We cover Safety Harbor from Oldsmar

Big oaks fill Safety Harbor gutters fast

Safety Harbor is known for its old live oaks. You see them along Main Street and over the yards on many streets near the bay. People love the shade, but the trees are hard on gutters. A live oak drops its old leaves in late winter and spring, as the new ones come in. Pollen tassels and acorns come down on top of that. A roof under one of them collects all of it.

That debris packs into the bottom of the gutter and stays wet. When the summer afternoon storms start, the rain has nowhere to go. It spills over the front edge and lands right along the foundation, or it backs up behind the gutter and soaks the fascia board. Wood fascia that stays wet goes soft. Then the hangers lose their grip, and the gutter starts to sag away from the roof.

So on a Safety Harbor house under oaks, we clean the gutters out and check that each downspout drains. Then we talk about what the trees will keep doing. For a lot of these homes, a leaf guard makes more sense than paying for the same cleaning again and again. We install aluminum gutter guards and other leaf protection, and we will tell you plainly if your trees do not call for it.

• Clean oak leaves and tassels out of every gutter
• Check that each downspout drains
• Look for soft wood fascia behind the gutter
• Fit aluminum gutter guards under heavy oak cover
• Rehang sagging gutters with hidden hangers

Older Safety Harbor homes need fascia checks

Safety Harbor grew up around the mineral springs at the bay end of Main Street. Some of the houses on the streets nearby are much older than the subdivisions farther out. Many of them have wood fascia and wood soffits. Some have gutters that have been patched more than once. On an older house the gutter is often the smaller problem, and the board it hangs from matters more.

When a gutter overflows for years, water runs down the back of it and into the fascia. The wood rots from behind, where nobody can see it from the yard. The screws stop holding and a section pulls loose. After that, water gets into the soffit too. Hanging a new gutter on a rotten board hides the damage for a while, and then the next big storm pulls it down.

So when we come out to measure, we look at the fascia as well as the gutters. If the wood is soft, we repair or replace it before the new gutter goes up. We handle wood soffit and fascia, and vinyl soffit too. Some owners of older homes like half round gutters with round downspouts, and we install those as well as K-style. One Google reviewer wrote: "The gutters look great and the work exceeded my expectation for an older house."

Summer storms in Safety Harbor need drainage

Summer in Safety Harbor brings a hard storm most afternoons, and a big roof sheds a lot of water in a few minutes. Old Tampa Bay runs along the east side of town, and some lots near the water sit low. On those yards, water from a downspout has trouble draining away. It pools next to the slab and washes out the soil at the corners of the house.

A downspout that is too small makes it worse. In a downpour the gutter fills faster than the downspout can empty it, and the water goes over the top. On a big roof, or a long run that gathers water from more than one slope, we can fit the larger downspout size. That keeps the water moving. We also look at where each downspout empties, because a gutter that dumps water against the foundation still causes damage.

The fix depends on the yard. Where the ground is flat, we can run the water through an underground pipe. A catch basin collects it, and a pop up emitter lets it out in the yard, well away from the house. By a porch or patio, some homeowners pick a rain chain instead of a downspout, and we install those too. One customer, Mike Riga, wrote: "Nestor took it upon himself to help me out with the erosion by placing sand and mulch where it occurred."

Getting a price in Safety Harbor

Call (813) 539-5260 or send us a message from this page, and tell us what your gutters are doing. We will come out to your Safety Harbor home to measure and look over the gutters and the wood behind them. We can show you color options while we are there, so the new gutters match your trim. You get a free written estimate before any work starts, and we are open weekdays and Saturday mornings.