Gutters & Gutter Guards — every city we serve

A gutter system is not trim. It is the drainage system that decides where several thousand gallons of roof runoff go every year. An inch of rain on a 2,000 square foot roof puts roughly 1,200 gallons over the edge, and a gutter's whole job is to move that water away from the one place it does the most damage — the ground against your foundation.

When the system fails, the damage shows up everywhere except the gutter: water pooling against the foundation and finding its way into the basement, eroded landscaping and mulch washed into the yard, rotted fascia and soffit, saturated siding, peeling paint, split driveways and walkways from freeze-thaw, ice dams at the eaves in winter, and a wet crawlspace that turns into a mold and insect problem. Gutters are one of the cheapest things on a house to maintain and one of the most expensive to ignore.

Seamless gutters are formed on site from a continuous coil, cut to the exact length of each run, so the only joints in the system are at corners, end caps and outlets. Sectional gutters are pre-cut lengths from a big-box store joined every ten feet with a sealed connector.

Every seam is a future leak. Sealant at a joint has a service life measured in a few years; the metal has a service life measured in decades. That is the whole argument, and it is why we install seamless: fewer joints, fewer failure points, a cleaner line on the fascia, and no staining streaks running down the siding under every connector.

5-inch K-style is the standard residential gutter and it handles most homes with typical roof area and pitch. 6-inch K-style moves roughly 40 percent more water and pairs with 3x4 downspouts instead of 2x3.

Bigger is not automatically better, but 6-inch is the right call on: large or steep roofs that dump water fast, long runs with few downspouts, roofs with big valleys that concentrate flow into one section of gutter, and homes that have overflowed a 5-inch system before. Undersized gutters overflow in exactly the storms that matter, and overflow at the eave is what rots fascia. We size the system to the roof area and pitch draining into it rather than defaulting to whatever is on the truck.

Aluminum is the standard for good reason: it will not rust, it is light, it comes in a wide range of baked-on factory colors, and .032 gauge aluminum — heavier than the .027 commonly installed — holds its shape against ladders, ice and debris. Galvanized steel is stronger on impact and a fit for commercial work or homes with heavy tree load, but it will eventually rust at cut edges and scratches. Copper is the premium option: it lasts generations, needs no paint, and develops the patina people install it for — appropriate on historic homes and worth the cost only where the look matters.

Color is baked on at the mill rather than painted on site, so it does not peel, and it is matched to fascia, trim or roof depending on whether you want the gutter to disappear or to read as a line.

The gutter is only half the system. Downspouts move the water down, and their placement and count are what keep a gutter from overflowing. General practice is a downspout for roughly every 30 to 40 feet of run, more where valleys concentrate flow, and 2x3 on 5-inch systems or 3x4 on 6-inch.

Where the water lands matters just as much. A downspout that dumps at the foundation has moved the problem four feet, not solved it. We extend discharge away from the house with elbows and extensions, splash blocks, or underground drain lines to daylight where the grade allows. And the grade itself has to slope away from the house — a perfect gutter system over negative grade still puts water in the basement.

Gutter guards reduce cleaning; nothing eliminates it, and any company promising you will never clean your gutters again is selling you something. What they genuinely do is keep the system from clogging with leaves and roof debris, which is where most gutter failure starts.

• Micro-mesh — stainless steel mesh over a rigid frame. The best-performing style for fine debris like pine needles, shingle grit and seed pods. Top-tier option.
• Perforated aluminum — solid panels with punched holes. Good on leaves, can blind over with fine debris and pollen.
• Reverse curve / surface tension — water wraps the nose into a slot. Effective on leaves; can overshoot in heavy downpours and struggles with pine needles.
• Foam inserts — cheap, easy, and they collect seeds and grow debris inside the gutter. We do not recommend them.
• Plastic screens — budget option, UV-brittle, blow out in wind.

One caution: a guard installed under the shingles improperly can lift the first course or void a roofing warranty. Guards belong on a gutter that is correctly pitched and secured — putting a guard on a sagging gutter just hides the sag.

The fascia is the board the gutter hangs on. The soffit is the underside panel that also carries your attic's intake ventilation. When a gutter overflows or a back-pitched run holds standing water, the fascia behind it soaks, and rotted fascia will not hold a gutter no matter how good the gutter is. That is why a gutter that keeps pulling loose is usually a fascia problem wearing a gutter costume.

Soffit damage costs you twice: water stains and rots the panel, and blocked or damaged soffit vents choke the intake air your roof needs. A roof with exhaust at the ridge and no intake at the soffit pulls conditioned air out of your house and bakes the shingles from underneath. We install and repair roofing, gutters, soffit, fascia and siding with our own crews, so the whole edge of the roof gets addressed as one assembly instead of three trades pointing at each other.

A common myth is that gutters cause ice dams. They do not. Ice dams are caused by heat escaping into the attic, which melts snow high on the roof; the meltwater runs down to the cold eave and refreezes. Gutters simply give the ice a place to build, and then take the abuse — a full gutter of ice weighs enough to pull fasteners, bend the trough and tear fascia.

The real fixes are attic air sealing, insulation and balanced ventilation, plus ice-and-water shield membrane at the eaves when the roof is replaced. What gutters need in winter is to be clean going into the season, correctly pitched so nothing stands, secured with hidden hangers rather than old spike-and-ferrule, and free-draining at the downspout so meltwater has somewhere to go instead of backing up.

Hail dents gutters, downspouts, and the soft metal on the roof, and those dents are one of the first things an adjuster reads to confirm a hail event even happened. Wind tears gutters loose, bends them, and rips downspouts off the wall.

Here is what homeowners miss: when a storm damages the roof, the gutters are usually part of the same claim. Dented gutters and downspouts, damaged fascia wrap and torn screens all belong in the scope. Because we roof and install gutters with our own crews, one inspection documents the entire exterior and one scope goes to your adjuster instead of three contractors on three schedules. See storm damage and roof insurance claims.

• Water spilling over the edge in a normal rain — clogged, undersized or back-pitched
• Sagging or pulling away from the fascia, or visible gaps behind the gutter
• Peeling paint or rust streaks on the siding under a seam
• Standing water in the trough after rain stops — a pitch problem
• Leaks at corners, end caps and seams, or re-caulked joints that keep failing
• Nail or spike heads backing out of the fascia
• Eroded mulch, trenched soil or splash marks along the foundation
• Basement or crawlspace moisture after storms
• Plants growing in the gutter — that is soil, and soil holds water
• Dents, dings and bent sections after hail or wind
• Soft, dark or spongy fascia board behind the gutter
• Icicles and ice buildup every winter in the same spot

Repair makes sense for a failure in one place on a system that is otherwise sound: re-pitching a run, replacing a section, resealing a corner, rehanging a length with new hidden hangers, replacing a downspout, or swapping rotted fascia behind an otherwise good gutter.

Replacement makes sense when the problems are spread out: multiple failing seams on old sectional gutters, widespread hail denting, gutters that are undersized for the roof and overflow every real storm, and any system hanging on old spike-and-ferrule fasteners that has already pulled loose more than once. As with roofs, the honest test is whether the repair holds for years or just until the next storm.

1. Free inspection and measurement — roof area, pitch, existing downspout locations, fascia condition.
2. Sizing and color selection, with fascia and trim matched.
3. Tear-off of the old system and disposal.
4. Fascia repair where the board will not hold a fastener.
5. Seamless runs formed on site from continuous coil, cut to your exact lengths.
6. Hanging with hidden hangers screwed into solid wood, pitched for drainage — roughly a quarter inch of fall for every 10 feet toward the outlet.
7. Corners, end caps and outlets sealed.
8. Downspouts set and discharge extended away from the foundation.
9. Gutter guards if you opted for them.
10. Water test, cleanup and walkthrough.

Most homes are a single-day job. Larger homes, steep or three-story runs, fascia replacement or underground drainage can extend it.

• Clean twice a year at minimum — late spring and after leaf drop. Add a cleaning if you have pines or heavy tree cover.
• Check after major storms for dents, loose sections and clogged outlets.
• Flush the downspouts, not just the trough — a clear gutter into a clogged downspout still overflows.
• Watch the water in a rain. Five minutes of watching in a downpour tells you more than an inspection in dry weather.
• Keep discharge extensions in place and pointed away from the house.
• Trim branches back off the roof and gutter line.
• Never lean a ladder against the gutter — it bends the trough and breaks the pitch.
• Watch the fascia, since that is where a small gutter problem turns into a carpentry bill.

Gutters are sold by everyone from national franchises with a one-product pitch to a guy with a brake on a trailer. What we bring is the same thing we bring to a roof: our own in-house crews, a written itemized scope before work starts, a free inspection, and a company that has been answering its phone in this region since 1947.

We are licensed and insured (License # 104.011957/105.007037), BBB Accredited, a BBB Torch Award for Ethics recipient, family-owned through three generations, with more than 50,000 satisfied customers across ten local markets in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, and 24/7 emergency service. Because we also install the roof, siding, soffit and fascia, the edge of your roof is one crew's responsibility rather than a seam between trades.