Your gutter’s been dented or bent for one reason or another – maybe you leaned your ladder against it with too much force or a falling tree branch caused the issue. Or maybe a bird has decided to create a nest in your gutter!
I’m focused here on specifically fixing gutters that are bent slightly out (away from the house) or in (towards the house). If you have sagging gutters or if the gutter is pulling away from the house significantly, that is a different story. This is specifically for minor defects that you can likely fix yourself.
How do you know if a bent gutter should be replaced or fixed?
First, take a look when it’s raining, do you notice any leaking occurring due to the bent gutter? How serious is it? Second, do you notice any backups due to the dent slowing down the water flow? Third, if it isn’t causing any problems with the functioning of your gutter, does it just look bad?
Basically, unless the gutter is just a bit bent or dented one way or the other you probably won’t be able to fix it back to being perfectly straight. Also, if it’s serious enough to be causing leaks or backups, it may be too far gone to fix sufficiently.
Can Bent Gutters Be Repaired?
If the dent or bend in the gutter is relatively small and localized, you may be able to repair the bend in the gutter enough that you won’t be able to notice it from the ground. You have a few options using either a rubber mallet, a drill and screws, a form to compress it into shape or a new section of gutter altogether.
But any significantly bent gutters likely will not be able to be repaired completely and will need to be replaced.
It also depends on how perfect you want it to look. If you are a real perfectionist, it may be impossible to fix a dent or bend in a gutter to your liking and may require replacing.
How to Repair and Straighten Bent and Dented Gutters: Step by step
- Get a ladder, grab a pair of work gloves and climb up to the gutter – if you don’t have the right height ladder to comfortably get up to the gutter, you won’t be able to fix it. Follow the guidelines for leaning a ladder against a gutter to be sure you don’t bend it further!
- When you get up there, inspect it closely and see how significant the bend is. If it’s a K-style gutter, has it warped it out of shape or is it a single dent?
- Clean the inside of the gutter so you have a clear view and to make sure no debris gets in the way of your work.
- Identify the type of gutter you have. What material is it made of? Aluminum is very common and can lend itself to bending back since it’s so thin. Otherwise, you might be out of luck.
- Option 1 for a small dent in an aluminum gutter: If it’s aluminum and the dent is small: use a rubber mallet to carefully hit the dent from either the inside or outside — depending on the direction of the dent — until it is evened out.
- It might be helpful to hold a wooden block on the opposite side of where you are hammering to help align the dent and straighten it flush with the rest of the gutter.
- Be sure to hold on to the gutter on the left or right to make sure the force of the hits are only pushing on the dent and not pushing the entire gutter out of whack.
- Option 2 for a larger dent in an aluminum gutter If option 1 fails, you can try something a bit more involved.
- Find a long screw.
- Drill a hole big enough for the screw to go through.
- Put first a washer, then a nut on the inside of the gutter and screw the screw in enough to get a good hold on the nut.
- Then you can pull on the screw from the outside until the gutter dent is fixed.
- Again, be sure to hold on to the gutter to one side or the other to ensure the force is only being applied to the outside of the gutter and the dent and not pulling away the gutter from the house.
- Cover the hole now with aluminum filler or a rivet.
- Then seal the inside so it does not leak.
- Option 3: for a deformed and dented aluminum gutter. Now, I haven’t tried this method before, but it is intriguing and I think you could get a section of gutter back into its original shape. That said, it takes a bunch of time and work – you have to create a form of the gutter using wood blocks which you will then use along with a vise to compress the gutter back into shape. Here is a step by step guide.
- Option 4: Cut out the affected section If all else has failed and you don’t want to call a professional, cut out or remove the section of gutter that is damaged and replace completely with a new section of gutter. The steps for that whole process are outside the scope of this article.
