Flat Pinellas Park yards hold rainwater

Flat yards keep roof water close

Pinellas Park sits in the middle of the county, and most of it is flat and low. That matters for gutters more than people expect. On a sloped lot, water leaving a downspout runs downhill and away. Here it spreads out on the grass next to the house and sits there. After a heavy afternoon storm you can often see the puddles line up under every corner of the roof.

Water that sits against a slab does slow damage. It soaks the soil along the foundation and works its way under doors and into the block. Many homes here are single-story concrete block built close to the ground, so there is not much between a puddle and the living room. A downspout that drops water right at the wall makes the problem worse every time it rains.

So on a Pinellas Park house we plan the downspouts before we talk about the gutters. We look at where the water will land and whether the yard can take it. Sometimes a larger downspout moved to a better corner is enough. Where it is not, we can pipe the water underground to a pop up emitter or a catch basin out in the yard. Either way it comes up well away from the slab.

• Downspouts placed where the yard can drain
• Larger downspouts where a roof sheds a lot of water
• Underground pipe to a pop up emitter when needed
• Gutters built in continuous runs with no seams
• Work area cleaned up before the crew leaves

Summer storms find every clogged gutter

Pinellas Park gets its rain in bursts. Through the summer, afternoon storms can dump a lot of water in a short time, and a gutter has to move all of it. If the gutter is half full of leaves, it cannot keep up. Water spills over the front edge in a sheet. It lands in the same line along the house every time and cuts a trench in the bed below.

Trees are the other half of it. Older streets here have oaks that have grown out over the roofline, and live oaks shed a heavy load of leaves in spring. Pine needles are worse, because they mat together and hold water. A gutter packed with wet debris gets heavy and starts to pull away from the fascia. Once it sags, it holds standing water instead of draining it.

Cleaning is part of the answer, and we do gutter cleaning on its own or as part of a larger job. For houses under heavy tree cover, a gutter guard cuts down how often the gutters need attention. We install aluminum guards and leaf protection, and we will tell you plainly if your roof and trees make a guard worth the money. Some houses do not need one.

Old gutters often hide rotted fascia

Plenty of houses in Pinellas Park still carry gutters that went up decades ago. The metal may look fine from the street. The trouble is usually behind it, where years of overflow have soaked the wood fascia board the gutter is fastened to. Once that wood goes soft, the screws lose their grip, and the gutter leans out or drops at one end.

When we take old gutters down, we look at the fascia and soffit before anything new goes up. Soft or rotted wood gets repaired or replaced first. A new gutter hung on bad fascia fails the same way the old one did. If we find a problem that belongs to a roofer, we say so. One customer wrote that Blair "accurately identified the project's complexity and recommended involving a roofer to ensure a long-term solution."

New gutters are built in continuous runs, so there are no joints along the length to open up and drip. We install K-style gutters, plus half round and copper where they suit the house. Color is picked to go with your trim. We are rated 4.9 from 847 Google reviews, and Lisa wrote that her gutters "look great and blend in with the house and trim color."

Getting a price in Pinellas Park

Call us at (813) 539-5260, or request a visit online, and tell us what the gutters on your Pinellas Park house are doing. We come out to measure the house and see where the water goes. The estimate is free, and you get the price in writing before any work starts. Kendra Booth wrote, "Pricing was reasonable for the product and service." We are open Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.