Eavestrough Services Services in Toronto

Why this is really about where the water goes

An eavestrough exists to move roof water away from the building. Everything that goes wrong with one is a failure of that, and the failure people notice — water coming over the edge — is rarely the one that costs money.

The expensive one is the downspout. A single downspout on a Toronto house puts thousands of litres a year at one point on the ground. If it discharges at the wall rather than a couple of metres clear, that water goes into the soil against the foundation, and in a climate that freezes and thaws all winter, saturated soil against a wall is how a crack begins. Most damp basements on this list of symptoms are a downspout, not a foundation.

The second thing is slope. A trough that holds water after the rain has stopped is not leaking — it is level, usually because a hanger has worked loose or the fascia behind it has softened. Sealing a joint on a level run fixes nothing, and in winter the standing water freezes and its weight pulls the next hanger out. Resloping is a different job and it is the right one.

So the useful first call is somebody who looks at the whole path — trough, outlet, downspout, and where the water lands — rather than only the part that is visibly overflowing. Often the answer is a clearing and an extension, which is the cheapest end of this trade.