This form is for anything to do with your gutters. Describe what’s happening and we’ll tell you what it needs. You don’t have to work that out first, and if the simpler option is the right one, we’ll tell you that too.
A sagging gutter usually isn’t a gutter problem. Overflowing water soaks the fascia board behind it, the wood rots, and the fasteners lose their grip. Hanging a new gutter on the same board buys you a season. We look at what the gutter is attached to, not just the gutter.
The box below is the whole form, so detail helps. Worth including:
- What happens when it rains: overflowing, dripping behind the gutter, spilling at a corner, nothing coming out of a downspout
- Where on the house, and whether it’s single or two story
- Trees overhanging the roof
- Anything you’ve noticed on the ground: pooling at the foundation, erosion under a downspout, staining on the siding or fascia
If water is getting inside the house, start with a Leak/Repair Evaluation instead.
What overflowing gutters do to the roof edge
Water going over the front of a gutter is the visible problem. Water going behind it is the expensive one. It runs down the fascia board, and fascia is timber. Wet timber rots, rot spreads back into the rafter tails, and the gutter starts pulling away because there’s nothing solid left to screw into.
By the time a gutter is visibly sagging, the question is usually not what to do about the gutter. It’s how far the rot has traveled, and whether the fascia can be patched or needs replacing. That’s carpentry, and ACS handles it: fascia repair, rafter tail repair and the associated dry rot work are all done by us rather than passed to someone else.
Lower down, water that should have been carried away from the house instead comes off the roof edge in a sheet. Splashback stains the siding, soil erodes below the drip line, and water collects against the foundation in the season it’s least welcome.
When clean gutters still overflow
If you’ve cleared the gutters and water still ends up on the fascia or the wall, the gutter probably isn’t the fault.
The usual cause is the roof edge itself. Without drip edge or a gutter apron, water running off the shingle can cling to the underside of the roof edge and track back behind the gutter rather than dropping into it. The gutter stays clean and dry while the board behind it gets soaked.
The other common cause is volume. A valley can dump a large part of the roof’s runoff onto a short section of gutter, and if the downspout serving that run is undersized, it backs up in heavy rain no matter how clear it is. A larger downspout or a diverter fixes what a hundred gutter cleanings won’t.
Both are roof-edge problems rather than gutter problems, which is why it’s worth describing what happens during rain rather than what the gutter looks like on a dry day.
Do gutter guards help?
Sometimes, and it depends almost entirely on what’s growing above the roof.
Under broad-leaf trees, guards can be effective at reducing how often the gutters need clearing. With pines it’s less clear cut, because needles can work through or collect on top of many guard systems, which can leave you no better off.
Guards are available, as is gutter installation. What’s worth doing at your property is something we’ll go through with you once we’ve looked at it, including telling you when we don’t think guards are worth the money.
When to schedule
Before the rain, and after the leaves have finished dropping. Gutters cleared in early fall fill again by December, so late fall is usually the better single visit.
How often depends entirely on what’s overhead. A roof with no trees near it can go years. Pines shed all year and can need clearing twice a season.
If you’re also having the roof cleaned, it’s worth raising both at the same time. Roof debris ends up in the gutters anyway, and handling one without the other tends to mean doing the second job twice.
What happens after you submit
- We review what you’ve described and contact you to confirm an appointment window.
- A nationally certified inspector looks at the gutters and the fascia behind them, not just what’s in the trough.
- You receive a written report with high-resolution digital photos, and a proposal with our recommended next steps, sent digitally within a few business days.
What it costs
Gutter work is quoted per property, since it depends on the length of the runs, the height, and the condition of what’s there.
You receive a written proposal setting out the work and the cost before anything is scheduled, and nothing goes ahead until you’ve agreed to it.
Who’s doing the work
Gutters sit at the join between the roof and the house, which is why we’d rather look at both. If the fascia behind your gutter has gone soft, we can repair it rather than hanging new metal on old rot and calling it done. ACS Roofing is licensed with the CSLB as a General Building and Roofing contractor, has worked the Sacramento area since 1989, is BBB Accredited with an A+ rating, and was a 2025 Nextdoor Neighborhood Favorite.