How to fix water missing gutter?

Question

When it rains, water from the second floor downspout misses the first floor gutter on the right side and comes down the siding (as shown below). You can see the evidence (vegetation) growing to the side of the lower gutter. What is the best way to fix this?

Answer 1

In my area (Ohio), companies extend the downspout horizontally down the roof and INTO the lower gutter. They claim it reduces erosion of the shingles but also prevent said issue from happening at the lower gutter.

Answer 2

I expect to get a lot of flack for this answer, but here goes.

Remove the 2nd floor gutter.

Often gutters can cause damage to the roof deck, soffiting and facia from rain water that gets backed up and seeps into the wood.
( if your structures are not wood, great, nevermind)

2nd floor gutters are difficult and dangerous to clean. As a result the damage mentioned above occurs.

Finally , If you must keep them, try getting an elbow that send the water out of the downspout 90 degrees to the left of what you have. The rain then will disperse across the roof before entering the lower gutter.

Answer 3

Depending on the roof area that the upper one is draining, you may have to run that downspout all the way to the ground, rather than dumping it on the lower roof.

You can try just redirecting it out onto the roof, rather than running along the wall, so it can spread out and slow down a bit before hitting the lower gutter. It might not work, or it might.

Answer 4

When my house was re-roofed a few years back the roofers solved this exact type of issue by installing a water flow diverter flashing just above the rain gutter.

I have made a crude picture of how that may be applied to your roof area.

To be properly installed the flashing needs to extend up under the shingle runs above the exposed part. It also needs to be extended up the side wall behind the siding. In your case the J channel where your siding terminates along the roof edge makes the installation of the diverter flashing a bit tricky.

The diverter flashing on my roof was somewhat simpler because it is just behind the siding which is cedar on my house without a J Channel like yours. If I recall the piece was made of galvanized sheet metal that was soldered where it folded back on itself and then spray painted to a color that closely matched the roofing materials.

Answer 5

Extend and/or move the second floor downspout so that it does not feed onto the first floor roof This may require re-hanging the second floor gutter to be low in a different spot.

At a minimum extend it across to the first floor downspout, and either discharge into the first floor gutter or into the side of the first floor downpipe.

Draining a gutter onto a roof is really only acceptable when the top gutter only catches a small amount of rain (eg: dormer windows), and even then a spreader pipe should be used so that the flow from the gutter does not cause excessive erosion

Answer 6

The elbow on the top downspout that turns out onto the roof is called a be elbow, you need an a elbow so that the water kicks out under the roof more and fans out as it trickles down. And then you would put a diverter where the water is coming off your shingles right now, I think I saw a picture of what it looks like drawn in one of the last comments. It's just a piece of metal cut and angled toward the length of the gutter to help divert the water away from that endcap. Changing the elbow out will pretty much take care of it waterworks of centripetal force and waters is static it sticks together and forms of shading action what goes over pause the rest over with it as seen in the leaf guard commercials with the rounded cover.

Answer 7

This is quite common down-under.

From Attainable Sustenable

This one has been hand drilled but apparently one can purchase "Multi-hole perforated PVC pipe" for drainage. But you really need larger holes.

From PVC Plastic Perforated Pipe

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The way its used is to glue a section at right angle (with no cap) or at an acute angle with a cap at the end. The water is then spread across the roof.