Gutter repair in Kirkwood, MO

Gutter repair, Kirkwood, MO: three kinds of house

Three kinds of house, three kinds of job. The 1890s–1930s homes around downtown Kirkwood — the streets off Argonne Drive and Kirkwood Road, the blocks near the Amtrak station — carry half-round gutters on brackets, a good share of them copper, and box gutters built into the cornice on the grander Victorians. Those are repair and re-hang jobs: soldering copper, replacing rusted brackets and rebuilding box gutter liners. Tearing copper off to hang white aluminum is rarely the right call. See copper and half-round gutters.

The 1950s–70s ranches and split-levels in Osage Hills, Meramec Highlands and along Big Bend and Geyer carry their original aluminum or galvanized steel. The steel is rusting through, the aluminum is sectional and leaking at the seams, and the spike hangers have backed out. Most of those are replacements, so gutter installation in Kirkwood on those streets usually means seamless 5- or 6-inch aluminum at $9–$16 a foot, with fascia repaired first.

The teardown rebuilds of the last twenty years have big roofs and, too often, builder-grade 5-inch gutters with 2x3 downspouts that overflow at the far corner in a May storm. That's a capacity repair — a second downspout or 3x4 upgrade — not a replacement.

The trees

Kirkwood has a canopy to match its reputation. Pin oaks and white oaks along the older streets hold their leaves into December; the sycamores along the creeks drop in a two-week rush in October; silver maples in the 1960s subdivisions dump helicopters in May. A gutter under that gets cleaned three times a year or it gets micro-mesh guards. Which makes sense depends on the lot, and a good contractor will price both.

Basements and the creek lots

Kirkwood sits on clay over limestone, and the lots that slope toward Sugar Creek and Gravois Creek hold water. Almost every house has a basement. A downspout dumping at the foundation on a Kirkwood lot is a fast route to a wet basement, and the fix is extensions carrying water six feet out, or a buried line to daylight on the sloping lots. Any house gutter repair here should include a look at where the downspouts end. Downspouts and your St. Louis foundation explains the soil side.

Box gutters: what the job involves

Box gutters are built into the roof edge or cornice rather than hung on the outside, so from the street you may not see them at all. Water collects in a wooden trough lined with metal and drains through an outlet to a downspout. When the lining fails, water soaks into the wood and the cornice below. Signs include peeling paint on the cornice, stains on the porch ceiling or the top of an inside wall, and a downspout that runs dry while water drips from the roof edge.

The repair usually goes in this order: open up the trough, remove the failed liner, rebuild any rotted boards, set a new liner with the right slope to the outlet, and seal the outlet and the downspout connection. It is slower work than hanging a new gutter, and it is usually quoted after a ladder look. Some owners choose to have the box gutter covered and a hung gutter fitted instead. That changes the look of the house and needs careful flashing, so ask for both options to be priced.

What to check on a Kirkwood house

Walk around after a hard rain and look for these:

1. Water running down the brick or siding from one spot, which points to a seam, outlet or corner.
2. A gutter line that dips between brackets.
3. Wet soil or a puddle near the foundation where a downspout ends.
4. Soft or peeling wood along the roof edge, often under a big oak where leaves sit wet.
5. Leaves still packed in the gutter in January, which means the December cleaning was missed or came too early.

Repair or replace in Kirkwood

The age of the house usually decides it. Copper and half-round on the older homes are mostly worth repairing. Galvanized steel on the 1950s–70s ranches is usually at the end of its life. Newer homes with builder-grade gutters often need more downspouts rather than new gutters. Repair vs. replacement sets out a plain rule for deciding.

Permits and the city

Kirkwood has its own building department. Licensing and permit rules vary by city and county — check with your city or St. Louis County before work starts; here, that means checking with Kirkwood's building department, especially for fascia, soffit or structural work at the roof edge. Whoever you hire, ask for a certificate of general liability and workers' compensation insurance sent by their agent.

The main jobs in Kirkwood

• Gutter repair — resealing, re-hanging, downspouts, fascia; often a corner and a run
• Copper and half-round — soldering, brackets, box gutter liners on the downtown-area homes
• Seamless replacement — the 1950s–70s ranches in Osage Hills and Meramec Highlands
• Gutter guards — micro-mesh under the oaks and sycamores
• Gutter cleaning — a December visit under oaks, not November

Typical prices in Kirkwood

Prices here track the rest of St. Louis County. Repairs $150–$600, copper repairs $250–$600, seamless aluminum $9–$16 a foot, aluminum half-round $12–$20, cleaning $120–$300 by house size. A 1920s home near downtown Kirkwood with 130 feet of half-round and two soldered outlet repairs is typically a $400–$700 visit; a 1960s ranch in Osage Hills with 170 feet of new seamless and 20 feet of fascia is $2,000–$3,000. These are typical ranges, not quotes; the cost guide has the full tables.

Nearby

The same advice applies in Webster Groves, Glendale, Oakland, Des Peres, Sunset Hills and Crestwood. Requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner who quotes and performs the work.