Repair or replace

Question one: does it overflow when it is clean?

This is the one that decides most cases, and it is easy to test. If a run puts water over its front edge during a heavy storm while the trough is completely clear, the problem is capacity. The trough is too small for the roof draining into it, or there are too few outlets, or the downspout is too small.

No repair addresses capacity. Resealing a joint, replacing a hanger, straightening a run: none of them make a gutter hold more water. If the answer here is yes, the honest conversation is about resizing, not about fixing. This is the most common false economy in Orlando gutter work, because our rainfall intensity means a lot of correctly-installed gutter is simply too small for the job.

The sizing guide covers how to work out what the run should be.

Question two: is it sectional, and has it been resealed before?

Sectional gutter is joined every ten feet with a sealed lap. Those seals have a service life. The first time one fails, resealing it properly is a reasonable repair with years in it.

The second time is a signal. When laps on a run start failing in sequence, they are all approaching the end of the same service life at roughly the same time, and each individual reseal is buying a season on one joint out of four. At that point the money goes considerably further into a seamless rehang, which removes the joints rather than renewing them one at a time.

Question three: what is the fascia doing?

The board the gutter hangs from is the thing that most often decides the answer, and it is largely invisible until the run comes down.

Fascia softens from behind, and the two mechanisms are a chronically blocked trough backing water over its rear edge, and water tracking behind an unprotected roof edge.

If the fascia is sound and only the hardware has failed, repair is straightforward: pull the run back to slope, set new hidden hangers, reseal what needs it. If the fascia is soft in one or two places, those sections get replaced and the gutter goes back up. If it is soft along most of its length, the gutter has to come off entirely to get at the board, and once it is off the marginal cost of hanging new seamless rather than rehanging tired sectional is small. At that point the decision has effectively made itself.

Question four: what is the roof doing?

If a roof replacement is on the horizon within a year or two, sequencing matters. Drip edge is installed as part of the roof, and roofers routinely remove or work around existing gutter. Hanging new gutter and then reroofing over it risks damage to metal that was just paid for.

The clean sequence is roof first, gutter after, hung against fresh drip edge and repaired fascia. Where the roof is imminent, holding a failing gutter together with targeted repairs until then is a sensible use of money, even if those repairs would not be worth it on their own.

Things that are repairs

• A leaking mitre. Cut open, cleaned back to bare metal, resealed. Years of life if the preparation is done properly, months if a bead of caulk is smeared over the outside.
• A sagging section. If the fascia is sound, pull it back to slope and set new hidden hangers.
• A separated downspout elbow. Refasten and strap. Small job.
• Water running behind the gutter. This is a roof edge problem, fixed with drip edge or a gutter apron rather than anything done to the gutter.
• One run damaged by a limb. That section replaced, with the caveat that colour lots vary slightly, so a match on a sunlit elevation is not guaranteed.
• A blocked buried discharge line. Flushed or replaced without touching the gutter above it.

Things that are replacements

• Any run that overflows when clean
• Sectional gutter where laps have started failing in sequence
• Fascia soft along most of a run
• Spike-and-ferrule hangers that have backed out repeatedly
• Gutter that has been rehung more than once and still does not hold slope

The partial replacement option

Frequently overlooked and often the right answer. There is no requirement to do the whole house at once. Replacing the two elevations carrying the big roof planes, and leaving a sound front porch run alone, is a perfectly reasonable job.

The one caveat is appearance. Aluminum colour lots vary slightly between batches, so a new run next to an old one on the same elevation may not match exactly in direct sun. Splitting the work by elevation rather than partway along one run avoids the problem.

A note on how the advice arrives

A contractor who looks at a run that has been resealed twice and says it is time to replace is giving you better information than one who quotes another reseal, even though the second quote is smaller. The reverse is also true: someone quoting a full replacement on a house where one corner leaks and everything else is sound is not reading the roofline. Both directions of error exist, and the four questions above are how you tell which one you are looking at.