Eavestrough is the Canadian word for gutters. Most problems (sagging runs, leaking joints, water spilling over or running behind the trough) can be repaired without replacing everything. We check the slope, joints, downspouts and the fascia board the gutters hang on, then give you one written price to repair or replace.
How many feet of eavestrough, how many downspouts, the height of the house, and whether the fascia behind it needs work. You get one written price before anything starts.
Eavestrough decides more expensive outcomes than almost anything else on a house. Water that isn't carried away from the foundation ends up in the basement, under the driveway and against the fascia. In Calgary it also freezes, and a gutter full of ice slowly pulls itself off the house.
Dents on the top of an eavestrough are also some of the clearest hail evidence on a property. On a hail claim, a dented gutter run backs up roof damage that's harder to see.
Downspouts are sized and placed for the roof area that drains into them. An undersized downspout on a large roof overflows in exactly the storm you needed it for.
Eavestrough hangs off the fascia and tucks under the roof's drip edge, so the roofer and the gutter installer are working on the same few inches of house. Done in the wrong order, or by two companies who never spoke, you get gutters rehung badly and water running behind the trough into the fascia. Doing both means the detail is right and there's one company responsible.
Gutters don't cause ice dams; attic heat does. But a full gutter gives the ice somewhere to build, and a heavy ice load tears fasteners out of the fascia. If you get ice dams every winter, the real fix is attic insulation and ventilation. New gutters alone reset the clock on the same problem.
They help on a treed lot, and they still need cleaning, whatever the marketing says. Fine debris gets through and spruce and pine needles defeat most designs. On an open lot in Airdrie or Chestermere they're mostly unnecessary; under the big trees in Varsity or Elbow Park they earn their keep.
Eavestroughs catch the water running off your roof, and downspouts carry it away so it doesn't soak the ground against your basement walls. In Calgary, the City's Stormwater Bylaw also requires downspouts to end at least 2 metres from sidewalks, roads and lanes, so where yours point matters as much as how big they are.
Fascia is the board along the edge of your roof that the eavestrough is fastened to; soffit is the panel under the overhang, and its vents are usually where your attic draws in fresh air. When either fails it's almost always water or blocked airflow, which in a Calgary winter shows up as rotted fascia, attic frost and ice dams.
Eavestrough in Calgary is priced by the linear foot of trough plus each downspout, then moved by the trough size, how high the runs are, and whether the fascia board behind it is sound enough to hold it. That makes quotes easy to compare once you know what to check, and a real price comes from your house's runs and downspouts, measured.
Repair it if the problem is a few joints, a sagging section or a loose downspout on otherwise sound runs. Replace it when the runs are leaking in many places, badly dented, or too small for the roof.
It depends on the length of the runs, the number of downspouts, the height of the house and the fascia behind it, so we price it after we've looked. You get one written price before work starts. The eavestrough cost guide explains what moves it.
Usually a drip edge problem, not a gutter problem. The roof's drip edge should send water into the trough; if it's missing or sitting outside the gutter, water tracks behind it and rots the fascia.
Once a year on an open lot, twice on a treed one, ideally in late fall after the leaves are down so they go into winter empty.
It can be, and it's evidence either way. Dents on the top of a gutter show hail of a damaging size hit the property, which supports the roof assessment, so both belong in the same documented scope.
Yes. It's normal work on its own.
Overflowing, sagging, or water pooling at the foundation. Tell us what's happening.
