Gutter Repair in New York

Local know-how

From Brooklyn brownstones to Buffalo snowbelts

New York covers some of the most varied gutter conditions in the country. New York City's boroughs are dense, with brownstones, row houses and apartment buildings that drain flat roofs through scuppers and leaders, and with detached homes in Queens, Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn that have conventional hung gutters. On attached houses, one owner's blocked leader can back water onto a neighbor's roof.

Upstate is snow country. Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse sit in or near the lake-effect belts off Lakes Erie and Ontario, and Syracuse regularly ranks among the snowiest cities in the country, with well over 100 inches in a typical year. Ice dams, crushed gutters and downspouts split by ice are routine there, and gutters need close-spaced hidden hangers and sound fascia to survive.

Long Island and Westchester sit in between: nor'easters, coastal storms and salt air on the South Shore, heavy oak and maple canopy in the suburbs, and large post-war and older homes with long gutter runs. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 left lasting damage along the Long Island and Staten Island shorelines.

Across the state, older housing stock means built-in gutters, copper on historic homes and wood fascia that has been painted over for decades. Gutter work in New York is often as much about the roof edge and the drainage below as about the gutter itself.

A year of New York gutter weather

Winter sets the agenda across most of the state. From December to March, upstate roofs carry snow for weeks at a time, and the cycle of daytime melt and overnight refreeze builds ice along the eaves of older, poorly insulated houses. The Hudson Valley and the Capital Region around Albany get less lake-effect snow than the western cities but still see long freezes, while the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill Plateau east of Lake Ontario are among the snowiest inhabited places in the eastern United States.

Spring brings meltwater and heavy rain together, which is when blocked downspouts and buried drain lines show themselves as wet basements. Summer thunderstorms are short and intense. Autumn is the big cleaning season, because the state's maple, oak, beech and ash forests drop their leaves over a few weeks in October and November. Late-season nor'easters can then arrive with wind-driven rain before the gutters have been cleared.

New York City roofs, leaders and drains

In the five boroughs, a large share of buildings have flat roofs that drain through internal drains, scuppers and leaders rather than hanging gutters. Brownstones and row houses in Brooklyn and Manhattan often have a short gutter or a cornice drain at the front and a scupper at the back, feeding a leader down the rear wall. When those clog, water pools on the roof and finds its way through flashing and parapet walls.

The city has also been pushing to keep stormwater out of its combined sewer system, which overflows into the harbor in heavy rain. Rain gardens, green roofs and rain barrels are encouraged in many neighborhoods. Detached homes in Queens and Staten Island, by contrast, mostly have ordinary aluminum gutters, and the common faults there are the same as in the suburbs: clogged outlets, loose hangers and downspouts that drain onto a neighbor's driveway.

Hiring for gutter work in New York

New York State does not issue a single statewide license for home improvement contractors, but New York City requires home improvement businesses to be licensed by its Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester and several other counties run their own licensing programs. Ask a contractor which local license applies and check it before work starts.

On older homes, ask whether the price assumes the fascia is sound and what happens if rot is found. In snow country, ask about hanger type and spacing and whether the gutter will be set slightly lower to let sliding snow pass. In the city, ask whether roof drains and leaders are part of the job or a separate trade. Repair, cleaning and replacement quotes are available statewide through one call.

Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Southern Tier

On Long Island, many Cape Cods, colonials and high ranches built after the war still carry aluminum gutters that have been patched for decades. Salt spray on the South Shore and the East End pits older steel fasteners, and tall oaks on the North Shore fill troughs every November. Hudson Valley towns such as Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh have nineteenth-century brick and frame houses with box gutters behind wooden cornices. Binghamton, Elmira and the Southern Tier get heavy rain from remnants of tropical systems, as the floods of 2006 and 2011 showed, and steep lots there need downspouts led well away from the house.

Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo housing

The western and central cities were built out between the Erie Canal boom and the 1950s, so most houses are frame or brick, two stories, with steep gables and attic bedrooms. Poorly insulated attics in those homes are the source of many ice dams. Aluminum gutters replaced original wood ones decades ago on most of them. When a run there needs replacing, a heavier gauge and a wider trough cope better with spring melt.

Questions worth asking upstate

Ask whether the quote includes snow guards above walkways, how the downspouts will be protected from plows and snow blowers, and whether heat cable is recommended on north-facing eaves that stay frozen for weeks.

Albany and the Capital District

Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga Springs have Victorian rowhouses and brick homes with box gutters, plus suburban ranches and colonials. Winters are cold with frequent nor'easter snowstorms, and spring meltwater tests basements.