Your gutter company in Tarpon Springs

Old downtown houses need the right gutters

Tarpon Springs has one of the older downtowns in Pinellas, and the streets near Spring Bayou are full of wood frame houses. Many of those homes have had gutters added or swapped out more than once. The fascia board the gutter hangs on is often old wood, and after years of Florida rain some of it has gone soft. Hang a new gutter on a rotten board and it pulls loose in the first hard storm.

So on an older house we look at the wood before we talk about gutters. If the fascia or soffit is rotten, we tell you, and we can replace the wood soffit and fascia before the new gutter goes up. Some of these houses look better with half round gutters and round downspouts. That curved shape suits an old house more than the K-style profile you see on newer homes. You get to see both and choose.

Sometimes the problem is bigger than the gutter. It could be a roof edge that a roofer should check first. We will tell you when that happens. One customer wrote that Blair "accurately identified the project's complexity and recommended involving a roofer to ensure a long-term solution." Another customer had an older home. That customer wrote: "The gutters look great and the work exceeded my expectation for an older house." On these streets, the job starts with fixing what sits under the gutter. Then we hang one that fits the house.

• Fascia and soffit checked for soft wood first
• Rotten wood fascia replaced before the gutter goes up
• Half round or K-style gutters to suit the house
• Hidden hangers fastened into solid wood
• Work area cleaned up before the crew leaves

Bayou and river lots need good drainage

Much of Tarpon Springs sits on water, from the Anclote River and its bayous to the Gulf shore at Sunset Beach. Homes near the water are often on low, flat lots where the ground is already soaked by midsummer. Storms off the Gulf push rain sideways. A gutter that sags, or one too small for the roof, lets that water pour straight over the edge and down beside the house.

Water dumped next to the house is how foundation damage and water damage start. On a low lot it has nowhere to go, so it pools against the wall and washes soil out of the flower beds. Getting the water off the roof is half the work. The other half is moving it far enough from the house that it drains away instead of sitting there for days after a storm.

That is where downspouts come in. On the corners that take the most water, we can put in a larger downspout. On a low yard, we can pipe it underground to a pop up emitter, a small cap in the lawn that lets water out. Downspout installation is one of the things our Google reviewers bring up most. On a bayou lot, where the water ends up matters as much as the gutter does.

Live oaks and pines clog gutters here

Tarpon Springs keeps a lot of its trees. Live oaks shade the old streets downtown, and the neighborhoods toward Lake Tarpon have pines and oaks hanging over plenty of roofs. Live oaks drop their old leaves in early spring, and pines shed needles on and off all year. All of it lands on the roof and washes into the gutter, where it packs down into a wet mat.

A clogged gutter overflows at its low spot, and that is often right over a door or a window. Most people notice it when rain sheets off the front of the house instead of coming out of the downspout. Wet leaves sitting in the gutter keep the fascia damp and start rotting the wood. On a long run the extra weight can pull the hangers loose. And the standing water breeds mosquitoes, which nobody needs more of in a Florida summer.

There are two ways to handle it. We can clean the gutters and downspouts, and look for loose hangers and leaks while we are up there. If you would rather stop cleaning them, we install aluminum gutter guards that keep leaves out and let rain through. Under heavy oak or pine cover, a guard can save you a lot of trips up the ladder, and your gutters keep draining the way they should.

Getting a price in Tarpon Springs

Call (813) 539-5260, or send us your name and address through this page and tell us what is going on with your gutters. The estimate is free. Someone comes out to measure the house and look at the fascia and drainage before pricing it. One customer wrote that Blair "showed me color options for the gutters and helped pick the color we were aiming for." You get a written estimate before you agree to any work. We are open Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.