Service areas
Gutter help across Columbus and Franklin County
This site covers Columbus, OH and the suburbs around it in Franklin County. Below is a guide to each area this site covers, with what tends to go wrong on the houses there and what it usually costs to fix. Area codes 614, 380.
Columbus area guides
Dublin
Dublin's big 1980s–2000s two-story homes carry more roof per downspout than almost anywhere in Franklin County, and many of them still have the gutters the builder hung. This guide covers when they're worth repairing, when seamless replacement makes more sense, and what both typically cost.
Dublin gutter guide →Upper Arlington
Old Arlington's brick colonials and Tudors were built with half-round gutters on brackets, box gutters in the cornice, and slate or tile roofs that still shed water into them. That's a different job from hanging aluminum on a vinyl two-story, and it's worth hiring for it.
Upper Arlington gutter guide →Westerville
Westerville has three kinds of houses and three kinds of gutter trouble: old homes around Uptown and Otterbein, postwar ranches in the middle, and big builder two-stories on the edges. This guide sorts out which one you have and what the fix usually is.
Westerville gutter guide →How the houses change across the metro
Central Ohio gutters all live through the same weather: roughly 40 inches of rain in an average year and a winter that swings above and below freezing dozens of times. What changes from one town to the next is the house underneath them, and that decides which job you are likely to face.
Prewar brick in the city. German Village, Clintonville, Bexley, Old Worthington and the Near East Side are full of brick homes from the 1890s to the 1930s. Many have box gutters hidden in the cornice, lined with metal, plus clay tiles at grade that swallow the downspouts. Here the usual question is reline or rebuild, not tear off and hang new aluminum. The gutter repair guide explains box gutter work.
Old Arlington. South of Lane Avenue, Upper Arlington has slate and tile roofs over half-round copper or galvanized gutters on brackets, all under maples and oaks close to a century old. North of Lane the streets turn to 1950s–70s brick ranches on their second set of K-style aluminum. The Upper Arlington gutter guide covers both halves.
Midcentury ranches. Whitehall, Reynoldsburg and the older parts of Worthington have many 1950s–60s ranches and story-and-a-halfs with shallow attics. Those are the houses where ice dams show up most, so the gutter is often the victim of an attic problem.
Builder two-stories. Dublin, Hilliard, Westerville, Gahanna, Grove City and Pickerington grew fast between about 1990 and 2015. Their vinyl-sided two-stories mostly still carry thin sectional gutters on spike hangers with small 2x3 downspouts, and those systems are reaching the end now. The Dublin gutter guide walks through the big-roof version of this house, the Westerville gutter repair guide covers a suburb with all three eras side by side, and the seamless installation guide explains what a full replacement should include.
Trees, ground and slope
Leaf load follows the age of the neighborhood. Under the old canopy in Upper Arlington, Clintonville and Bexley, silver maples, oaks and sycamores fill troughs from October into early December, and that is where the gutter guards guide earns its keep. In the newer subdivisions the trees are still young, so guards can often wait.
The soil barely varies. Nearly all of Franklin County is dense glacial clay, and many newer lots were graded flat, so a downspout that stops beside the wall sends its water straight at the basement. Old clay tiles on the prewar streets fail the same way once they crack near the house. Both cases point to the downspout drain lines guide.
Which guide to start with
- A wet basement corner anywhere in the county: start with the drain lines page.
- A sagging or dripping run on a 1990s–2000s house: start with repair, then compare against replacement.
- Copper, half-round, slate or box gutters: start with the Upper Arlington page, even if you live in German Village.
- A huge back roof that overflows in July: start with the Dublin page.
- Leaves twice a year under big trees: start with guards.
What changes from one city to the next
Columbus, Dublin, Upper Arlington and every other suburb run their own building departments, so permits, contractor registration and inspection steps are not the same everywhere. Check with the city before work starts. Historic districts such as German Village and Old Arlington may also have rules for changes visible from the street, so ask the city about those before choosing a new gutter profile. HOAs in the newer subdivisions often have their own color and style guidelines, so read yours before ordering.
Other towns and neighborhoods covered
- Hilliard
- Grove City
- Gahanna
- Worthington
- Reynoldsburg
- Powell
- Pickerington
- …and the neighborhoods in between.
What's the same everywhere in Franklin County
The guides on this site — gutter repair, gutter installation & replacement, gutter guards, gutter cleaning, downspout drain lines — apply across Columbus and every town listed above. Building permits, inspection rules and fees are set by each city, so a job in a suburb can follow slightly different paperwork than one inside Columbus limits; the area guides note the known differences.
How estimate requests work
Calls and estimate requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner who quotes and performs the work. You get a written quote before anything starts, and you are never obligated to hire. If you are outside the areas listed, call anyway and ask — the answer is quick.
Need gutter work in Columbus?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.