Leaking Gutter? The Roof Causes Most People Miss

This is a genuine pattern rather than a sales pitch: a customer has their gutters cleared, the overflow stops for a few weeks, then it comes back. The gutter is working fine. The water is just arriving faster than a cleared gutter can handle.

Roof Causes Of Gutter Overflow

• Moss shedding — a mossy roof sheds constantly into the gutter, and it re-blocks within weeks of a clear. This is the single most common cause in Medway
• Broken tiles above the gutter, letting water bypass the roof channel entirely
• Failed flashing sending water down the fascia rather than into the gutter
• A missing or crumbling verge, where water pours off the gable end

Gutter Causes

• Blocked downpipe — the gutter fills faster than it can drain
• Undersized guttering for the roof area it serves
• Sagging, so water sits instead of flowing
• Failed joints weeping where sealant has perished

How To Tell Which It Is

Look at what's coming down. Water running over the front edge of the gutter with the gutter itself clear? That's volume — the roof is delivering more than it can take. Water pooling at a joint or in a low spot? That's the gutter. Water running down the brickwork behind the gutter? That's fascia, and usually a roof or verge problem above.

Why It Matters

Clearing a gutter is cheap, and worth doing. But if you're clearing the same gutter three times a year, the money is better spent on the cause — treating the moss, fixing the tiles, or repairing the verge. It's the difference between a maintenance loop and a fix.

We work on both the guttering and the roof above it, so you get one honest answer on which is at fault. Free inspection either way.