutter down 5 degrees, rather than being level.
I don't know about the OP's, but it may well be that the gutters he had up before were not installed properly.


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## qwiksilvertrav (Dec 31, 2015)

Ok well I had called and requested a different contractor come to take a look. I talked to him over the phone and he confirmed there were some problems with the install. He said he would talk to the project manager and have him get back to me. Well it's been a good 2 - 3 months and he FINALLY called me back! I mean really?

The manager at HD then stated that my fascia boards are rotten and that's why they couldn't install the gutters flush the fascia! The fascia is wrapped and has been wrapped...no idea how they got to this conclusion without even removing the wrap to take a look. And it's amazing how it took this long for the installer to relay this message to me. I think they're full of crap!
Now I have ice damn building up a little and you can see the gapped parts of the gutter starting to flex and sag a little. '

I can take some more pics...but if you're looking at the back of the house along the entire roof edge the center section of the gutters are flush to the facia while the ends come out and are gapped about 1 inch. Those sections are now sagging a little and are out of place. 

So now what should I do?? I should get a regional manager involved in this I'm thinking.


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## oldognewtrick (Dec 31, 2015)

qwiksilvertrav said:


> So now what should I do?? I should get a regional manager involved in this I'm thinking.



Yes, go to the next level, if the fascia was bad, they should have notified you and stopped the install until there bad wood was replaced. That excuse would be totally unacceptable in my opinion.


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## nealtw (Dec 31, 2015)

It is crap, if there was a prblem stopping them from doing a quality job they should have stopped and insisted you had that fixed before they continue. He likely looked at the job before a price was quoted so it is all on the contractor and HD. If you have a better business bureau, I would start there.
BTW, those are the worsrt diy corners you can find.
He could have spent a few minutes on line and learned how to do gutters
..[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQgClD3n1Y[/ame]


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## oldognewtrick (Dec 31, 2015)

Those corners are used by folks who don't know how to cut a miter Neal.


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## nealtw (Dec 31, 2015)

oldognewtrick said:


> Those corners are used by folks who don't know how to cut a miter Neal.



but he paid for a pro.


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## nealtw (Dec 31, 2015)

Home Depot asked us about some work a few years, they only thing they asked about was if we were covered by WCB. Actual experience and qualifications didn't seem to matter.


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## qwiksilvertrav (Dec 31, 2015)

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to call and see if I can't talk to someone higher up. BTW the manager I'm dealing with sounds like he has zero experience in all of this. ugh


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## nealtw (Dec 31, 2015)

I have had success at HD by going to ther service counter when the store was busy and I talked loud enough for half the store to hear the details of the problem. After asking each of five or six people who there boss was I findly was given a phone to talk to some problem solver in some head office somewhere and the problem was solved.


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## qwiksilvertrav (Dec 31, 2015)

nealtw said:


> I have had success at HD by going to ther service counter when the store was busy and I talked loud enough for half the store to hear the details of the problem. After asking each of five or six people who there boss was I findly was given a phone to talk to some problem solver in some head office somewhere and the problem was solved.


 
Ok thanks! I just sent an email and linked this thread. I also asked to not have the project manager call me back since (1. He takes forever to call back and I can never get ahold of him and (2. he's done next to nothing to help me resolve this so far. 
I requested a RM to take the case so hopefully we can get somewhere. 

I looked and I currently have ice damns (not very big...1/2 inch at most) and the gapped sections of all the gutters are sagging and flexing in those spots!!!


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## nealtw (Dec 31, 2015)

Ice dam would likely be another different problem unless you are talking about isicles between the gutter and the house.


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## qwiksilvertrav (Dec 31, 2015)

nealtw said:


> Ice dam would likely be another different problem unless you are talking about isicles between the gutter and the house.


 
Yeah we have heat escaping through the roof causing them...but I'm surprised that only a 1/4 inch of ice damn is already showing the bad install! My prior gutters had a good 4 inches of ice them on them with showing no give. Which again leads me to believe the fascia isn't rotten. If it was I would've seen some major problems with my prior gutters.


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## oldognewtrick (Dec 31, 2015)

nealtw said:


> but he paid for a pro.



And now you know why the big box stores are not the best place to get pro results. Unqualified installers, no supervision and no one to respond when there is an issue. There will be issues, everyone has them once in a while, we're only human.


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## Guttersmiths (Mar 19, 2016)

I know this thread is old, but just joined and figured I would chime in. It's hard to see from the photos but it looks like the fascia is angled. If it is there would be a gap on the bottom. I can't tell from the photos if roof straps were used to fasten the gutter to the home, but it looks like they may have been. If they fastened through the fascia board and didn't use roof straps, they need to have an angled fascia gutter wedge installed ery 24" or so to help prop out the bottom of the gutter. If they used roof straps, they wouldn't need the wedges. 

Regarding the ice dams, even when properly installed, gutters installed to angled fascia may sag a little under the weight of ice dams. It depends how big the ice dams are. 

The inside miters are called strip miters. They are an acceptable way of doing inside miters and not a "DIY" method. The Youtube of handcut miters is awesome, but it isn't industry standard. Not even close to industry. It probably varies from region to region, but the most common ways for well-established professional gutter contractors to handle miters is by using box miters or strip miters, not hand cutting. That being said, they shouldn't leak!

Leaky miters is the first red flag. The other red flag for me is where the downspout meets the gutter. It looks like they just cut flaps in the bottom of the gutter instead of installing an actual outlet. Some guys do this, but the better installers install an actual outlet (funnels water directly into the downspout). 

So, assuming the fascia is angled, find out if they used roof straps. If they didn't, and fastened the gutters using fascia mount hangers, there needs to be wedges in the gap there to prop out the bottom of the gutter and prevent it from swinging in under the weight of ice dams. 

Lastly (sorry long post), if you are concerned about the aesthetics of having a gap there or wasps creating nests, a sider can bend up some aluminum trim coil to close that gap. Hope this helps!

And, yes, avoid HD for hiring contractors. Blech


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## Guttersmiths (Mar 19, 2016)

See photo for how we install our outlets. I'll try to grab a photo example of aluminum trim covering the gap. We just had that done on a site last year.


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