Four sides of gutter on one house
On a gable roof, gutter runs along two sides and the ends are just trim. On a hip roof every eave catches water, so a modest house can carry more gutter footage than you'd guess from the sidewalk. Each outside corner is a miter, and each miter is a joint that has to stay sealed through every freeze and thaw of a Missouri winter.
The corners on these houses have usually been resealed more than once, and you can tell. There's a lump of caulk on top of older caulk, a stain down the brick and a drip line in the mulch. Caulk over caulk doesn't bond. The old sealant has to come out, the metal gets cleaned to bare aluminum, and new sealant goes on a dry joint.
If a corner has been patched so often there's nothing clean left to bond to, we cut in a new miter. That's still a repair. It isn't a new gutter.
Pin oaks, and what they do to an outlet
The streets around Francis Park carry big oaks, and pin oaks are hard on gutters. They drop catkins in May, then acorns, then small leathery leaves that cling to the branch well into winter and come down in waves. That late drop is the one people miss. A gutter cleaned in early November can be full again by January.
Most of the damage starts at the outlet. Acorns roll down the trough, wedge in the drop, and leaves pack in behind them. Once the outlet plugs, the corner nearest it overflows first, and on a hip roof that corner is often right over a window or the front step.
Under heavy oak we usually suggest a late cleaning after the trees finally let go. Our fall gutter cleaning timing page covers the two-pass approach.
Short drops, and more of them
A hip roof with gutter on four sides needs more downspouts than a gable house. Generally we want a drop for every 30 to 40 feet of gutter, and one on every side. Many homes here have fewer, because the builder put downspouts where they'd be hidden instead of where the water wanted to go.
Adding a drop at a back corner is one of the cheaper fixes we sell. It often ends an overflow a homeowner has been fighting for years. It also takes load off the front downspouts, which matters if those still tie into the ground.
Brick, mortar and the stain line
Water that runs behind a gutter or spills over a corner ends up on brick. Brick shrugs off rain. What wears it down is the same strip getting soaked every storm, freezing overnight and thawing the next afternoon. Mortar joints under a leaking miter give out years ahead of the rest of the wall.
White crust or dark streaks under one corner are your leak, even if you've never seen it drip. Fix the gutter now and the tuckpointing bill stays small. Put it off and it grows.
Downspout straps take a toll as well. Older ones were nailed into mortar joints, and after decades of a downspout rattling in the wind, the joint around each nail goes loose. When we reset a downspout we fasten into sound masonry with a proper anchor and point out the old holes for your mason.
All at once, or one side
Some owners want a whole new system because the old one is mismatched after decades of piecemeal fixes. That's reasonable, and on a hip roof a full replacement goes up as one continuous job with fresh miters at every corner.
But if three sides are sound and one is failing, we'll quote the one side. The reasoning is laid out in when gutters need replacing, and it applies here the same as anywhere.
Related gutter work
Guards under pin oaks: our honest read
Pin oak leaves are small enough to slip through some cheap screen guards and stiff enough to sit on top of others. A fine micro-mesh does better because only water gets through. Even so, oak catkins can mat on the surface in spring and need brushing off, especially on a low-pitch section over a porch.
We won't sell you a guard as a never-clean-again product. It means cleaning less often. If that trade makes sense for your house, we'll quote it. If your gutter is due for replacement in a couple of years, we'd do the gutter first and put the guard on new metal.
St. Louis Hills gutter questions
Why does only one corner of our gutter leak?
That corner usually takes the most water, often because the outlet beside it is half plugged or the run is pitched toward it. Reseal the joint and clear the outlet on the same visit, or the drip comes back.
Can you match the old gutter if we only replace one side?
We'll match the profile and get the color close. Old gutter has faded, so new metal next to it reads a little brighter for a while. On a hip roof we try to break the change at a corner where it's less noticeable.
Our roof is slate or tile. Does that change the gutter work?
It changes how we reach the gutter. We work from ladders at the eave and stay off the roof, since slate and tile crack underfoot. That can add setup time, and the estimate will show it.
How many downspouts should a hip-roof house have?
Usually at least one per side, and more on a long side. We look at how much roof feeds each run before we give you a number.
Do you clean gutters in the winter?
Yes, as long as the trough isn't frozen solid. Under pin oaks a December or January cleaning is sometimes the most useful one of the year.
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