Seven signs your gutters need replacing, not another repair
Replace gutters when you see several of these together: sagging or separating runs, seams re-caulked more than once, rust on steel gutters, peeling paint or rot on the fascia, overflow at the corners in every storm, gutters pulling away from the house, and water or erosion along the foundation. One isolated problem is usually a repair.
The seven signs
- Sag you can see from the driveway. Fasteners have let go of the fascia. One spot is a repair; a wave along the whole run means the fascia may not hold anymore.
- Seams that keep leaking. If a sectional run has been re-caulked more than once, the sealant is done and the next seam is next.
- Rust. Steel gutters rust from the inside out. Once it shows, the trough is thin.
- Peeling paint or dark streaks on the fascia. Years of overflow have been running behind the gutter.
- Overflow at the corners in every storm. Undersized 5-inch trough or too few downspouts, which a new run fixes and a repair does not.
- Gutters pulling away from the house. Usually soft fascia behind them, which needs replacing before anything can be fastened.
- A trench or washed-out mulch along the foundation, or a damp crawlspace on the same side.
How we decide, and how you can too
We look at how much of the system is affected, what it is made of, and the state of the fascia. One loose hanger or one leaking corner is a repair, and we will quote it that way. Rust, multiple failed seams or soft fascia along a whole side is a replacement, and a new seamless system costs less over time than chasing each failure. Our gutter repair page covers the repairs we do most.
What replacement looks like
One of the owners measures every run and checks the fascia at each hanger point. Fascia that is soft is replaced first. New 6-inch seamless runs are rolled on site, hung with screw-in hidden hangers, pitched to the downspouts, and installed in a single day on most homes. See seamless gutter installation.