Gutters, Downspouts and Guards
Water has to get off the roof and away from the house. Seamless, copper and half-round gutters, sized right.
- Seamless 5 inch and oversized 6 inch gutters
- Copper and half-round for older homes
- Gutter guards that actually stay clear
- Fascia and soffit repair behind the gutter
Gutters are part of the roof system. When water cannot get away from the house, it backs up under the shingle edge, runs down the wall, or ends up in the basement.
Signs you may need this
- Water pouring over the edge in a rainstorm
- Plants or grit growing out of the gutter
- A gutter sagging or pulling away from the house
- Stains streaking down the outside wall
- Water pooling near the foundation after rain
How the visit goes
1. Watch where the water goes
Overflow in one spot usually means a clog, a sag or too small a downspout. Overflow everywhere means a different problem.
2. Check the hangers and the pitch
Gutters have to tip toward the downspout. Loose hangers and flat runs hold water and pull away.
3. Check the roof edge
The drip edge and the first row of shingles is where backed-up water gets into the wood. Rotted fascia shows up here.
4. Check the ground end
A downspout that dumps against the foundation causes basement problems that look like plumbing problems.
What changes the price
We do not post prices, because a roof nobody has looked at cannot be priced. These are the things that make the job bigger or smaller.
- • How many feet of gutter and how many downspouts
- • House height and access
- • Whether the wood behind the gutter is rotted
- • Gutter size and material
- • Guards or covers, if you want them
Questions homeowners ask
- Do gutter guards work?
- They cut down on cleaning. None of them make a gutter maintenance-free, and a guard over a sagging gutter does not fix the sag.
- Can gutters cause a roof leak?
- They can cause water to back up at the roof edge, which rots the wood there. That shows up as a stain near an outside wall.
- Should I repair or replace?
- One bad section can be repaired. Gutters that sag in several places, or that are the wrong size for the roof, are usually better replaced.
- How often should they be cleaned?
- Depends on your trees. Under big trees, twice a year is common. With no trees nearby, once is usually enough.
Straight talk: Gutter work sometimes uncovers rotted fascia or roof edge wood that could not be seen from the ground. That gets shown to you in photos before it is repaired.