Gutters in Columbus, Ohio: a guide to repair, replacement and guards

What Columbus does to gutters

Columbus gets about 40 inches of rain and a real winter's worth of snow in a normal year, and the winters are the part that matters. Water sits in a gutter that isn't pitched right, freezes overnight, thaws in the afternoon sun, and does it again dozens of times a winter. Every cycle pries the sealant off a corner and works the hangers a little further out of the fascia. By April the gutter has dropped an inch in the middle and the corner that used to weep now runs.

Ice dams do the rest. Snow melts over a warm attic, runs down to the cold eave, and freezes into a ridge that fills the gutter solid. A gutter full of ice is far heavier than one full of water, and spike hangers driven into 30-year-old fascia were never going to hold that, which is why so many Columbus gutters are hanging by two spikes and hope by the end of February.

The ground is the other half of the story. Most of Franklin County sits on dense glacial clay that barely drains. When a downspout ends a foot from the house, the water has nowhere to go but down along the foundation wall and in through the block. Basement waterproofing companies charge $5,000 to $15,000 to fix that from the inside. A downspout extension or a buried drain line fixes many of these from the outside for a few hundred dollars, which is why a good gutter estimate always says where every downspout ends.

The main gutter jobs, explained

Gutter repair. Resealing corners and end caps, re-hanging sagging runs on hidden screw hangers, replacing crushed or separated downspouts, adding a downspout to a run that only has one, and replacing fascia that rotted behind years of overflow. Most repairs are $150–$600 and take a morning. The gutter repair guide covers each job and when a repair will hold.

Seamless gutter replacement and installation. This is the big job here. Dublin, Hilliard, Westerville, Gahanna, Grove City and Pickerington filled up with vinyl-sided two-story homes between 1990 and 2015, and the builder gutters on them are now 15 to 35 years old: thin sectional aluminum, seams every 10 feet, spike hangers, 2x3 downspouts. A replacement takes it all down and runs new seamless 5- or 6-inch aluminum formed on site, with 3x4 downspouts and hidden hangers. Expect about $9–$16 per foot installed. The installation and replacement guide covers what should be included and the cost guide has the tables.

Gutter guards. Silver maples, pin oaks, sycamores and cottonwoods drop different things at different times, and no single guard handles all of it. Micro-mesh and screen both have a place; the gutter guards guide sorts out which one is worth it under which trees.

Gutter cleaning. A good cleaning is also a ladder inspection: a loose hanger or a soft fascia board should be pointed out, with a photo, before the ladder comes down. Gutter cleaning is usually priced flat by home size.

Downspout drain lines. Buried PVC from the downspout to a pop-up emitter or a spot that drains, for lots where a 4-foot extension isn't enough or lands on the driveway. This is the usual outside fix for the recurring wet corner in the basement. See downspout drain lines.

Where this guide covers

Columbus proper, from German Village and Clintonville out to the outerbelt, plus Dublin, Upper Arlington, Worthington, Westerville, Hilliard, Grove City, Reynoldsburg and Powell. The same guides apply to gutters in Gahanna, Pickerington, Blacklick and Lithopolis, where most houses are newer two-stories with the same builder-grade systems. Two suburbs have their own pages because the houses there have their own problems: Dublin for big 1990s two-stories, and Upper Arlington for old brick, slate and half-round gutters. Gutters in Ohio all face the same freeze-thaw, but the housing stock changes the job from one suburb to the next. Wherever you are, a call or estimate request from this site goes to an independent local contractor partner who looks at the gutters, writes the quote and performs the work.

Older homes: box gutters and brick

German Village, Clintonville, Old Worthington, Bexley and the Near East Side have brick homes from the 1890s through the 1930s, many with box gutters built into the roof edge and lined with metal. Those are not a tear-off-and-replace job. They're relined, resealed, or — where the wood underneath is gone — rebuilt, and a good contractor will tell you honestly when the lining has a few years left. The repair guide explains what box gutter work involves. In German Village and other historic districts, check with the city's Historic Preservation Office before changing anything visible from the street.

What to do if you're reading this in a storm

If a gutter has pulled off and water is landing at the foundation, say so when you request an estimate so the contractor knows it's urgent. Photograph the damage yourself from the ground before anything is moved, and check your policy or ask your agent what it covers. If the basement is taking water at one corner, look at which downspout is closest to it — it's very often the cause, and this post explains why and what the cheap fix is.