Hi Folks, I ran across this one today and had never seen anything like it. The gutters of the home were covered with a rubber roofing membrane and had just small holes cut in it to let water into the downspout. In effect, I couldn’t see any of the gutter itself. On the outside was wood trim, but basically, no aluminum, metal, or other gutter material was visible. In the photos below, you’ll see the membrane covering the gutter, one photo shows the hole in the membrane and you can see the downspout below. The home is from 1918 and we’ve had a moderate amount of recent rain with the ground showing no evidence of spillover from the gutters. Any ideas? Thanks!
Maybe just got tired of cleaning out the gutters? Not seen anything like that either.
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See them all the time. Lots of water related damage with them because home owners don’t maintain them. Search “yankee gutters”
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The checkbox report template I started with years ago had a box under “Gutters” that said, “Integral with Roof” which is basically what you have pictured. I see things like this fairly frequently… usually, on 50s/60s era construction, usually with low-slope roofs.
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Report. It can trap debris as well as put undue stress on the membrane seeing there is no sheathing below.
Those look really shallow… up here (Vancouver, Canada) we see lots of them but much deeper given the amount of rain we get. Many on newer construction and they are sheathed and supported. They’re called ‘hidden gutters’ with EPDM rubber. Some have a lot of problems due to improper slope (like any gutter) or wrinkles and poor adhesion at seams or downspouts. Lots of sloppy workmanship during install.
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Never seen that type of flashing atop open gutters in my neck of the woods, Joe. I concur with your hypotheses. ‘improper slope (like any gutter) or wrinkles and poor adhesion at seams or gutters.’ This is a problem waiting to happen.
Refer to a licensed gutter installer for immediate correction.
Thanks to everyone for their replies. I called this out (of course) and recommended repairs with the caveat that the guttering system itself was not visible.
Although rubber membranes can be used in to line box gutters, that’s an incorrect repair for these box gutters, I see it a few times a year in my area.