Bent gutters are a serious issue. Like a clogged gutter a bent gutter fails to do its job. That job is redirecting water run from the roof away from the drip edge and away from your home, preferably to a drain. There are a lot of steps you can take besides replacing or repairing your bent aluminum gutter that will protect your home even better. The general dangers of a gutter leak are simple. Water in your attic or leaking into your foundation is bad. The gutter is there to stop that from happening. The foundation and the attic are the two most important parts of your home. The foundation holds your home up and your attic controls its temperature. If one or both of these structures are damaged, even just a little bit they will cease to be effective. One crack in your foundation and your basement will flood. One splash of water into your attic will ruin your insulation, soaking just a few feet of insulation is enough to cause erratic changes of temperature in your home. Protecting these places if of the utmost importance and the best and only way to protect them both is with a highly effective gutter system. Your gutters are not just a rain catcher to keep you from being splashed by the roof. They are a sophisticated structure on your home that will prevent damage and allow your home to go on much longer without the need for renovations or remediation of the attic. This is why getting a professional to construct a structurally sound and effective gutter system on your home is so important.
Fixing a bent aluminum gutter back into place is not easy. You will need very thick gloves and aluminum gutters are fabricated in a press and often have sharp ends you can cut your hand on. Another reason a professional is a better option. You will have to over bend it in order to get it back into place. That means bending it to the point that it is off kilter on the other side. When you let go it should spring back to the center. This also depends on the age of the gutter. Most metal gutters now are treated with electro-plated water and rust-resistant metals like zink. However, electroplating is only one atom thick and while it lasts quite a while your gutters will start to rust. When that happens you can no longer repair them as welding aluminum is impoosible without specialized tools. You cannot use an oxy-asetaline torch to weld aluuminum, it will simply melt into a mercurial liquid. Pathing them with silicone does work but is only a temporary solution. The best thing to do when you have a broken and rusted aluminum gutter is to take it down and send it to a recycling plant where they can melt it remove the rust and repurpose it. Then get a nice vinyl gutter that will last for decades, won’t bend or distort over time and will keep the water flowing in the right direction.