Gutters Come Off for Siding or Paint. Check the Fascia First.

A siding crew or a painter will often ask to take your gutters down. Sometimes that is the right call, because the gutter is in the way of the work. Sometimes it is a shortcut that leaves water running down the wall you just paid to repair. This page is for the homeowner who has been told the gutters "have to come off" and wants to know what that means before anyone unclips a hanger.

Why the gutter comes off at all

Gutters sit on the fascia, the board along the roof edge, and they are fastened through the fascia into the rafter tails or into a nailer behind it. Siding, trim and paint all meet that same edge. A crew that needs to slide new siding under the gutter line, or paint the fascia board itself, usually has to lift the gutter off the wall first. Removing it is normal. What matters is whether the gutter comes back to the same line, at the same slope, with the same downspout outlet, and whether the fascia it hangs from is still sound once the old nails are out.

Some crews remove the gutter in sections and some take the whole run down at once. A long run of aluminum can be eight or more feet of metal that bends easily, so a whole run pulled down in one piece can kink at a seam. Ask which method the crew uses and where each section will be stored. Gutter lying on a driveway in July is how a straight run comes back with a dent you can see from the street.

What the old nail holes tell you

Every hanger that comes out leaves at least one hole in the fascia, and often a second hole from an earlier repair. When the fascia is solid, those holes are a small matter. When the fascia is soft, the nails have been holding a gutter that was never really anchored, and the hole is the first sign of it. Press a screwdriver into the fascia near each hanger before the crew starts. If it sinks in, the board is rotten at that spot, and the gutter should not go back up through that hole until the wood is repaired. Reattaching a gutter to soft wood is how a sagging run gets worse each winter.

Old holes in brick mortar are a separate case. Hangers set into a brick wall rely on the mortar, and mortar that has been through decades of freeze-thaw cycles can crumble when a spike is pulled. If removal leaves a crater in the joint, the hanger needs a new anchor point, not the old one reset in the same spot. Look at each hole with a flashlight before the gutter goes back.

Keep the slope

A gutter needs a slight fall toward the downspout outlet. Most installers aim for roughly a quarter inch of fall for every ten feet of run, though the exact figure depends on the gutter profile and the job. The point for a homeowner is simpler: a gutter that goes back up a little higher or lower than before will hold water in the low spot. Standing water in a gutter is heavy and slow to drain, and it is the first place leaves and grit collect. If the crew marks a chalk line or a string line before removal, that line is what the reinstall should match. Ask to see it. If nobody can show you where the old line was, ask how the new one will be set.

Check the outlets too. When the gutter comes down, the downspout often stays attached to the wall at the bottom elbow, or it comes down with the gutter. If the outlet on the reinstalled gutter does not line up with the downspout, someone will force a joint, and forced joints leak. Ask whether the downspouts are being removed, reused or replaced, and whether the crew will reconnect every outlet before they leave.

What to ask before the first hanger comes out

• Which sections come down, and which stay up. Some jobs only need the gutter off one wall.
• Whether the gutters are removed whole or in sections, and where the pieces will be stored.
• Who checks the fascia once the gutter is off, and what happens if a board is soft.
• Whether the hanger spacing on the reinstall will match the original or change to suit the new fascia.
• Whether any gutter guards come off and go back on, and whether the screws are new.
• Who sets the new slope, and whether a string line or chalk line will be visible before the gutter is fastened.
• Whether the downspouts and their elbows are reconnected, and whether the bottom ends get extensions.
• Whether any gutter section will be replaced rather than reused, and whether the replacement is named in writing.

Write the answers into the scope. A line that says "gutters removed and reinstalled" is not enough. A written scope should say which sections come down, how they are stored, how the fascia is checked, and how the slope is set.

How removal changes the cost

Removal and reinstall is labor, and it is usually priced as a separate line from new gutter material. If the gutter is in good shape and goes back up unchanged, the cost is mostly the crew's time, plus whatever new fasteners the job calls for. If sections are bent, cracked at a seam, or pulled out of the fascia, the price rises with the material needed to replace them. Ask for those two numbers apart. A single figure for "gutters" tells you nothing about which part of the job is driving the total.

Ask whether the price assumes the gutters are reused. If it does, ask what happens when a section cracks on removal. A crew that has to replace a section will need your approval for that change, and the change should appear as its own line, not as a surprise at the end of the day.

Timing around St. Louis weather

Gutters come down easiest in dry weather. A wet fascia takes longer to check, and wet aluminum is slippery on a ladder. Freeze-thaw cycles also make mortar and wood less reliable, so a gutter pulled off a brick wall in January may reveal more loose anchor points than the same wall would in May. If the siding or paint work is scheduled for late fall, ask the crew how they will protect the open fascia overnight if it rains before the gutter goes back up. An open fascia with no gutter on it is a wet board waiting for a freeze.

Do not let the gutter stay off past the day it was meant to return. A house without gutters through a spring storm will send water toward the foundation and the new wall work at the same time. Ask for the reinstall date in writing, and ask what happens if the siding crew runs late.

When the gutter should not go back up

Sometimes removal is the moment to replace the whole run. If the gutter comes off a fascia that has to be rebuilt, or if the aluminum has cracked along several seams, putting the same run back up means paying for labor on a part that will fail again. Ask the crew to say plainly whether the gutter is worth reinstalling, and what the reinstall would look like with a repaired fascia and new hangers. You can then compare that with a replacement quote built from the same measurements.

For questions about your own house, call Seamless Gutters STL at (314) 220-2333 and ask for a walk of the runs before any siding or paint work is scheduled. Bring the list above and ask for each answer in writing.