Box gutter repair in Cincinnati

What a box gutter is

On most Cincinnati homes built before the Second World War, the gutter isn't attached to the house — it's part of it. A wooden trough was framed into the roof edge behind the cornice, lined with terne (tin-coated steel) or galvanized sheet, and drained into downspouts that often run inside the wall. From the street you see a cornice and no gutter at all. Some people call them Yankee gutters or built-in gutters. Hyde Park, Clifton, Northside, Walnut Hills, Norwood, Price Hill and Covington are full of them, and box gutter repair is its own trade.

The liner is the weak point. Terne needed repainting every few years, and most haven't been painted in decades. Once it pinholes, water goes into the trough wood, then the cornice, then the top of the wall, and shows up as a stain on a second-floor ceiling or bubbling plaster. Every winter the water in the trough freezes, lifts the liner, and opens the seams a little wider.

How to tell yours is failing

• A brown stain on an upstairs ceiling along an outside wall, worst after a thaw
• Paint peeling off the cornice or the soffit under the roof edge
• Icicles hanging from the cornice itself in January
• Water dripping from behind the trim, or from a downspout that emerges partway down the wall
• A sag in the roof edge visible from across the street

Box gutter repair options

Reline with EPDM membrane. The most common fix. The trough is cleaned out and the wood repaired, then a single sheet of EPDM rubber membrane is bonded into it, up under the slate and out over the front edge, with the outlets flashed in. No seams, no paint, and it flexes with the freeze-thaw. A good EPDM reline is commonly expected to last 25 to 30 years.

Reline with new metal. Galvanized or copper sheet, soldered at the seams, for owners who want the original material, or where a historic district review asks for it. Copper is the long-term answer and priced accordingly.

Rebuild the trough. Where the liner failed years ago, the wood is gone. The rotten trough boards, and sometimes the rafter tails, are cut out and rebuilt to the original profile, then lined. This is carpentry first, so ask any contractor whether they do the wood themselves.

Sort out the outlets and downspouts. An internal downspout rusted through inside the wall is a leak nobody finds from outside. A proper job tests each outlet, replaces the drop where it's accessible, and where it isn't, brings a new downspout out through the cornice.

What it costs

Box gutter repair Cincinnati homeowners pay for is priced per foot of trough, and it varies more than hanging gutters because the wood underneath is unknown until a section is opened. Typical ranges, not a quote:

A typical Hyde Park foursquare has 80–120 feet of box gutter, so a full EPDM relining on sound wood is usually $3,500–$8,000, and a rebuild is more. Ask how the price changes if hidden rot turns up, and expect to be shown the wood before it does.

What a proper reline involves, step by step

1. The bottom courses of slate or shingles are lifted along the run so the liner can go up under them.
2. The old liner is opened and the trough wood probed along its full length. Soft sections are marked and photographed.
3. Rotted trough boards, and rafter tails if needed, are cut out and rebuilt to the original slope and profile.
4. The trough is cleaned and, for EPDM, a smooth board or underlayment goes down so nothing sharp sits under the membrane.
5. The liner goes in as one piece where possible, bonded to the trough and carried up the roof side and over the front edge.
6. Each outlet is flashed into the liner, and each downspout is flushed or replaced.
7. The roofing is re-hung over the liner, and the run gets a water test before anyone leaves.

A job that skips step 2 is guessing, and a job that skips step 7 hasn't been checked.

Questions to ask before you hire

• How many built-in gutters have you relined, and can I see one?
• Who does the carpentry and the slate work: your own people or someone else?
• What liner, what thickness, and how is it fastened at the front edge?
• How will the price change if more rot turns up, and will I see it first?
• What happens to the internal downspouts?
• What warranty terms apply, in writing?

The wrong fix

Two shortcuts cause most of the trouble: elastomeric coating brushed over a rusted liner, or a roofer who fills the trough with foam and shingles over it. Both trap water in the wood, and roofing over a box gutter sends the water down the face of the cornice. If a roofer has suggested that, get a second opinion before the roof goes on.

Slate, tile and half-round

Most of these homes have slate roofs, and the box gutter is where the slate ends. The bottom courses have to be lifted and re-hung to get the liner under them, so ask whether the contractor does slate work. Where a box gutter is beyond saving, half-round copper on cast brackets is the period-correct replacement, covered on the installation page. In a designated local historic district, exterior changes visible from the street may need a Certificate of Appropriateness; check with the city's Historic Conservation Board before work starts.

Looking after a relined trough

A relined trough still needs clearing. A leaf mat sitting on EPDM won't rot it, but it holds water, blocks the outlets and sends overflow over the cornice. Clear it in late November and again in spring, check the outlets after big storms, and keep limbs trimmed back from the roof edge. Once a year, look at the cornice paint and the ceilings below it. Clean paint and dry plaster mean the liner is doing its job.

More on how these gutters fail, and which fix suits which house, in box gutters on older Cincinnati homes. Ordinary gutter repair covers the hanging aluminum on the porch or garage.