Gutter repair in Pittsburgh

The repairs we do most

Gutter repair Pittsburgh PA homeowners call about falls into five jobs, and the first one is the freeze-thaw special.

Leaking corners and seams. Pittsburgh's freeze-thaw cycle is hard on sealant. Water sits in a mitered corner, freezes, and opens the joint a hair; a few dozen cycles later the corner drips every time it rains. We clean the joint back to bare metal, dry it, and reseal it with a polyurethane sealant that stays flexible below freezing. If the miter itself is corroded through, we replace the corner. Gutter leak repair Pittsburgh crews get called for most is exactly this, and it's usually $150–$250.

Sagging runs. The old spike-and-ferrule hangers work loose from the fascia, especially where the wood has been wet. The run drops in the middle, water pools instead of reaching the downspout, the pooled water freezes, and the extra weight drops it further. Sagging gutter repair Pittsburgh homes need is almost always a re-hang on hidden screw hangers every 24 inches — 16 inches on runs that carry snow load off a big roof — with the pitch reset toward the downspout.

Ice dam damage. By late February a gutter full of ice can weigh several hundred pounds. It bends the front lip, pulls the hangers, and splits seams. The damage shows in March once it thaws, which is why ice dam gutter repair Pittsburgh crews do is a spring job. We straighten or replace what's bent, re-hang the run, and talk honestly about whether a heat cable or better attic insulation will stop it happening again. We wrote up how the ice does its damage in ice, snow and gutters.

Downspouts. Crushed by a car in a narrow Bloomfield driveway, separated at an elbow by ice, or simply rusted through at the bottom where the old steel meets the ground. Downspout repair Pittsburgh-wide is quick, and we upsize to 3x4 while we're there if the run carries more than about 600 square feet of roof. If the downspout goes into a clay pipe at grade, we run water through it and tell you whether it's still draining anywhere.

Fascia and soffit repair. A gutter that has overflowed for years soaks the fascia behind it, and a gutter can't hang on soft wood. We cut out the rot, check the rafter tails, install new primed lumber or PVC trim, and re-hang. Fascia and soffit repair Pittsburgh homes need is priced per foot on the same estimate as the gutter work, so there's no surprise bill on the day.

Repair or replace

If the gutter is aluminum, under about 20 years old, and the trouble is in two or three spots — repair. If it's sectional with a seam every 10 feet, galvanized steel with rust pinholes, or more than a third of the runs need something, you'll spend nearly a replacement's worth patching it and still have old gutters. The full decision is written out in repair vs. replacement in Pittsburgh, and the installation page covers what a new system involves.

Built-in box gutters are a different question entirely. Those are never replaced with hung aluminum without a lot of thought, and they have their own page: box gutter repair.

What a repair visit looks like

1. Every run is checked from a ladder, not from the driveway. We push a screwdriver into the fascia at the corners and below every downspout.
2. We look at where each downspout ends up — on a splash block, into a pipe, or straight at the foundation.
3. You get a written price. Repairs under $400 are usually done on the spot if you say yes.
4. We run a hose through the repaired section before we leave.

If you want to narrow it down before we arrive, how to find a gutter leak walks through the hose test, and why gutters overflow in Pittsburgh rain covers overflow that isn't a leak at all.

What repair won't fix

A 5-inch gutter with a single 2x3 downspout on a 50-foot run will overflow in a July thunderstorm no matter how well it's sealed. That's a sizing problem, and we'll say so rather than charge you to reseal a gutter that was never going to keep up. A second downspout or a 3x4 upgrade is usually the fix, and it's a repair-sized price.

Neighborhoods

If you searched gutter repair near me Pittsburgh and landed here, we're in the city neighborhoods most days — Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Highland Park, Morningside, Greenfield, Brookline, Beechview, Mt. Washington — and the suburbs on either side of the rivers: Dormont, Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair to the south; Ross Township and out to Cranberry Township to the north; Monroeville east; Moon Township west; Sewickley and Fox Chapel along the Ohio and Allegheny. Same price list everywhere; no travel charge inside Allegheny County.