How & why rain gets behind the gutter
I’m sure you’ve asked yourself how could this possibly happen? After paying all that money to have new gutters professionally installed, why is the water running behind them? You did you due diligence to hire a professional for the job and expected a worry free installation. I can only imagine that would leave a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach. The bigger problem is trying to get the contractor to come back and make it right after you have paid them your hard earned money.
From my early child hood, I remember traveling with my Dad in his Chevy van to buy his first gutter machine. Since then I continued to work by his side in our family business. From humble beginnings, we have grown into a well respected industry leader in the manufacturing of a variety of rainwear and other exterior building products.
I am also a very well known technician in the rainwear industry for sales and service of seamless gutter machines. In my spare time, I still continue to do installations for local contractors and home owners. I guess you could say it’s in my blood.
Whether your gutters are new or old Drip Strip is an inexpensive way to fix your problem permanently.
What causes water to run behind my gutter?
There are a few elements that come into play that cause water to run behind the gutter. The first cause is when the roofing material is installed, many roofers will not extend the roofing material past the roof edging or drip edge. In some instances, by no fault of the roofing contractors, they are in compliance with the manufacturer’s recommended installation specifications.
The other element is if the gutter is not installed behind the drip edge it creates an air gap between the top of the gutter and the bottom of the drip edge which allows a place for the water to go. Being a manufacturer of roof edgings and an installer of gutters, I know first hand it’s not always possible to get the gutter behind the drip edge and have it drain properly.
How does the water get there?
Water is funny stuff and you would probably never consider water to be sticky, but it is. Capillary action is when the molecules in a liquid have a greater attraction to the surface of a solid than they do to each other while traveling along that surface. Therefore, when the water goes over the edge of your roof it will stay attracted to the surface of the drip edge and run behind the gutter. Drip Strip is designed to fill the gap between the bottom of the drip edge and the top of the gutter to insure the water will flow into the gutter preventing any damage to your fascia or other parts of your home or landscaping.