Greater Lansing
Gutter repair & downspouts
A gutter's job is not catching water, it is moving water somewhere it cannot hurt the building — and the part that usually fails is the second half. Here is what goes wrong, what you can check from the ground, and why a damp basement is worth looking at from outside first.
What is actually wrong
A gutter has one job and it is not catching water. It is moving water to somewhere the water cannot hurt the building, and everything that goes wrong with a gutter is a failure of that second half. It is full, so it overflows at the back edge where you cannot see it. It has lost its fall, so it holds water in the middle and the weight pulls it further out of line. A seam or an end cap has opened, so the whole run empties in one spot. Or it is working perfectly and the downspout delivers the entire roof to a point eight inches from the wall.
That last one is the common one and it is the one nobody looks at. A roof of fifteen hundred square feet sheds roughly nine hundred gallons in an inch of rain, and all of it leaves through two or three outlets. Put one of those a foot from the foundation and you have built a machine for saturating the soil beside your basement wall — a few thousand gallons at a time, a few dozen times a year, for as long as you own the house.
Which is why three of the gutter jobs in this company’s own records were not booked as gutter jobs at all. They arrived as a wet basement. One is logged as “mold in basement / gutter cleanout and downspout inspection”, another as “gutter cleanout / standing water / mold”, and a third simply as “basement and downspout”. Same two words in a different order, same building fault, and in each case the thing that fixed the inside was on the outside. If your basement is damp, the roofline is the first place to look and much the cheapest place to find it.
Michigan adds a second season to this. Everywhere, a gutter clogs with leaves; here it then freezes. A gutter holding wet debris in December holds ice in January, the ice backs water up under the lowest course of shingles, and the leak shows up inside the house in February with no rain anywhere near it. Ice dams are mostly an insulation and ventilation problem — there is a post on this site arguing exactly that, and it is the honest version — but a blocked gutter is the half of it that can be fixed from a ladder in an afternoon.
What is actually checkable from the ground, without going up anything: whether there are plant seedlings growing in the gutter, which means soil rather than leaves and means years; whether there is a dark vertical stain on the fascia board behind it, which means it has been overflowing backwards; whether the ground under a downspout has a scour hole or a dead patch, which means it is discharging too close and too fast; and whether there are rust runs at the seams, which on a steel gutter is the end of the conversation rather than the start.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- New gutter installation is not taken on — a complete new run on a house that has none, or replacing every run on a building, goes to a licensed gutter installer. What this company does is repair: clearing, re-hanging, re-pitching, sealing, section replacement and downspout work. That line is drawn deliberately and it is drawn on the records, which hold sixteen gutter repairs and not one installation.
- Gutter guards are a capability here and not a track record. No guard has ever been sold by this company, and the page that offers them says so. A guard also belongs on a sound roofline, so the fascia and the hangers come first.
- Roof coverings are not taken on. Roofline components are. Sealing a seam is a repair, it is not a roof, and it carries no roof warranty — that is this company’s own quote wording and it is not softened here.
- A buried downspout line is an excavation job and is not taken on. Tying an outlet into a storm line, a dry well or a French drain goes to somebody licensed to dig; moving the discharge above ground does not.
- No work at heights beyond safe ladder and staging access.
- Bats are protected in Michigan and it is unlawful to seal them into a roost. A suspected roost in a soffit stops the job and gets referred rather than closed up.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Clear the gutters and the downspouts, then flush them and watch where the water comes out — the point is to confirm it leaves the building, not just that it leaves the gutter.
Re-hang and re-pitch a run that has pulled away or lost its fall. The figure being worked to is about a quarter of an inch of drop per ten feet toward the outlet.
Re-nail, re-screw and re-bracket a sagging run, including changing spike-and-ferrule fixings for hidden hangers where the fascia will still hold a fixing at all.
Seal open seams, end caps and corner miters, and replace a damaged section within an existing run.
Move a downspout that has been emptying against the foundation — extensions, elbows, splash blocks, and re-routing the outlet to somewhere the water can actually go.
Tie roof drains into downspouts on a flat or low-slope roof. That is invoiced work here, not a capability claim.
Repair the fascia, soffit and flashing behind the gutter when that is what has really failed — which it usually is, because a gutter re-hung onto soft fascia comes down again and the second visit is on us.
This work sits inside Gutter Protection, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
Height and access. A single-story run is a ladder. A second-story run over a conservatory or a deck is staging, and staging is its own line on the quote rather than a surprise.
How much of the fascia behind it is sound. This is the driver that moves the number most, and it is the one that cannot be established from the ground — what is visible from the driveway is always the smallest version of it.
Length of run and how many outlets there are, which is also what decides whether clearing is a visit or a morning.
Where the water has to be taken. An extension and a splash block is cheap; carrying a downspout discharge around a corner, across a path or out past a patio is a different job.
Material and gauge. Aluminum, steel and copper are different prices and different lifespans, and a steel gutter rusting at every seam is usually not worth repairing.
Whether the gutters have to come off and go back to reach something behind them, which they often do.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Go outside while it is actually raining and watch. It is the whole diagnostic, it is free, and it tells you in ninety seconds what a photograph of a dry gutter never will — where it overflows, which joint drips, and where the downspouts put the water.
- Measure how far your downspout outlets sit from the wall. Four to six feet away from the foundation is the usual minimum and ten is better; eight inches and a splash block is the arrangement that wets basements.
- If water is already coming in, photograph the stain and write the date on something in the frame. A stain that has grown between two dated photographs is evidence; a stain on its own is an argument.
- Do not go up a ladder onto a frozen or snow-loaded gutter. An ice-filled gutter can weigh several hundred pounds and it comes off the house as one piece.
- Photograph the whole elevation rather than the damaged part. Where a run starts and stops, and how high it is, is most of what a quote is made of.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
My basement is wet. Could that really be the gutters?
Often, yes, and it is the first thing worth ruling out because it is far and away the cheapest. Three of the gutter jobs in this company’s records came in described as a basement problem — standing water, damp, mold — and the cause each time was outside: a blocked gutter overflowing against a wall, or a downspout discharging a few inches from the foundation. A fifteen-hundred-square-foot roof moves around nine hundred gallons in an inch of rain and it all leaves through two or three outlets, so where those outlets point matters more than almost anything else you could spend money on. If sealing the inside of a basement wall has been quoted to you before anyone has looked at the roofline, get the roofline looked at.
Do you install new gutters?
No. A complete new gutter run, or replacing every run on a building, goes to a licensed gutter installer and you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out. What is done here is repair — clearing, re-hanging, re-pitching, sealing seams and end caps, replacing a damaged section within an existing run, and downspout work. The records behind that are sixteen gutter repairs and no installations, and the page is scoped to what the records actually show.
How often do gutters need clearing around Lansing?
Twice a year is the honest general answer — once after the leaves are down, which in mid-Michigan is usually well into November, and once in the spring for the seed and blossom debris that arrives earlier and is finer and worse. The number that actually matters is how many mature trees overhang the roof: a house with none may go years, and a house under silver maples can block a downspout in a single leaf season. The thing to avoid is going into a Michigan winter with a full gutter, because then it is ice rather than leaves.
Do you fit gutter guards?
It is offered, and it is a capability rather than a track record — no gutter guard has ever been sold by this company, and saying otherwise would be inventing a record. If you want them, two things are worth knowing. A guard goes on a roofline that is sound, so the fascia, hangers and fall get sorted first or the guard is fitted to something that is about to move. And no guard makes a gutter maintenance-free; the good ones change clearing from a necessity into an occasional check.
Why does my gutter overflow at the back, between the gutter and the house?
Because the water is getting behind it rather than over it, and that is a different fault from a blocked gutter even though a blockage can cause it. Usually it is one of three things: the gutter has lost its fall and is holding water that backs up at the high end; the gutter has pulled away from the fascia so there is a gap at the top edge; or there is no drip edge or the flashing behind the gutter has failed, so water running off the roof deck tracks down the fascia instead of into the trough. The third is the one that quietly rots the fascia board, which is why that gets looked at before the gutter is simply re-hung.
Do you do roofs?
Not shingles, and not steep slopes — those are a roofer’s trade and are not taken on. Two things nearby are: the roofline, which is fascia, soffit, trim, flashing, gutters and downspouts and is where most water actually gets in; and repairs to flat and low-slope membrane roofs, which has its own page here and is work this company has invoiced. Where a job turns out to be a shingle problem you are told, and it is not billed as a wasted visit.
There is ice in my gutter and water coming in upstairs. Is that a gutter problem?
Partly, and it is worth being straight about which part. The ice dam itself is mostly caused by heat escaping into the attic and melting snow on the roof, which then refreezes at the cold eave — that is an insulation and ventilation problem, and this site has a post and two pages arguing exactly that. But a gutter full of debris freezes solid much earlier and gives the ice something to build on, so clearing it is the cheap half you can do now, and the attic is the half that actually stops it happening again. Anybody who tells you new gutters will cure ice dams is selling you gutters.
How far from the house should a downspout discharge?
Four to six feet from the foundation is the usual minimum and ten feet is better, onto ground that falls away from the building rather than back toward it. The common arrangement — an elbow, a splash block, and water landing a few inches from the wall — puts the whole roof into the soil directly against your basement, which is the one place you least want it. Above-ground extensions are cheap and are most of the fix. Burying the line into a dry well or a storm connection is an excavation job and goes to somebody licensed to dig.
Book a gutter and downspout visit
Send photographs of the whole elevation rather than the damaged part, and tell us where your downspouts discharge and how far that is from the wall — between them those two things answer most of the question before anyone drives out. Somebody then checks the fall, the fixings and the fascia behind the run, and puts a fixed price in writing. Coming out is free, and there is no trip charge.