I Cleared My Gutters Twice in One Month – Then I Looked Up

I’d just spent two hours on a ladder the week before, scooping handfuls of soggy leaves and gunk out of my gutters. My back still remembered it.

So when the next storm rolled through and I watched water pour over the edge like a miniature waterfall, I was more confused than annoyed.

The gutters were clean. I’d made sure of it. Every section, end to end, nothing but smooth aluminum and a few stubborn shingle grit deposits I couldn’t scrape out without a wire brush.

Yet here I was, watching rainwater cascade straight over the front lip instead of disappearing into the downspout like it was supposed to.

I grabbed the ladder again. This time I wasn’t looking for leaves—I was looking for whatever I’d missed the first time.

The trough itself? Still clean. No blockages, no sagging sections, no obvious problem at all.

But the water had to be going somewhere wrong. Or more accurately, it wasn’t going somewhere it should have been.

That’s when I stopped looking down into the gutter and started looking at what the gutter connects to.