Gutters in Pittsburgh: a guide to repair, replacement, box gutters and guards

What wears out rain gutters

Pittsburgh averages about 38 inches of rain and 28 inches of snow a year, and the winter swings above and below freezing dozens of times. Those two numbers explain most gutter trouble here. Water gets into a seam or a corner, freezes, opens the joint a little wider, and thaws. By March a corner that was weeping in October is running like a tap. Ice dams at the roof edge do the same thing on a bigger scale: the gutter fills with ice, the ice pushes up under the shingles, and the weight pulls the hangers out of the fascia.

The second problem is the ground. Much of the city is built on hillsides, and a lot of Allegheny County sits on clay and shale that holds water. A downspout dumping next to a stone foundation in Squirrel Hill or Brookline keeps the wall wet for weeks, and on a slope it soaks the ground behind a retaining wall that was never built to hold saturated soil. When a basement gets damp after rain, the downspouts are the first and cheapest thing to check.

The third is the houses themselves. The older neighborhoods have a large stock of pre-1930 brick homes with slate roofs and built-in box gutters — Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Highland Park, Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, the rowhouses of Lawrenceville and Bloomfield. Those gutters are part of the roof, not hung on it, and when the lining fails the water goes into the cornice and the wall. Then there are the 1950s–70s suburbs — Ross Township, Bethel Park, Monroeville, Moon Township — where the original aluminum is fifty years old and the job is a straightforward seamless replacement.

The main gutter jobs, explained

Repair — resealing corners and end caps, re-hanging sagging runs on hidden hangers, replacing crushed or separated downspouts, fixing the fascia behind a gutter that overflowed for years. Most repairs are $150–$600. The guide to gutter repair in Pittsburgh covers each job and when a repair will hold.

Seamless installation and gutter replacement — 5-inch or 6-inch aluminum formed on site from a single coil, sized to the roof, with 3x4 downspouts where a run carries a lot of roof. A typical Pittsburgh home runs $1,500–$3,200. The pricing page has the tables.

Box gutters and slate-roof gutters — relining built-in gutters with rubber membrane or copper, rebuilding rotted gutter boards, and hanging gutters on slate without cracking it. It's specialist work, and many gutter crews don't do it; the box gutter repair guide explains what a proper reline involves.

Gutter guards — micro-mesh, screen and reverse-curve, and a straight answer about which ones survive maple seeds, oak leaves and ice. See gutter guards.

Gutter cleaning — by hand, downspouts flushed, and a ladder look at the hangers and fascia. See gutter cleaning for what a cleaning should include.

Where this guide covers

The city neighborhoods from the South Side Slopes to Highland Park; the South Hills through Dormont, Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, where gutter and downspout repair on 1950s–60s colonials is the usual job; the North Hills through Ross Township to Cranberry Township; east through Monroeville; west to Moon Township and the airport corridor; and the river towns of Sewickley and Fox Chapel. Area codes 412 and 878. Two places have their own guides because their houses are distinctive: Mt. Lebanon and Fox Chapel. Wherever you are, a call or estimate request from this site goes to an independent local contractor partner who looks at the gutters, writes the quote and performs the work.

Checking a contractor's registration and insurance

Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act requires many home improvement contractors to register with the Attorney General's office; look up a contractor's registration number there and check with that office for the current rules, including written-contract requirements. The Attorney General's site is the place to start. Separately, ask for an agent-issued certificate of general liability and workers' compensation insurance before anyone climbs a ladder. A good contractor hands both over without being asked twice.

If you're reading this after a storm

A summer downpour or a September wind has pulled a gutter loose, and now the water is going down the wall. Photograph the damage yourself from the ground before anything is moved, then check your policy or ask your agent what it covers. Say it's storm damage when you call so the contractor partner knows it's urgent. If it's a quiet week instead, the storm-season gutter checklist is a ten-minute walk around the house that keeps you off the emergency list.