Gutters in St. Clair Shores, MI
St. Clair Shores is a 1950s city on the edge of a lake, and both halves of that matter for gutters. Most of the houses here are small ranches and bungalows from one decade of building, so the roofs are simple and the eaves are long. Then there is Lake St. Clair along the whole east side of the city, which brings wind, spray and a water table that sits only a few feet below the lawn.
Our shop is in Fraser, about twenty minutes up the road, and we have been family-owned and operated in Michigan since 2011.
What St. Clair Shores rooflines actually need
St. Clair Shores became a village in 1925 and a city in 1951, but most of its subdivisions were not built until after the Second World War. The census shows how fast it happened: 19,823 people in 1950, 76,657 in 1960 and a peak of 88,093 in 1970. In 2020 the count was 58,874, in about 28,500 housing units.
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey puts the age of that housing in plain numbers. Of roughly 28,300 homes, about 14,200 were built between 1950 and 1959. That is half the city in one decade. Add the 1940s and the 1960s and it is close to three quarters. About 82 percent of homes are single-family detached houses. In practice that means the brick ranch and the one-and-a-half-storey bungalow, usually brick on the lower walls with sided gables or dormers above.
Macomb County is set at a 25 psf ground snow load in the Michigan Residential Code tables, so a gutter here has to carry snow and ice through the winter, not just rain.
Long eaves with one outlet
A 1950s ranch has a long, unbroken eave along the front and the back. It is common to find forty or fifty feet of gutter running to a single downspout at the corner. When it overflows in a storm it looks like a clog, but often it is simply too few outlets. The fix is a second downspout mid-run, or a larger gutter and downspout.
Bungalow dormers and short valleys
On a bungalow the upper roof and the dormer cheeks dump water onto a short lower eave, and often into the inside corner where two roof planes meet. That corner takes far more water than the rest of the gutter. We set outlets to where the water actually lands.
Seventy years of fascia
Most of these houses are on their second or third set of gutters, and the fascia board behind them is often original. Where a gutter has been leaking at the seams or overflowing for years, the board is soft at the ends and around the old outlets. New gutters screwed into rotten wood will not stay straight under snow, so we check the fascia before anything else.
Wind off the lake
The east side of the city faces open water. On houses close to the lake or along the canals, wind-driven rain hits the roof at an angle and blows over the front edge of a shallow gutter. Hangers that are spaced too far apart let a gutter flex in strong wind. Closer hanger spacing and a correctly pitched gutter matter more here than inland.
Where St. Clair Shores’ water goes
St. Clair Shores sits at about 577 feet above sea level, and Lake St. Clair’s surface is about 574 feet. The city has more than six and a half miles of shoreline and a network of canals running into its neighbourhoods. There is very little fall between your downspout and the lake, so water dumped next to the foundation tends to stay there.
Much of the city drains through a combined sewer system. The Macomb County Public Works Office runs the Chapaton Pump Station at the foot of Nine Mile Road, east of Jefferson Avenue. Its drainage district covers all of Eastpointe and most of St. Clair Shores, and the county has been upgrading the station and its retention basin to cut overflows into the lake and reduce basement flooding in big storms. The county also inspects three 11-foot storm drains that carry water from Roseville, Eastpointe and St. Clair Shores into the lake.
For a homeowner the practical point is simple. On flat, low ground, the job of a gutter system is to move roof water well away from the walls. Where the city allows it, that means extensions or underground drainage to a point where the yard can take it, not a downspout emptying onto the patio.
Gutter services we provide in St. Clair Shores
Seamless gutter installation
Our seamless aluminium gutters are formed on site to the length of each run, so a long ranch eave has no joints between the corners.
Gutter replacement
We take the old system off, check and repair the fascia, and install the new gutters with hidden hangers set close enough to handle snow and lake wind.
Gutter repair
Leaking corners, failed end caps, sagging sections and loose downspouts can often be repaired when the rest of the system is sound. We tell you which it is.
5″ and 6″ sizing
Five inch suits most St. Clair Shores roofs. Six inch with a 3×4 downspout earns its place on long single-outlet ranch runs and on bungalows where the upper roof drains onto a short lower eave.
Gutter guards
Mature street trees drop leaves and seeds into gutters every autumn. Our leaf protection options, including ShurFlo, keep debris out without stopping water getting in.
Copper gutters
For a lakefront house or a period home where the look matters, we install and repair copper gutters.
Soffit and fascia
Where the fascia has rotted, we replace the wood and wrap it in aluminium so the new gutters have something solid to fix to.
Underground downspout drainage
On low, flat lots our drainage work carries downspout water away from the foundation in buried pipe. Where the work requires a permit, we pull it with the City of St. Clair Shores’ Community Development & Inspections department. Requirements and fees are set by the city and change, so we confirm the current position for your scope.
How a gutter job works with us
- Inspection. We look at the roof, the fascia, the existing outlets and where the water goes once it leaves the downspout.
- Written, itemised scope. You get a written scope that lists the gutter size, the number of downspouts, the fascia work and anything else included, so you can compare like with like.
- Removal and fascia. The old gutters come off and any soft fascia is replaced before new metal goes up.
- Forming and install. Gutters are formed on site, pitched to the outlets, hung and sealed, and the downspouts are run to where the water should go.
Why St. Clair Shores homeowners call us
- We are a family-owned business with our shop in Fraser since 2011, close enough to come back if something needs attention.
- We check the fascia first, because a gutter is only as straight as the board behind it.
- You get a written scope before work starts, not a single number.
- We also do siding, soffit and roofing, so one crew can deal with the whole eave. If the walls need attention too, see our siding page for St. Clair Shores.
- Financing is available.
Gutter questions from St. Clair Shores homeowners
Do I need 6 inch gutters on a St. Clair Shores ranch?
Not always. Five inch handles most roofs here. Six inch makes sense on a long run with only one downspout, or where an upper roof drains onto a lower eave. We size it from the roof, not by default.
My gutters overflow in heavy rain but they are clean. Why?
On a long ranch eave it is usually too few downspouts for the length of the run, or a gutter that has lost its pitch. Adding an outlet mid-run often solves it.
Will new gutters stop water in my basement?
They help, but only if the water is taken away from the foundation. The ground here is flat and close to lake level, so where the downspouts discharge matters as much as the gutters themselves.
Do you replace rotten fascia?
Yes. We check the fascia on every job, replace soft boards and wrap them in aluminium before the new gutters go up.
Do gutter guards work under big trees?
A good guard keeps leaves and seeds out of the trough. It still needs an occasional brush-off on top.
Serving St. Clair Shores and nearby Roseville, Harrison Township and Grosse Pointe Shores.
