Gutter Repair in Worcester, MA

Local know-how

Three-deckers, seven hills and heavy snow in Worcester

Worcester sits on high ground in the middle of Massachusetts, and it is one of the snowiest larger cities in New England, averaging well over 60 inches of snow a year on top of about 48 inches of total precipitation. Nor'easters that bring rain to Boston often bring heavy snow here. The long cold stretches, broken by thaws, make ice dams and torn-off gutters a familiar winter story across the city.

The city calls itself the City of Seven Hills, and the hills shape how water moves. Homes on Vernon Hill, Grafton Hill, Union Hill and Bancroft Hill often sit above the street with steep driveways and long downspout drops, and water released at the top of a yard can run across a neighbor's lot before it reaches a drain.

Worcester is also the home of the triple-decker. Thousands of these three-story wood-frame houses were built for factory workers between the 1880s and the 1920s, with stacked porches on the front and a flat or low-pitched roof. Their gutters are tall and hard to reach, and their downspouts run three stories down the face of the house.

Out in the surrounding towns of Shrewsbury, Holden, Auburn, Grafton and Westborough, and south toward Milford and Hopedale, the housing changes to colonials, capes and split-levels on larger wooded lots, under oaks, maples and white pines.

Gutter repair in Worcester, MA

The most common winter damage is hangers pulled loose by ice and snow sliding off the roof. On triple-deckers, the long downspouts also come apart at the joints, and a section hanging loose in a January wind does more harm every day. Spring repair calls usually involve reattaching gutters, replacing bent sections, resealing the corners and reconnecting downspout runs.

On older houses, check the condition of the fascia and the roof edge before any repair. Many triple-deckers have original wood trim under vinyl or aluminum wrap, and water that has been getting behind the wrap for years can leave the board too soft to hold new hangers.

Gutter installation in Worcester, MA

New gutters in Worcester need to be built for snow. That means hidden hangers every 18 to 24 inches instead of every three feet, downspouts sized to drain a thaw quickly, and a gutter set low enough on the fascia that sliding snow clears it rather than catching on the outer lip. On a metal roof, snow guards above the eave protect the gutter from the avalanche that follows a warm afternoon.

For triple-deckers, seamless aluminum in a 6-inch K-style profile with large downspouts is the usual choice, because the roof drains three stories of porches as well as the main roof. Ask how the contractor plans to reach the top gutter safely; a quote that includes staging or a lift is often the more realistic one.

Gutter installation in Milford, MA

Milford and the Blackstone Valley towns around it have a mix of older mill housing, colonials and newer subdivisions. Milford is known for its pink granite, quarried there for more than a century, and many lots are rocky enough that a buried downspout line is hard to dig. Surface extensions and rock-lined channels are often the more practical answer.

Homes along the Charles River headwaters and low ground in Milford and Hopedale can have wet basements in spring, and the snowmelt adds to the load. Gutters that carry water well clear of the foundation come first, with downspout outlets at least six feet from the walls.

Triple-decker gutters and porches

A triple-decker's front porches each have their own small roof, and on many houses the porch roofs drain onto each other before reaching the ground. When the top gutter overflows, water pours onto the porch below, rots the decking and stains the siding. A well-sized top gutter with a properly sealed downspout that bypasses the lower porches fixes this at the source.

Flat-roofed triple-deckers often drain to the back through a scupper and a conductor head. When leaves or ice plug that scupper, the flat roof ponds and the water hunts for a seam to get indoors. A yearly check of the scupper and the conductor head in late autumn is cheap insurance.

Ice dams and Massachusetts winters

Ice dams form when heat leaking from the living space melts snow on the roof, and the water refreezes at the cold eave. Gutters do not cause ice dams, but a full gutter makes them worse and takes the weight. What actually stops them is attic insulation plus air sealing, and Mass Save has long offered incentives for that work. Heat cable along the eave and in the gutter can help on problem sections while the attic is sorted out.

The 2008 ice storm and tree cover

In December 2008, an ice storm coated Worcester County with up to an inch of ice. Hundreds of thousands of homes lost power and huge numbers of trees and limbs came down on roofs and gutters. The storm is a reminder to keep branches trimmed back from the roof edge, because a limb loaded with ice tears the trough loose as it comes down.

Combined sewers and downspouts

Parts of older Worcester have combined sewers, where storm runoff and sewage share one set of pipes, and a lot of old downspouts were piped into them. When it rains hard, the system can overflow into the Blackstone River. Check with the city before connecting or disconnecting a downspout from the sewer, and where it is allowed, sending roof runoff onto grass or into a dry well is better for the river.

Pine needles and autumn leaves in the suburbs

White pines drop needles in large amounts in early autumn, and oaks and maples follow in late October and November. In Holden, Paxton and Rutland, under the heavy tree cover north of the city, many homes need a cleaning in October and another after the oaks finish. Fine mesh guards handle pine needles better than screens.

Local guidance

What a proper Worcester inspection covers

An inspection worth paying attention to looks at the whole system rather than the point you called about, because the visible symptom is frequently not where the fault is.

That means checking the fall along each run, the condition and spacing of the hangers, every seam and end cap, the flow through each downspout and where it discharges, and the state of the fascia and drip edge behind the gutter.

It should end with you being shown what was found — photographs of anything above eye level — and a written scope rather than a verbal summary and a number.