Gutter Repair in Richmond, VA

Local know-how

Rowhouses, slate roofs and summer storms in Richmond

Richmond averages around 44 inches of rain a year, with summer thunderstorms and the remnants of tropical systems. Tropical Storm Gaston in 2004 dropped more than a foot of rain on parts of the city and flooded Shockoe Bottom, and Isabel the year before brought down trees across the region. Heavy, fast rain is the event Richmond gutters have to be ready for.

The Fan District, Museum District, Church Hill and Jackson Ward are full of rowhouses and townhouses, many with slate or standing-seam roofs and built-in or copper gutters at the front and hung gutters on the rear ells. Rear gutters often drain onto the alley side, and blocked rear downspouts are a common source of water in basements. Repairs on these homes usually mean relining built-in gutters or patching copper rather than installing new aluminum.

The city's tree canopy is heavy, especially oaks, tulip poplars and maples along the older streets, and autumn leaf drop is the main cleaning season. Spring brings pollen and seeds. A gutter company in Richmond that works on older homes will also check the wood behind the gutter, since rowhouse cornices and fascias have often been painted over rot.

Tuckahoe, Mechanicsville and Petersburg have more suburban housing with hung gutters, from 1950s ranches to newer subdivisions. Gutter repair in Richmond's suburbs often involves replacing sectional gutters with seamless ones and adding guards on leaf-heavy lots. Many older Petersburg homes have historic features similar to the city's, including built-in gutters.

Rear ells, alleys and where rowhouse water goes

On a Fan or Church Hill house the front may have a built-in or copper gutter at the cornice while the rear ell carries a hung trough draining toward the alley. The rear is where the problems concentrate: the downspout is often original, the discharge is a few feet from a basement wall, and nobody looks at it because it faces the alley rather than the street.

When a basement gets wet after a storm in these neighborhoods, the rear downspout is the first thing to check. Clearing it and getting its discharge out to the alley paving, rather than into the strip of soil beside the wall, resolves a large share of them.

Built-in gutters behind a cornice

A built-in gutter is a wooden trough lined with metal, formed as part of the cornice, and it fails at the lining. Because the trough sits inside the roof edge, the leak goes into the cornice, down inside the wall, and shows up as a stain on a ceiling well away from the roof. By then the woodwork has been wet for a long time.

Relining is the repair: strip the failed metal, make good the trough, fit a new lining with properly made seams. It is specialist sheet metal work and it is worth finding someone who does it regularly. The box gutters page explains how these systems are built and what relining involves.

Slate and standing-seam roofs at the gutter edge

Where the roof is slate or standing seam, the detail at the eave matters more than on a composition roof. Slate is unforgiving of foot traffic, so any gutter work has to be done from a ladder or staging rather than from the roof, and that affects both the method and the price. Standing-seam roofs shed water fast and can overshoot a trough set too low.

On either roof, ask how the contractor intends to reach the gutter before discussing anything else. A quote that assumes walking on slate is a quote for a broken roof.

Fast, heavy summer rain and overshoot

The storms here deliver a lot of water in a short time, and on a steep roof the water can leave the edge with enough speed to arch over a correctly sized gutter. That looks like a capacity failure and is actually a geometry one. A trough positioned slightly higher at the back, or a drip edge that directs water into it rather than off the end of the shingles, is the fix.

The drip edge guide covers the detail. It is cheap to get right during an installation and awkward to retrofit afterwards, so it is worth raising before the work starts.

Painted-over rot on cornices and fascia

Rowhouse cornices and fascia boards here have usually been painted many times, and paint bridges rot convincingly. On a house where a gutter has overflowed for years, the wood behind it can be soft while the surface looks sound. A contractor who works on older Richmond houses will probe rather than assume.

Where the cornice itself is affected, the repair moves from gutter work to carpentry and sometimes to millwork to match a profile. That is worth knowing before the scaffolding goes up, so the budget is right from the start.

Historic district review

Several of the city's older neighborhoods are in old and historic districts where exterior alterations are reviewed. Replacing like for like is generally straightforward; changing a copper half-round for aluminum K-style on a visible elevation is not. Photograph what is there before removal and submit early.

The review usually pushes toward the right answer anyway, because the original profile tends to suit the house. Where cost is the constraint, aluminum half-round is often an acceptable middle route and worth asking about.

Tuckahoe, Mechanicsville and the suburban stock

Out in the county the housing runs from 1950s ranches to current subdivisions, with hung gutters and a heavy oak and poplar leaf load. The common work is replacing tired sectional runs with seamless, adding a downspout where a long run has only one, and fitting a mesh on the elevations under trees.

Petersburg sits in between: a historic core with built-in gutters and copper work, and newer housing with ordinary hung systems. A contractor comfortable with both is worth finding, because the two need different trades.

Pricing older and newer Richmond houses

For an older house: whether the quote is a reline or a patch, the access method on slate, the carpentry allowance, and the rear downspout discharge. For a suburban house: trough and outlet sizing, hanger spacing, and the discharge plan. Those are different jobs and they belong on different quotes.

Published ranges are on the pricing pages. Built-in gutter relining and cornice carpentry sit well above the hung-aluminum ranges, and a quote that prices an historic house at suburban rates has almost certainly not understood the system.

Humid summers and algae on the north trough

Through a Richmond summer the shaded side of a roof stays damp enough to grow algae on the shingles and in the trough itself, and the dark streaking on a north roof plane is the visible result. In the gutter it forms a slick layer that holds grit and slows the flow long before any leaf arrives.

Local guidance

Gutter problems that are not actually gutter problems

A good share of the calls we take in Richmond turn out to have a cause above or behind the gutter rather than in it, and replacing the gutter would not have fixed any of them.

Water appearing behind the gutter is usually a missing or badly fitted drip edge. Ice forming at the eave is an insulation and ventilation problem. A gutter separating from the house is nearly always rotted fascia. Staining on a ceiling below a valley is often flashing rather than drainage.

A contractor worth using will tell you that at the estimate rather than sell you a system that does not address what is actually happening.