Gutter repair in Columbus

The repairs we do most in Columbus

Corners and end caps that leak. The mitered corner is the first place any gutter fails, and freeze-thaw is hard on the sealant. Water sits in the joint, freezes, expands, and lifts the bead a little more each night until the corner drips onto the porch or the AC pad. We scrape the joint back to bare aluminum, dry it, and reseal it with a polyurethane sealant that stays flexible below zero. If the miter itself has split, we replace the corner. Gutter leak repair Columbus-wide runs $150–$250 a corner and is the most common call we get from March through May.

Runs that sagged under snow and ice. A gutter full of ice weighs eight pounds a foot, and spike-and-ferrule hangers pull straight out of soft fascia under that load. The run drops in the middle, holds water, freezes first next winter, and gets worse. Sagging gutter repair Columbus homeowners ask for is a re-hang: hidden screw hangers into the rafter tails every 24 inches (18 on runs that carry ice), pitch reset a quarter inch per 10 feet toward the downspout, and any spike holes sealed. Typically $150–$300 per run.

Downspouts crushed, separated or missing. Snowblowers, mowers and cars back into them. An elbow that has come apart sprays the foundation instead of the extension. We replace the section, re-strap it, and upsize to 3x4 while we're there if the run is long — about $40 more per downspout for double the capacity. Downspout repair Columbus-wide is usually $120–$220 each.

Gutters pulled off by wind or ice. The June derecho in 2012 and the remnants of Hurricane Ike in 2008 both stripped gutters off thousands of Columbus homes, and smaller wind events do it to a few every year. A straight section gets re-hung; a kinked one gets replaced and color-matched. If it's storm damage, we photograph it first for your insurer.

Fascia rotted behind the gutter. Years of overflow soak the board the gutter hangs on. New hangers won't bite in soft wood. We cut out the rot, replace it with primed lumber or PVC trim, and re-hang. Fascia and soffit repair Columbus homes need is priced per foot on the same estimate — usually a board or two at a corner, not the whole house.

Box gutters on older homes. German Village, Clintonville, Old Worthington and the Near East Side have brick homes with box gutters built into the cornice and lined with galvanized steel or copper. These are repaired by cleaning, drying and relining the trough with a fluid membrane or new metal, and rebuilding the wood underneath where it's gone. There aren't many crews doing box gutter repair Columbus Ohio-wide, because it's a different trade from hanging aluminum, and we quote it after a look, not over the phone.

Repair or replace?

The rule we use: aluminum, under 20 years old, one or two problem spots — repair. Sectional with seams every 10 feet, steel that's rusting through, or more than a third of the runs needing work — replace, because patching adds up to a new system's price without the warranty. We wrote the decision out with local prices in repair vs. replacement in Columbus, and the replacement page explains what a new seamless system includes.

What a repair visit looks like

1. Every run checked from a ladder, not from the yard, with a screwdriver in the fascia at the corners.
2. Every downspout traced to where it ends. If it ends at the foundation on clay, extensions go on the estimate — cheapest thing on it and the most important.
3. A written price. Repairs under $400 are usually done on the spot if you say yes.
4. A hose test on the repaired run before we leave.

If you want a head start, how to find a gutter leak walks through the hose test, and why gutters overflow in Columbus rain sorts out the overflow that isn't a leak.

What repair can't fix

A 5-inch gutter with a single 2x3 downspout on a 50-foot run will overflow in a July thunderstorm no matter how well it's sealed, and it will fill with ice every winter no matter how well it's hung. That's a sizing problem. The honest fix is a second downspout, a 3x4 upgrade or a 6-inch run on that side — we'll say which, and we won't sell you a reseal on a gutter that was never going to keep up.

Where we repair gutters

Clintonville, Beechwold and Worthington (1920s–50s homes, mature trees, a lot of ice-dam work); Upper Arlington and Grandview (brick, half-round and box gutters); Bexley and Berwick; the Northwest side, Hilliard and Dublin; Westerville and Gahanna; Grove City, Reynoldsburg and Pickerington. If you searched gutter repair near me Columbus is a big place, so here's the scheduling reality: anywhere inside the outerbelt is same-week, and the suburbs are the same crews a day or two later. Dublin and Upper Arlington have their own pages.