Gutter Repair and Replacement in Knoxville.

Forty-eight inches of rain has to go somewhere

Knoxville averages roughly 48 inches of precipitation a year. The National Weather Service office in Morristown, which covers Knoxville, notes that across its service area March is the wettest month and October the driest. That is a lot of water arriving in a concentrated season, and every drop of it lands on the roof and then has to be taken somewhere it cannot do damage.

When gutters fail, the roof is rarely what gets ruined first. The damage goes downward and outward:

• Fascia and soffit rot. Water overflowing behind a gutter, or a gutter pulling away under the weight of standing water, soaks the fascia board the gutter is fastened to. Then the fasteners have nothing to hold, and the problem accelerates.
• Foundation water. Overflow dumps a concentrated column of water at the base of the wall instead of carrying it away. That is a far more expensive problem than a gutter.
• Drip edge and roof edge. Water wicking back under the roof edge rots decking from underneath, where nobody sees it until a repair opens it up.
• Ice at the eaves. Standing water in a clogged gutter through a freeze is exactly the wrong thing in exactly the wrong place.

Five inch or six inch, and why it is not cosmetic

The two common K-style sizes are genuinely different tools. A 5-inch K-style gutter holds about 1.2 gallons of water per foot; a 6-inch holds about 2.0 gallons per foot, roughly 40 to 67 percent more. In flow terms, 5-inch K-style typically handles about 5,520 gallons per hour and 6-inch about 7,960. As a rule of thumb, most homes are served by 5-inch for roofs up to roughly 5,500 square feet of adjusted area, with 6-inch covering up to about 7,960.

Which matters because a gutter sized for the roof plan but not for the roof's pitch, valleys and rainfall intensity will overflow in exactly the storms it was installed for. If your gutters run over in heavy rain while looking perfectly clean, undersizing is the first thing to check, not clogging.

Repair or replace

Loose fasteners, a failed seam, a section pulled off its pitch, or a damaged downspout are repairs. Widespread sagging, rusted-through sections, gutters that were undersized from the start, or fascia rot behind the run all point to replacement, because refastening a gutter to rotten wood is not a fix. Gutter repair and replacement is on the service list, and it gets looked at as part of a free roof inspection rather than sold separately.

Call (865) 813-8020 and describe what the water is doing in a heavy rain.