Gutter Repair in Philadelphia, PA

Local know-how

Rowhomes, twins and stone houses: gutter work around Philadelphia

Philadelphia averages around 44 inches of precipitation a year and roughly 20 inches of snow, enough freeze-thaw to work joints loose over a few winters. The city's rowhomes mostly have flat roofs draining to a rear gutter or a downspout shared along the block. One clogged section can back water onto the roof of the next house, so gutter repair in Philadelphia often starts with finding which home on the row the blockage actually sits on.

Twins and porch-front homes in Drexel Hill, Norristown and the inner suburbs have pitched roofs with hung gutters that collect oak and maple leaves. Older stone homes along the Main Line in Wayne and Radnor frequently have built-in gutters, sometimes called Yankee gutters, set into the roof edge and lined with copper or terne metal. When the lining cracks, water goes into the cornice and wall rather than over the edge, so these need relining by someone who knows the system rather than a hung gutter fixed over the top.

Levittown is a different job again. Its post-war capes and ranches are now on their second or third gutter system, and many owners are choosing gutter replacement in Levittown with larger 6-inch seamless gutters rather than repairing old sectional runs. Gutter screens and guards are popular across the region because oaks, maples and sycamores shed heavily; the right screening for a Philadelphia home depends on whether the debris is broad leaves, seeds or both.

Philadelphia's older homes often have downspouts tied into underground clay or cast-iron lines that run to the sewer. After a century, many of those lines are cracked or blocked with roots, and water backs up at the base of the downspout or into the basement. If a downspout overflows at the bottom while the gutter above is clear, a camera inspection of the line is the next step, not a new gutter.

Northeast Philly and the porch-front rows

Mayfair, Rhawnhurst, Oxford Circle and the rest of the Northeast were built out after the Second World War with long blocks of brick rowhomes. Many have a small front porch with its own short gutter, a flat main roof draining to the rear, and a downspout over a back driveway or garage apron. Those rear downspouts often empty onto the shared driveway, where water ponds against garage doors and freezes in winter. Leading them into a drain or redirecting the outlet to the edge of the driveway fixes it.

Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill stone

Northwest Philadelphia's older homes are built of Wissahickon schist, a glittering local stone, and many date from the 1800s. Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy and Germantown have large stone twins and singles with slate roofs, built-in gutters and copper leaders. Leaks there show up as damp stone and damaged plaster inside. Relining built-in gutters and soldering copper are routine jobs in these neighborhoods.

The Rain Check program

The Philadelphia Water Department's Rain Check program has offered free rain barrels and discounted downspout planters, rain gardens and permeable paving to homeowners, aiming to keep stormwater out of the combined sewers. A downspout planter, a raised planter box that takes water from a leader, works well on small rowhome lots with no yard to soak up water.

Manayunk, Roxborough and the Schuylkill

Manayunk's mill houses climb steep streets above the Schuylkill River, and many sit on stone walls with stairs between them. The remnants of Ida in 2021 flooded Main Street as the river rose to near-record levels. Hillside homes there need downspouts led down to the street rather than onto the slope above a neighbor's back wall.

South Philly, Fishtown and Kensington

South Philadelphia's two-story rowhomes, Fishtown's trinity houses and Kensington's mill-era rows have tiny roofs, often coated with silver paint, draining through a single rear scupper and downspout. New construction on these blocks is common, and new three-story homes beside old two-story ones can drop water onto the lower roof. A gutter and downspout on the taller building's side wall prevents that.

Delaware County and Upper Darby

Upper Darby, Havertown, Drexel Hill and Lansdowne have twins and singles from the 1920s and 1930s with steep slate or shingle roofs. Many have original copper or galvanized gutters behind decorative trim, and porches with their own gutters. Rot in the porch roof edge is a common find.

West Philadelphia's porch-front twins

West Philadelphia's Cedar Park, Spruce Hill and Walnut Hill have Victorian twins with deep porches, bay windows and turrets. Each porch has its own gutter, often clogged and pulling away.

Society Hill and Old City

Society Hill and Old City's eighteenth-century brick homes and trinities sit in historic districts where the Philadelphia Historical Commission reviews exterior work.

Bucks County and Levittown homes

Levittown's Levittowner and Jubilee models are ranch houses on slabs, and slab homes need downspouts that carry water away from the floor edge.

Cheltenham and Jenkintown

Cheltenham, Elkins Park and Jenkintown have stone and brick homes from the early 1900s under huge trees.

Roxborough's twins and Wissahickon slopes

Roxborough and East Falls perch above the Wissahickon and Schuylkill gorges, with stone twins and brick rows on streets that pitch steeply downhill. A rear downspout on one of those twins often empties onto a yard that drains straight into the next house's basement wall. Piping it to the street or a dry well is worth the cost.

Party walls, rowhouse roofs and shared drainage

On a rowhouse the roof drains through a parapet scupper or an internal leader rather than a hung gutter, and the drainage is often shared with the house next door. A blockage therefore becomes a conversation with a neighbor as well as a repair, and the first sign is usually a damp party wall rather than anything visible outside.

Local guidance

What a proper Philadelphia 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.