Washington Township, Michigan · northwest Macomb County
Seamless gutters, replacement, repair and leaf guards on the high, open ground of northwest Macomb — newer subdivision rooflines on big lots that have to move their own water. Our shop is in Fraser.
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
Washington Township sits at 781 feet at its center and rises from there — 830 feet at Mount Vernon, 853 at Clifton Mills. Our shop in Fraser is at 610. That two-hundred-foot difference is why exterior work up here behaves more like Oakland County than like the rest of Macomb: real fall on the lots, weather arriving with nothing in front of it, and rainwater that travels across a property rather than sitting on it.
The township was organized in 1827 and part of it is still working farmland. Westview Orchards dates to 1813, the Loren Andrus Octagon House was built between 1858 and 1860, and the village of Romeo reaches into the northeast corner. Across 36.9 square miles, 1.3 of them water, the census counted 19,080 residents in 2000, 25,139 in 2010 and 28,165 in 2020 — close to fifty percent growth in twenty years, dropped into a township that never stopped being rural at the edges.
Most of the houses we are called to went up inside that growth window, roughly the mid-1990s through 2020. That means two-story colonials, hip-and-gable massing with several planes meeting at once, an attached garage carrying its own roof, and eave heights well above anything on a postwar ranch — plus original builder-grade guttering now ten to twenty-five years old, laid out from a plan sheet rather than measured off the finished house.
The siting is what catches people out. Lots up here are large and setbacks generous, so there is frequently no curb-and-gutter street edge waiting to accept runoff. Whatever your downspouts release stays on your own ground until it reaches a swale, and on a parcel with real grade it can travel a long way in the wrong direction first. That is a discharge-planning problem rather than a capacity problem, and the two get confused constantly.
Open elevated lots take steady wind across the fascia line with no neighbouring rooftops to break it, which shows up as hangers working loose along the windward run years before the trough itself wears out. Winter adds the rest. The state code tables put Macomb County at 25 psf of ground snow load, GLISA at the University of Michigan records an average near 42 freeze-thaw cycles annually across the Great Lakes, and a steeper modern roof releases accumulated snow in slabs rather than melting it off gradually.
The tree cover is its own category too. Orchard rows and farm windbreaks sit lower, denser and closer to buildings than a city street tree, and they shed hard over a short season. Houses backing onto that planting fill far faster than a house on an open field lot two concessions away, which is why we look at what is actually behind your house before saying anything about guards.
County and intercounty drains here fall under the Macomb County Public Works Commissioner, which publishes a stormwater standards manual for the county. Locally, the Washington Township Building Department states that payment is due when permits are issued and may be made by check or cash, and that permits are not available online because they are issued at the counter. Their number is (586) 786-0010 — a small operational detail with a real effect on scheduling.
One more quiet signal from the same department: it issues permits for water-powered backup sump pumps. A township that specifically permits backup sump equipment is one where basement water is a live subject, and roof discharge is the cheapest part of that problem to get right.
Formed on site to the measured length of each run, so a two-storey elevation gets one continuous trough instead of joints stacked above your brick.
For twenty-year-old builder stock where the hangers have loosened along the exposed side and the pitch has quietly gone flat.
Re-hanging windward runs, resealing miters, correcting fall, and adding outlets where a valley dumps more water than the original layout planned for.
Hip-and-gable roofs concentrate large areas into short lengths of trough. Where the arithmetic says six inch, we show you the arithmetic.
Sensible against orchard and windbreak planting, much less so on an open field lot. The lot decides, not the sales pitch.
Wrapped fascia hides rot rather than preventing it. We open it up, replace what is soft, and fit vented soffit that lets the attic breathe.
Buried solid pipe carrying discharge well out from the house to a pop-up emitter — the practical answer on a large lot with no street drainage.
We measure every run, total the roof area feeding each one, check the fascia by hand and walk the grade to see where discharge currently ends up.
Profile, size, hanger spacing, outlet positions, fascia repair and any buried drainage, all priced before a single length is ordered.
Old system down, soft board cut out and replaced, the fascia line straightened so the new run has something solid to hang from.
Runs rolled on site, hung to consistent fall, with hanger spacing tightened on the exposed elevations rather than kept uniform for convenience.
The roof edge is a single assembly, and we do all of it ourselves, so an inspection that turns up a second problem does not turn into a second contractor and a second wait.
Wall repair where overflow has been running down an elevation. See vinyl siding and trim.
Builder-grade roofs from the growth years are reaching the end of their run together. See residential roofing.
The board the gutter hangs on, and the attic’s intake vent. See soffit and fascia.
Getting roof water clear of the house on a big open parcel. See underground gutter drainage.
Family-run from Fraser since 2011, working the length of this county rather than parachuting in from a call centre.
On a large lot with no curb, where the water ends up matters more than the size of the gutter it left through.
Windward elevations on high open ground get tighter hanger spacing. That is a decision, and it goes in your written scope.
We check the board before quoting, so rot is a line item you approved rather than a mid-job phone call.
Roofing, siding and gutters are trades carried on a Michigan contractor licence, and the trades are printed on the licence itself.
These come straight from our Google Business Profile, unedited, so you are reading what people in this part of Macomb County actually wrote.
We work the whole northwest corner of Macomb County and across the county line into Oakland, so a job in Washington Township sits on the same route as several of its neighbours.
Usually because that side takes the wind. On elevated, open lots up here there is nothing upwind to break the load, and a hanger schedule spaced for a sheltered subdivision will not hold on an exposed elevation. Closer spacing on that run generally settles it.
Backing onto orchard rows or a farm windbreak, generally yes — that planting is low, dense and close, and it sheds hard over a few weeks. On an open field lot with nothing overhead, guards are money that would be better spent on drainage.
Often not. Builder-grade systems from the growth years were sized generously on paper and hung quickly on site. Pitch drifts, outlets end up short of what a valley delivers, and the trough itself outlives the way it was hung.
Load on fastenings. The code figure for Macomb County is 25 psf of ground snow load, regional freeze-thaw cycling runs to roughly 42 a year, and a steep modern roof lets go of its snow in slabs. That weight arrives in the trough all at once.
Far enough out that the water is committed to leaving. Without a curb-and-gutter street edge there is nothing to catch it, so on graded ground a splash block simply relocates the problem a few feet. Buried pipe to a pop-up emitter set below the fall line is the usual answer.
Where a scope requires a permit we pull it. The township states that permits are issued at the counter rather than online, and that payment is due on issue by cash or check — which affects scheduling. Requirements change, so we confirm the current position for your job.
It depends on how much roof drains into how little trough. Hip-and-gable roofs funnel large areas into short lengths at the valleys, and that is where five inch runs out of room. We calculate it per elevation rather than upselling the whole house.
We measure the runs, total the roof area feeding each, check the fascia, walk the grade and put the whole thing in writing. If re-hanging and an extra outlet is the honest answer, that is what the scope will say.
