We find the cause, then fix it

Every repair starts with a close inspection

Most gutter trouble shows up as water in the wrong place, like a dirty stripe down the stucco or a puddle sitting against the slab. Where you see the water is often not where the gutter is failing. Water can run along the back edge of a gutter and drop off at the first low spot, well away from the real problem. So we start at the roofline and go over the whole run before anyone talks about a fix.

On the ladder we check every corner joint and end cap for signs of dripping. We check the pitch, because a gutter that has settled flat holds water instead of moving it to the outlet. Then we press on the fascia behind the hangers, since a soft board will not hold a screw no matter how new the hanger is. If the real problem is the roof edge, we say so. One Google reviewer wrote that Blair "accurately identified the project's complexity and recommended involving a roofer to ensure a long-term solution."

After the inspection you get a plain answer about what is wrong and what it takes to fix it, and the estimate is free. A leaking corner is a small job. A run that has pulled away from rotted wood is a bigger one, and you will know which one you have before any work is scheduled. If a section is too far gone to repair, we tell you that too. Sealing it again would only leave you with the same leak next summer.

• Roof edge checked for the real cause
• Every corner joint and end cap inspected
• Pitch checked so water reaches the outlet
• Fascia tested behind each hanger
• Free estimate before any work is scheduled

Leaking corners need more than fresh caulk

Corners are where most gutters leak. A corner is two pieces of gutter cut at an angle and joined, called a miter, and it is held together with rivets and sealant. That includes the angled bay miters that wrap around a bay window. In Florida sun the aluminum heats up and cools down every single day, and the joint shifts a little each time. Eventually the sealant cracks and pulls away from the metal, and the corner drips whenever it rains.

Running a new bead of caulk over the old one is the quick fix, and it rarely holds for long. The new sealant sits on dirt and old failed caulk instead of clean metal, so it lets go the same way the first layer did. A repair that lasts starts by scraping out the old sealant and cleaning the metal underneath. Loose rivets get replaced. Then the joint is sealed from the inside of the gutter, where the water actually sits.

End caps fail the same way. So do the joints on older sectional gutters, which went up in short pieces with a seam every few feet. Those seams all age together, so when one starts dripping, the rest are usually close behind. If your house has a lot of them, we will point out how many are failing. Then we talk through whether resealing makes sense or whether that stretch is due for a new continuous run.

Sagging gutters usually mean the hangers failed

A gutter full of water is heavy, and in a summer thunderstorm it fills faster than the outlet can drain it. All of that weight hangs on the hangers and the fasteners holding them. Many older houses around Oldsmar and Clearwater still have spike and ferrule hangers, which are long nails driven through the gutter into the fascia. Heat and that repeated weight slowly work the spikes loose, and the gutter starts to lean out and sag.

A sagging run causes damage you cannot see from the driveway. Water pools in the low spot, which adds weight and pulls the gutter out even further. In a hard rain it spills over the front and lands right against the foundation. Our fix is to pull the loose spikes and rehang the run on hidden hangers screwed into solid wood. The hangers go close enough together to carry a full gutter. Then we reset the pitch so water heads for the outlet again.

Rehanging only works if the wood behind the gutter is sound. On many concrete block and stucco ranch houses here, the fascia is wood, and it stays damp for months behind a leaking gutter. When a screw spins instead of biting, the board is rotten. A new hanger will pull out of that board just like the old spike did. That is why fascia repair has to happen before the gutter goes back up.

We replace rotted fascia before rehanging gutters

Fascia is the board along the edge of the roof that the gutter hangs on. Wood fascia around here spends more time damp than dry. Humid air keeps it from drying out, and a leaking gutter soaks the back of the board where nobody looks. The paint on the front can look fine while the wood behind it has turned soft enough to push a screwdriver into. You usually find out when a hanger pulls loose.

We take the gutter down along the damaged stretch and pull out the rotted board. The new fascia goes up and gets fastened solid before the gutter goes back on it. We look at the soffit underneath at the same time, because rot in the fascia often spreads into it. We repair both wood and vinyl soffit, so the whole damaged roof edge gets fixed on the same job.

Skipping the fascia is the most common reason a gutter repair fails. A gutter rehung on soft wood looks right the day it is done. After a few heavy storms it starts sagging again, because the screws have nothing to grip. Near the bay in Oldsmar and Safety Harbor, salt air also eats at plain steel screws, so the fasteners get checked along with the board. In a Google review, Greg Avis wrote: "Also received over a dozen pics on the final work."