Birmingham, Michigan · Oakland County
Seamless gutters, replacement, repair and leaf protection under roughly 17,000 inventoried street trees in 4.8 square miles — the heaviest leaf load and the tightest historic-district rules anywhere we work.
★★★★★ 4.5 / 5.0 · 224 Google reviews
Family-owned and operated in Michigan since 2011
Based at 31097 Fraser Dr, Fraser, MI 48026
Serving Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair counties
Free on-site inspection and a written, itemized scope before work begins
Birmingham’s Forestry division maintains roughly 17,000 inventoried street trees, tracked in the Davey TreeKeeper system, with every street tree trimmed on a seven to eight year rotation under a Master Tree Trimming Program whose block schedule runs to 2032. Replacements go in at three to three and a half inch caliper, so the inventory is being renewed rather than allowed to thin.
Now put that against the map. The city is 4.8 square miles. Seventeen thousand street trees across 4.8 square miles is about 3,500 street trees per square mile — and that counts only the trees in the right of way, not one single tree in a private back yard. For comparison, Sterling Heights inventoried an estimated 37,500 public street and park trees across 36.45 square miles, roughly 1,030 per square mile. Birmingham runs about three and a half times that density.
That is the leaf-guard conversation done with numbers instead of adjectives. In most of Metro Detroit guards are a genuine judgement call and we frequently advise against them. Here, on a lot with mature street trees on the verge and more in the yard, a bare gutter fills several times a year, and it fills with fine material — seed and flower drop — as much as with autumn leaf. The question is usually which type suits the roof, not whether protection is worth it.
Birmingham grew 158 per cent between 1920 and 1930, from 3,694 people to 9,539, then another 65 per cent through the 1950s to 25,525 by 1960. It peaked at 26,170 residents in 1970 and has been below that ever since; today there are 21,763 people in 10,342 housing units. In a fully built city of 4.8 square miles, incorporated as a village in 1864 and a city in 1933, that means a stock overwhelmingly pre-1960 with a strong 1920s and 30s core of Tudor Revival, Colonial Revival and bungalow.
Physically that means steep pitch, dormers, and rooflines that intersect at several points rather than running clean corner to corner. Every intersection is a valley, and a valley is where debris lands, so the gutter does not silt up evenly — it packs solid in the eight feet below a valley while the rest of the run stays clear. Narrow side yards compound it, because an overflow has nowhere to go but down the wall or against a neighbouring foundation.
Birmingham has designated local historic districts, and within them a Certificate of Appropriateness applies to roof work. The ordinance requires exterior alterations to follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, and two clauses matter at the roof edge: “Deteriorated architectural features shall be repaired rather than replaced, wherever possible,” and where replacement is unavoidable, “the new material should match the material being replaced in composition, design, color, texture and other visual qualities.”
Applied to gutters, fascia and cornice that is a real instruction, not a formality: repair a sound original cornice rather than cover it, and where a profile must go, match the shape and material instead of substituting whatever is on the truck. The ordinance also notes that roofing material may qualify for administrative approval through the Planning Department where historic impact is minimal, rather than full Historic District Commission review, so a like-for-like repair and a material change are not the same procedure. Landmarks are listed at Section 127-25 of the Historic Districts Ordinance. Regulations change, so we confirm the current requirement with the city.
The service this city most often needs. We match the guard to the debris actually falling, because fine seed defeats products that handle leaves well.
Formed on site to short, awkward runs between dormers and gables, where factory lengths put a joint in every section.
Available where the original profile was half-round or copper and matching it is the sensible route on a period house.
Where the trough has rusted through, the pitch is gone, or a previous replacement ignored where the valleys land.
Re-pitching, resealed miters, replacement hangers, and an added outlet under a valley that has been packing solid every season.
On a hundred-year-old house the cornice is part of the architecture. We repair sound board and match profile rather than wrap over it.
Buried pipe carrying discharge clear of the house, which matters most where side yards are too narrow for water to disperse.
We map where each valley lands, measure the runs, note what overhangs the roof and check cornice and fascia by hand.
Profile, material, guard type, hanger spacing, outlets and drainage, priced before anything is ordered.
If the property is in a designated district we establish the approval route before work, so nothing gets installed that has to come back off.
The system is flooded, the valley sections watched closely, the site cleared, then we walk it with you.
On a period house the roof edge, cornice and wall below are one detail, and splitting them between trades is how mismatched work happens.
The service that earns its place here more than anywhere else we work. See leaf protection.
Valley, flashing and eave work on houses that have been re-roofed several times. See roof repair.
Rot and water damage behind a gutter that has been overflowing for years. See exterior repairs.
Elsewhere we often talk homeowners out of them. Here the tree density argues the other way, and we show the numbers.
Which is also what the historic district ordinance asks for: repair deteriorated features wherever possible before replacing them.
Where a profile has to be replaced we work to match composition, design, colour and texture rather than fitting the nearest stock item.
On intersecting 1920s rooflines the outlet belongs where the valley lands, not at the tidiest corner.
Itemized, from a family-run Michigan company operating since 2011, so a competing quote can be compared honestly.
Birmingham is 4.8 square miles bordered by Bloomfield Hills to the northwest, Royal Oak to the southeast, Bloomfield Township to the west and north, Southfield Township to the south and Troy to the northeast.
More often here than anywhere else we work, and the reason is measurable. The city maintains roughly 17,000 inventoried street trees in 4.8 square miles, about 3,500 per square mile before counting a single private yard tree. That is roughly three and a half times the street-tree density of Sterling Heights. On most Birmingham lots a bare gutter fills repeatedly through the year.
Because a valley is feeding it. Debris washes down the valley and packs into the few feet of trough below while the rest of the run stays clear. Cleaning that section repeatedly treats the symptom; a correctly placed outlet and the right guard treat the cause.
It can. Within a designated local historic district a Certificate of Appropriateness applies to roof work, and the ordinance requires deteriorated architectural features to be repaired rather than replaced wherever possible, with any new material matching the old in composition, design, colour and texture. We establish the approval route with the city before starting.
Yes, and on a period house it is usually the right approach rather than an indulgence. Matching the existing profile keeps the cornice reading correctly from the street and sits comfortably with what the historic district ordinance asks for.
Not necessarily. The ordinance indicates that roofing material may qualify for administrative approval through the Planning Department where the change has minimal historic impact, with fuller review reserved for more significant alterations. Since that turns on the specifics of the property and the work, we confirm which route applies rather than assuming the easier one.
Not onto four feet of grass between two houses, which is what a splash block gives you here. Buried solid pipe carrying discharge out to a pop-up emitter at the front or rear of the lot keeps it off both foundations, yours and the neighbour’s.
Oakland County is set at a 25 psf ground snow load in the state code tables and the Great Lakes region averages around 42 freeze-thaw cycles a year. Add a trough already packed with debris, so meltwater cannot drain before refreezing, and the load on century-old fastenings is considerable.
We look at what overhangs the roof, where the valleys land, what condition the cornice is in and which approval route applies, then put it in writing before anything is ordered.
