Gutter help across St. Louis and St. Louis County

Three kinds of housing, three kinds of gutter trouble

Across the metro, the age of the house predicts the gutter problem better than the zip code does. Inside the city limits — Shaw, Tower Grove, Holly Hills, South Hampton, the Central West End — most homes are brick from the first half of the twentieth century. Many still wear half-round gutters on brackets, and on some streets that metal is copper worth saving. Gangways only five feet wide make every ladder job slower there, so even a small repair takes planning. The copper and half-round guide is the one to read for these houses.

The inner and middle suburbs — Florissant, Affton, Crestwood, Overland, the older parts of Ballwin — are mostly single-story ranches from the 1960s and 70s. Their original aluminum or galvanized steel is tired, the spikes have worked loose, and the board behind the gutter has often taken years of overflow. Start with gutter repair if the trouble is at one or two spots, and with seamless replacement if it's on every side.

Farther west, Chesterfield, Wildwood and the newer parts of Ballwin have big two-story roofs that send a lot of water to a single back run. Out in St. Charles County, O'Fallon and St. Peters subdivisions from the 1990s tend to share one flaw: a long run with a single small downspout. On those houses the fix is usually more outlet capacity, not new metal.

Trees, storms and soil

Tree cover changes the calendar more than anything else. Kirkwood, Webster Groves and University City sit under pin oaks that hang on to leaves into December, so a cleaning done in early November there is often wasted. Sycamores along the creeks let go all at once in October. Silver maples in the 1960s subdivisions shed seed in May that slips through screens and jams the bottom elbow. If you are choosing a cover, the gutter guards guide sorts the options by tree.

Weather is shared across the region: roughly 41 inches of rain a year, spring hail, short summer cloudbursts, and a winter that crosses the freezing line again and again. Exposure is not shared. The open Missouri River valley below Chesterfield takes more wind than the wooded bluffs above it, and loosely hung runs there get peeled back in a storm.

Under almost all of it is clay over limestone, and nearly every house has a basement. On sloping lots near Sugar Creek or Gravois Creek, where a downspout ends matters as much as the gutter itself. Downspouts and your St. Louis foundation covers the soil side.

Which guide to read

• An older brick or frame house near downtown Kirkwood, with half-round, copper or box gutters built into the cornice: the Kirkwood gutter guide.
• A large 1970s–2000s two-story in West County with an overflowing back run: the Chesterfield gutter guide.
• A ranch anywhere in St. Louis County with leaks at the corners: start with repair, then compare it against a full replacement price.

What changes from one city to the next

St. Louis County holds roughly 90 municipalities, and many run their own building departments. Kirkwood and Chesterfield are two examples. Whether gutter, fascia or roof-edge work needs a permit or an inspection is decided by each of them, not by this guide. Before work starts, check with the city, or with St. Louis County if you live in an unincorporated area. Subdivision trustees and HOAs add their own color rules in many West County neighborhoods, so ask for the color spec in writing if yours has one.

What's the same everywhere in St. Louis County

The guides on this site — gutter repair, seamless gutter installation, gutter guards, gutter cleaning, copper & half-round gutters — apply across St. Louis 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 St. Louis 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.