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Looking for some help on how to fix my roof draining improperly at the corners of my home.

To my eye, it appears that drip guard is not installed properly on the corner. The paint is starting to bubble up because there's water behind it. I tried looking around for drip guard installation tutorials, but most I've found are for the front edges of the house behind the gutters, not showing the specific corner situation I'm trying to fix.

I've linked a few pictures below, in the head-on view picture you can see that there's a significant gap between the drip guard and the edge of the gutter, leaving the compromised board exposed to the elements. Do I simply need to bridge this gap with more drip guard/flashing material?

Pictures

Paint bubbling: enter image description here

Front View: enter image description here

Head-on View: enter image description here

Same problem on the rear corner of the house enter image description here

Top view 1: enter image description here

Top view 2: enter image description here

Any and all advice is welcome, I'm a new homeowner and feeling a bit out of my depth. Thanks!

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  • Are you able to provide a picture from the top view of the roof?
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:09
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    The fact that the fascia extends beyond the gutter like that is very confusing. It's draining as best as it can, I would argue that your roof was built wrong before admitting that it's draining improperly.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:10
  • I agree, there are many confusing aspects to this house. The previous owners fancied themselves DIYers but really loved cutting corners too. Here's some better pics from the top. Top view 1 Top view 2
    – joshru
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:22
  • I think I just need to cap off that gap and maybe seal it with caulk?
    – joshru
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:24
  • Fun, welcome to home ownership! We bought a 1940 house a few years back and anything that is original to the home is rock-solid but anything DIY'd is falling apart shortly after we bought the house :-/
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:42

2 Answers 2

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I agree with your assessment that these corners are getting wet, and it is because they are improperly formed. As commenter suggested, the gutter typically goes all the way to the roof edge, as in this picture (crudely edited from what you posted). This would require cutting the extra-long fascia shown in red.

enter image description here

Alternatively - much easier, but kind of a stop-gap measure you can use "in the meantime" while you prepare to cut fascias/extend gutters - you can at least stop the water from getting in here using another piece of aluminum flashing that extends from under the shingles to over the end of the fascia. The key here is to route the water from the roof around the top of the fascia where it has been sitting long enough to seep under the paint. Note that even with this measure, you'll need to properly address this soon because the fascia wood has already started to rot.

enter image description here

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  • I agree- that fascia board shouldn't exist, it's just going to (already is) cause trouble. But if you don't want to take it out, protecting it with some flashing and caulk is a good work-around.
    – Jamie M
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 18:39
  • Thanks Fredric. I think I'll try with the second solution for now and keep a close eye on it. In the future I plan on having gutter guards installed (tons of leafy trees around) and I imagine I'll probably have to replace the gutters entirely when I do that. When that time comes I will trim the fascia boards and have the gutters extended to the edge of the roof. The fascia board still feels very solid to the touch so hopefully I can fix it up well enough to save the board.
    – joshru
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 19:04
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To do it properly you should cut away like so and fix up the drip-edge afterwards:

enter image description here

As long as you install a proper drip-edge then I don't think you need to worry about extending the gutter.

Regular caulk does not weather very well outdoors unless you get 100% paintable silicone (about $8 per tube).

If you do not have the resources to cut it away I would personally recommend waterproofing it with some sort of roofing cement such as:

Through the roof!

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