Gutter repair in Pittsburgh

The most common jobs in gutter repair

Pittsburgh, PA houses mostly need one of five repairs, and the first one is the freeze-thaw special.

Gutter leak repair. 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. The fix is to 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, the corner gets replaced. It's usually $150–$250, and how to find a gutter leak walks through the hose test.

Sagging gutter repair. Pittsburgh's older houses mostly have spike-and-ferrule hangers, and they 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. The usual fix is 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. Sagging gutters and hangers goes into the details.

Ice dam gutter repair. Pittsburgh winters can leave a gutter full of ice by late February, and that weighs several hundred pounds. It bends the front lip, pulls the hangers, and splits seams. The damage shows in March once it thaws. The bent sections get straightened or replaced and the run re-hung; the honest conversation is about whether a heat cable or better attic insulation will stop it happening again. How the ice does its damage is in ice, snow and gutters.

Downspout repair. Pittsburgh driveways are narrow, so downspouts get crushed by cars in Bloomfield, separated at an elbow by ice, or simply rusted through at the bottom where old steel meets the ground. It's quick work, and it's the time to upsize to 3x4 if the run carries more than about 600 square feet of roof. If the downspout goes into a clay pipe at grade, ask for water to be run through it to see whether it still drains anywhere. Leaks at the outlet and elbows have their own guide: outlet and downspout elbow leaks.

Fascia and soffit repair. Pittsburgh's long wet winters are hard on the board behind a gutter that has overflowed for years, and a gutter can't hang on soft wood. The rot is cut out, the rafter tails checked, new primed lumber or PVC trim installed, and the gutter re-hung. Expect it priced per foot on the same estimate as the gutter work. More in the fascia and soffit repair guide.

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; relining them is covered under box gutter repair.

What a good repair visit includes

1. Every run is checked from a ladder, not from the driveway, with a screwdriver pushed into the fascia at the corners and below every downspout.
2. Someone looks at where each downspout ends up — on a splash block, into a pipe, or straight at the foundation.
3. You get a written price before any work starts, and you're under no obligation to say yes on the spot.
4. A hose is run through the repaired section before the contractor leaves.

If you want to narrow it down first, 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 a good contractor will 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.

Checking your gutters before you call

A ten-minute look from the ground tells a contractor most of what they need, and it helps you judge whether the estimate matches the problem.

• Walk the house after a rain. Note any corner that drips, any run with water standing in it, and any downspout that stays dry while the gutter above it is full.
• Look at the fascia paint. Peeling in a band along the roof edge, worst at the corners, means water has been getting behind the gutter.
• Check the bottom of each downspout. Crushed, split at the elbow, or ending against the foundation are all common and cheap to fix.
• Count the downspouts. A single one on a run longer than about 35 feet is a likely reason for overflow.
• Take photos from the ground. They make a phone description far more accurate.

Comparing two repair estimates

Two quotes for the same job can differ by a few hundred dollars, and the cheaper one isn't always the better deal. Put them side by side. Each should name the hanger type and spacing for any re-hang, the sealant used on corners, whether bent sections are straightened or replaced, and whether soft fascia is priced per foot or left out. A low quote that skips the fascia often grows on the day. A high quote that replaces whole runs to fix one corner is worth a second opinion.

Where the contractor partner covers

If you typed "gutter repair near me," Pittsburgh and most of Allegheny County are covered. Requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner who works across:

• City neighborhoods — Squirrel Hill, Shadyside, Highland Park, Morningside, Greenfield, Brookline, Beechview, Mt. Washington.
• The South Hills — Dormont, Mt. Lebanon, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair.
• The North Hills — Ross Township, Wexford and, for gutter repair, Cranberry Township at the Butler County line.
• East and west — for gutter repair, Monroeville, PA and the eastern suburbs; Moon Township to the west; Sewickley and Fox Chapel along the Ohio and Allegheny.

Prices on this site are typical ranges for the area, not a quote; the written estimate is the number that counts.