Gutter Repair in St. Louis, MO

Local know-how

Brick homes, built-in gutters and big storms in St. Louis

St. Louis averages around 41 to 42 inches of precipitation a year, with severe spring storms, hail, occasional ice storms and hot, humid summers. Freeze-thaw winters work gutter joints loose, and heavy summer downpours test capacity. Gutter repair in St. Louis ranges from hail-dented aluminum on a Kirkwood ranch to a century-old built-in gutter on a Soulard townhouse.

The city's brick housing is distinctive. Many older homes in Soulard, Lafayette Square, Tower Grove and the Central West End have built-in gutters, parapet walls drained by scuppers into conductor heads, or box gutters lined with metal. When these fail, water goes into the brick and the interior walls rather than over the edge. Leaking built-in gutters are a common cause of spalling brick, crumbling mortar and stained plaster, and the gutter companies in St. Louis that work on historic homes reline them rather than covering them with hung gutters.

Pin oaks, sweetgums, maples and sycamores drop heavy leaves in autumn, and sweetgum balls are notorious for lodging in downspout elbows. Suburbs like Kirkwood, Florissant, University City, Maryland Heights, Oakville and Mehlville have mature canopies over homes from the 1950s through the 1980s. There, gutter repair in St. Louis County often means replacing old sectional gutters with seamless ones and adding guards for heavy leaf loads.

Hail and ice are the storm risks to plan for. Hail dents and splits gutters and fills them with shingle granules; an ice storm can add hundreds of pounds of glaze to a single run. Hidden hangers screwed into sound fascia every two feet or so hold up far better than spike-and-ferrule fastening, and clean gutters shed ice faster when the thaw comes.

Parapets, scuppers and conductor heads

A great deal of the city's brick housing drains over a parapet wall through a scupper into a conductor head, which is the decorative box that feeds the downspout. That system fails in places a hung gutter does not: the scupper opening blocks with debris, the conductor head cracks at a solder seam, or the parapet coping lets water into the wall above it.

Because the roof is flat behind the parapet, a blocked scupper means water standing on the roof rather than spilling visibly outside. Checking those openings twice a year, from the roof, is the maintenance that nobody does and everybody needs.

Built-in gutters and spalling brick

When a built-in or box gutter leaks on a brick house, the water goes into the masonry rather than over an edge. Saturated brick spalls when it freezes, mortar crumbles, and interior plaster stains well away from the point of entry. By the time a ceiling shows a mark, the wall has usually been wet for several seasons.

That is why relining rather than covering is the right repair on these houses. Hanging an aluminum trough below a failed built-in gutter leaves the original trough collecting water inside the structure, and the brick keeps deteriorating out of sight.

Sweetgum balls, pin oaks and the elbow that blocks

Pin oaks hold their leaves late, sycamores shed large pieces of bark and leaf, and sweetgum balls are the most reliable downspout blocker in the region. The balls travel along a trough and wedge in the first bend, so the symptom is a gutter holding water with nothing visible in it.

A flush down each downspout is therefore as important as clearing the trough. Ask whether a service includes running water through every pipe and confirming it comes out at the bottom; where it does not, the blockage stays where it is.

Hail, ice and hidden hangers

Both hail and ice reach the city most years. Hail dents the bead and fills the trough with granules; glaze adds a great deal of weight in a few hours to a run that is often already holding wet leaves. Spike-and-ferrule fastening concentrates that load on a single nail, which is why the older systems are the ones that come away.

Converting to hidden hangers at close spacing into sound fascia is the standard upgrade and does not require new trough where the metal is straight. Clearing the outlets before the first freeze means the thaw drains instead of sitting.

Alley access and the rear of a city house

On the older city blocks the largest roof plane often drains to the rear, where the downspout faces an alley and nobody walks past it. A separated elbow or a blocked outlet there can run for a season unnoticed, soaking the corner of the house with the least sun to dry it.

Any inspection worth paying for covers the alley elevation as well as the street frontage. It is where neglected damage concentrates in this housing stock.

Flat roofs on two-family and corner buildings

Many two-family buildings and corner storefronts here have low-slope roofs draining to one or two outlets with no overflow. When an outlet blocks, the water has nowhere to go but the wall junction, and the first evidence is inside. An overflow scupper set slightly above the main outlet is cheap insurance and is often added when a roof is redone.

On a shared building, agree who checks the outlets. A flat roof with one drain and no owner looking at it is the most reliable source of interior water damage in the city.

County suburbs: oaks, sectional runs and guards

Out in Kirkwood, University City, Oakville and Mehlville the housing is mostly 1950s to 1980s with mature canopy, and the recurring job is replacing tired sectional runs with seamless and fitting a mesh where the trees warrant it. The joints are the failure point, and each reseal buys a shorter interval than the last.

Guards pay for themselves fastest where pin oaks and sweetgums overhang a long roofline. Specify metal mesh on a rigid frame, and ask whether it can be lifted for service without disturbing the roofing.

Pricing historic and suburban work separately

These are two different trades. For a brick house with built-in gutters, scuppers or conductor heads: whether the quote is a reline or a patch, who does the sheet metal, and how the roof edge is accessed. For a county house: trough and outlet sizing, hanger conversion, fascia per foot, and a downspout flush.

Published ranges on the pricing pages cover the hung-aluminum work. Relining and conductor head repair sit above them, and a quote that prices a Soulard townhouse at suburban rates is a warning rather than a bargain.

Mississippi bluff lots and the soil below them

The lots along the bluffs above the river hold a steep face only while the loess and clay in them stay undisturbed. Roof water released near the top of one of those slopes is the quickest way to start a slump, and the damage arrives as a lost section of yard.

On a bluff lot the discharge belongs on the street side, or in a line with an outlet well below the crest.

Cobblestone alleys and the rear of a city lot

The granite-set alleys behind many city blocks drain poorly and ice readily, and a downspout discharging into one adds to both. Relocating the outlet to a side elevation, or piping it to the street, is usually simpler than dealing with the complaint.

Local guidance

What to check yourself before calling anyone in St. Louis

You can diagnose most of it from the ground. After rain stops, look along the gutter line: if water is still sitting in the trough an hour later, the run has lost its fall and no amount of cleaning will fix that.

Next, run a hose into the gutter and watch the bottom of each downspout. A strong flow means the system is clear; a trickle or nothing means the blockage is below the outlet, often in the elbow or a buried line.

Finally, look at the fascia board behind and below the gutter. Dark staining, flaking paint or a visibly swollen board means water has been getting where it should not, and that needs dealing with before anything is re-fastened to it.