Gutter repair and rain gutter installation in Austin

Thirty-four inches of rain, and most of it in a hurry

Austin averages around 34 inches of rain a year, which is less than Houston or Dallas. The catch is how it arrives. This part of Texas is called flash-flood alley for a reason: the Balcones Escarpment squeezes Gulf moisture upward, and a storm that would drop half an inch somewhere else drops three inches here in an hour. May and October are the wettest months, and the Halloween 2013 and Memorial Day 2015 floods on Onion Creek were both single-night events. A gutter in Austin can sit dry for six weeks and then be asked to carry more water in forty minutes than it will see for the rest of the season.

That is the first thing we size for. A 5-inch gutter with 2x3 downspouts, which is what most Austin homes got from the builder, cannot keep up with a two-inch-an-hour burst off a two-story roof. It overflows at the far end of the run, and the homeowner assumes it's clogged. Usually it isn't.

The ground is the second problem

West of MoPac, Austin is limestone with a few inches of soil on top. Water doesn't soak in; it runs. A downspout that dumps at the corner of a house in Northwest Hills or Steiner Ranch cuts a channel through the bed, undermines the patio, and heads for the neighbor's lot. East of I-35 it's the opposite: Blackland Prairie clay that swells when it's wet and shrinks in August, and a slab in Pflugerville or Manor moves with it. Either way, where the water lands matters as much as whether the gutter leaks, and every job we do ends with the downspouts discharging somewhere that doesn't hurt the house.

The third: a lot of Austin homes have no gutters at all

Builders skipped gutters here for decades because it "doesn't rain much." Circle C, Milwood, Anderson Mill, Wells Branch and most of the 1980s–2000s subdivisions from Round Rock to Kyle have whole streets of homes with a bare drip edge, mud splashed two feet up the brick, and a foundation contractor's card on the fridge. First-time installation of rain gutters is the most common job we do, and it is priced the same as a replacement without the tear-off.

What we do

Gutter repair — resealing corners and end caps, re-hanging sagging runs on hidden hangers, replacing crushed downspouts, adding a second downspout to a run that only has one, and rebuilding the fascia that rotted behind an overflowing gutter. Most repairs are $150–$600 and done in a morning. The repair page covers the gutter leak repair and sagging gutter repair Austin homeowners call about most.

Seamless rain gutter installation and replacement — 5-inch or 6-inch .032 aluminum run on site from a coil, with 3x4 downspouts as standard because of how our rain falls. A single-story home with 160 feet of gutter is typically $1,600–$2,500; two-story and 6-inch systems run more. Details on the installation page and full tables on the pricing page.

Gutter guards — we install micro-mesh and screen guards and will tell you which one survives live oak leaf drop in March and cedar elm in November, and when guards aren't worth the money. See gutter guards.

Gutter cleaning — priced flat by home size, with a ladder inspection included so you hear about a loose hanger before it's a repair. See gutter cleaning.

Rain barrels, rain chains and downspout drainage — Austin homeowners like catching the water and we're happy to plumb for it, but a rain chain on a 40-foot run will overshoot in a May storm. We set these up so they look right and still work in a downpour. See rain barrels and drainage.

Where we work

Central Austin from Hyde Park and Tarrytown down through Travis Heights and Barton Hills; the west side through Westlake, Northwest Hills, Steiner Ranch, Lakeway and Bee Cave; north through Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, Pflugerville and Georgetown; south to Buda, Kyle and Dripping Springs. Area codes 512 and 737. Lakeway and Cedar Park have their own pages because we're out there most weeks.

Licensing, since people ask

Texas does not license gutter contractors. There's no state board, no number to look up, nothing to check. What you can check is insurance. We carry general liability and workers' compensation and will email the certificate before the crew arrives. Ask every gutter company the same thing, and if the answer is a shrug, keep looking. The about page explains the rest of how we work.

If you're reading this after a storm

A downspout that came off in last night's wind is a foundation problem by this afternoon if it's raining again. Tell us when you call and it goes to the front of the schedule. If it's a dry week and you're being cautious instead, the storm-season checklist is a ten-minute walk-around you can do yourself.