As part of my family visit, I am always repairing my sister’s house. First was the motion sensor light repair, and now on to the rain gutter repair.

The hanger bracket and nail. Screws work better.

Her rain gutters were starting to pull away from the house, so I climbed up to find the gutter hangers had been nailed in instead of screwed in, and the nails were now pulling out of the wood behind the gutters.

Be careful on the ladder, don't over-reach.

I picked up some rain gutter screws ( more like lag bolts, actually ) that I used on my own house. Once you put these in, the gutter doesn’t come off, unless the wood behind it does. The plastic sleeve keeps the screw from compressing the rain gutter.

These screws work well

With these gutter screws, I’ve found it best to drill a pilot hole in the front lip of the rain gutter. Then I use a powerful cordless drill or a corded drill to sink in the screws. You have to put some weight behind this, so make sure the ladder is secure, and don’t over-reach, you’ll fall off the ladder – a bad thing.

Be sure to position the spacer in the gutter before screwing in the screws.