Gutter Cleaning & Repair
Clear clogs and repair leaks, sags, and loose sections so your gutters protect your roof, siding, and foundation.
Keep water flowing away from your home.
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In depth
Gutter Installation: Small System, Big Job
Of all the systems protecting your home, gutters may be the least appreciated relative to how much they do. They don't look like much — a length of metal along the roofline — but their job is to manage the enormous volume of water that runs off a roof during every rainstorm and send it somewhere harmless. Done right, they quietly protect your siding, windows, and, above all, your foundation, year after year. Done poorly or left to fail, they let water attack the most expensive parts of your home. Understanding what makes a gutter installation actually work helps you get that protection.
What Gutters Really Protect
It's worth being specific about the stakes, because they're higher than most homeowners realize. A roof sheds thousands of gallons of water in a heavy storm. Without functioning gutters, that water sheets off the edges and lands right beside your home, where it can:
- Erode the soil around and under your foundation, leading to settlement and cracks.
- Seep into basements and crawl spaces, causing moisture, mold, and structural issues.
- Splash back onto siding, windows, and trim, causing rot and staining.
- Wash out landscaping and create pooling near the house.
The foundation is the big one. Water pooling against and under a foundation is among the costliest problems a home can develop, and gutters are the first line of defense against it. That's the lens to view gutter installation through: it's foundation protection that happens to run along your roof.
Seamless vs. Sectional Gutters
The most significant choice in modern gutter installation is seamless versus sectional. Sectional gutters come in pre-cut lengths joined together along each run, and every one of those joints is a potential leak point that can loosen and separate over time. Seamless gutters are custom-formed on-site from a continuous coil to match your home's exact runs, with joints only at corners and downspouts. Far fewer seams means far fewer places to leak, which is why seamless has become the preferred choice for durability and low maintenance. It requires professional fabrication, but the longer-lasting, cleaner result is generally worth it.
Getting the Details Right: Sizing, Pitch, and Downspouts
Here's what separates a gutter installation that protects a home from one that merely decorates it: the details that aren't visible at a glance.
Sizing matters because gutters have to handle your roof's actual runoff volume. Undersized gutters overflow in heavy rain, defeating their purpose exactly when you need them. Pitch — the subtle slope toward the downspouts — must be correct so water flows out rather than pooling and sagging the gutter. And downspout placement is the detail homeowners most often overlook: even flawless gutters accomplish nothing if the downspouts discharge water right against the foundation. Proper installation positions downspouts strategically and adds extensions or drainage to carry water several feet away from the house, where it can't do harm. When you evaluate an installer, their attention to these details is what tells you they understand the job.
Choosing a Material
Gutters come in several materials, each with its strengths. Aluminum is the popular default — durable, rust-resistant, lightweight, and affordable, available in many colors. Steel is stronger and stands up better to heavy snow loads and falling debris. Copper is a premium option, exceptionally long-lasting and prized for its distinctive appearance that weathers to a patina. The right material balances your climate, budget, and the look you want. For most homes, aluminum offers the best mix of value and performance, but heavy-snow regions and higher-end homes may justify stepping up.
The Gutter Guard Decision
Gutter guards — covers that keep leaves and debris out while letting water in — are an optional add-on worth considering, especially if your home is surrounded by trees. They meaningfully reduce how often gutters need cleaning, which is both a convenience and a safety benefit given that gutter cleaning involves ladders. They do add upfront cost, so the calculation is whether the reduced maintenance justifies it for your situation. On heavily wooded lots, many homeowners find they pay off; on a home with few nearby trees, the case is weaker.
Repair or Replace?
If you already have gutters, you may be weighing new installation against fixing what you have. Isolated problems — a single clog, a small leak, one loose section — are usually repairs. But widespread sagging, rust or cracks throughout, joints that keep failing, and gutters pulling away from the fascia point toward replacement. When old gutters are failing in multiple places, new seamless gutters typically deliver better value than chasing repairs around a worn-out system. And whenever gutters are removed, it's the ideal moment to check the fascia board behind them for rot, since new gutters need sound wood to mount to.
Part of a Bigger Water-Management Picture
Gutters don't work in isolation. They're one piece of how your home manages water, alongside your roof and your foundation drainage. A thoughtful approach considers all of it together — gutters that capture roof runoff, downspouts and grading that carry it away, and a sound roof shedding water into the gutters in the first place. Viewing gutter installation as part of whole-home water management, rather than a standalone cosmetic upgrade, is what delivers real, lasting protection.
What Gutter Installation Costs and How Long It Takes
Gutter pricing runs by the linear foot and moves with four variables: material (aluminum is the value benchmark; copper and steel command premiums), home height and roofline complexity (second-story and steep-pitch work takes longer and requires more safety setup), the number of downspouts and corners (each miter and outlet is fabrication work), and extras like oversized six-inch gutters or guard systems. A typical single-family installation is a one-day job — seamless gutters are extruded on site from coil stock to your exact measurements, which is why the crew's truck matters more than a warehouse. When comparing quotes, make sure each includes tear-off and disposal of old gutters, the same gauge of metal, hidden hangers with specified spacing, and sealed or welded corners — a low bid that's thinner metal on wider hanger spacing isn't the same product.
Mistakes to Avoid With New Gutters
The most consequential mistake happens before installation: replacing gutters right before a roof replacement, then paying to have the new gutters worked around or damaged during tear-off — if a new roof is on the horizon, sequence the roof first. Others: letting downspouts dump at the foundation instead of extending them well away (the shortcut that keeps basement waterproofing contractors busy), under-sizing gutters beneath large or steep roof planes, skipping splash management where an upper roof drains onto a lower one, and buying premium guards for a house surrounded by pine needles they can't handle. After installation, the system still needs occasional attention — an annual check keeps seams, hangers, and outlets doing their job, and professional cleaning and repair remains the cheap habit that protects the expensive parts of your house.
