Gutters are the least glamorous part of a house and one of the most consequential. Their job is to take every gallon that lands on your roof and put it somewhere that is not against your foundation. When they fail, the damage shows up as rotted fascia, a wet basement, and cracked footings, and none of those repairs are cheap. Roof Commander installs, repairs, cleans, and guards gutters across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee.
A two thousand square foot roof sheds well over a thousand gallons of water in a one inch rain. Middle Tennessee averages around fifty inches of rain a year, considerably more than the national average. That is a lot of water that has to go somewhere.
When gutters overflow or dump at the foundation, you get, in rough order of expense: rotted fascia and soffit behind the gutter, water in the crawlspace or basement, eroded landscaping and mulch washout, saturated soil movement against the foundation, and eventually foundation settling and cracking.
Foundation repair in this area runs into five figures easily. Gutters do not.
We install seamless aluminum gutters, formed on site to the exact length of each run. The only seams are at corners and outlets rather than every ten feet, which removes the most common leak point on sectional gutters.
Sizing matters more than people realize. Five inch K style is the residential standard and handles most homes here. Six inch is worth the upgrade on a roof with large surface area, steep pitch, or long runs, because a steep roof delivers water to the gutter faster and a five inch gutter will overshoot in a heavy downpour regardless of how clean it is.
Downspout sizing and placement matter just as much. Too few downspouts and the gutter backs up in the middle of the run. We calculate this off the actual roof area rather than matching whatever the last contractor did.
The gutter is only half the system. If a downspout dumps water two feet from the wall, you have moved the problem twelve inches, not solved it.
Water needs to discharge at least four to six feet from the foundation, farther on a lot that slopes back toward the house. Options include extensions, underground drain lines running to daylight or to a dry well, and splash blocks where the grade already carries water away.
Grading is part of this too. If the soil slopes toward the house, no gutter system will fully protect the foundation, and we will tell you when the actual fix is dirt work rather than aluminum.
Middle Tennessee has heavy tree cover, particularly in the older Franklin, Brentwood, and Bellevue neighborhoods with mature oaks and maples, plus the tulip poplars and pines out toward Fairview and Kingston Springs. Gutters here fill fast.
Gutter guards genuinely reduce cleaning frequency. What they do not do is eliminate it, no matter what the ads claim. Fine debris, shingle grit, and pollen still accumulate, and a guard that has never been checked can build a mat on top that diverts water straight over the edge.
Micro mesh performs best against pine needles and fine debris. Reverse curve and surface tension guards work but can overshoot in the heavy downpours we get here. Foam and brush inserts are the cheapest and the least effective long term, because they hold debris and stay damp inside the gutter.
We will tell you which type suits your tree cover and roof pitch, and we will tell you if guards are not worth it for your house.
Clogged gutters do not just overflow. Standing water in a gutter backs up under the drip edge and into the roof deck, and it holds moisture directly against the fascia.
We recommend cleaning twice a year in this area, once in late spring after the seeds and pollen drop and once in late fall after the leaves come down. If you have heavy tree cover, more often.
While we are in the gutters, we can see things a homeowner cannot: granule accumulation that tells us how much life your shingles have left, drip edge condition, fascia rot starting behind the gutter, and loose flashing at the roof edge. It is a useful checkup even when nothing is wrong. See roof inspections.
Gutters take hail and wind damage in every storm that hits a roof, and they are one of the easiest items to overlook on a claim.
Hail dents gutter troughs and downspouts, and heavy dimpling on the soft aluminum is often the clearest physical evidence that hail hit the property at all. That evidence supports the roof portion of your claim as much as the gutter portion.
Wind pulls gutters loose at the hangers and separates downspouts. Falling limbs crush sections outright.
When Chad walks a property with your adjuster, gutters and downspouts get documented alongside the roof and siding. See insurance claim assistance.
Use Dylan Pine, whose review mentions drip edge and vents being added correctly, which fits the roof edge theme.
Twice a year is the general rule here, late spring and late fall. With heavy tree cover, three times is better. Clogged gutters back water under the drip edge and rot the fascia.
They meaningfully reduce how often you clean, but no guard eliminates maintenance despite the advertising. Micro mesh performs best against the fine debris and pine needles common around here.
Five inch K style handles most homes in this area. Six inch is worth it on large roof areas, steep pitches, or long runs where water arrives at the gutter faster than five inch can carry it.
Often we can repair. Resecuring loose hangers, resealing corners and outlets, and replacing individual sections is common. If the gutters are undersized or the aluminum is failing across the board, replacement is the better spend.
Storm damage to gutters is typically covered under the same claim as the roof, but only if it is documented. Hail dimpling on gutters also serves as supporting evidence that hail struck the property.
Yes, and that is the ideal sequence. New drip edge, gutters, and roof edge all get detailed together, and you pay for one mobilization instead of two.
Roof Commander installs full replacement roofing systems across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and the rest of Middle Tennessee. We have been doing it since 2001, we are GAF certified and Owens Corning Preferred, and most residential replacements we do are finished in a single day.
Learn about Roof Replacement in Franklin, TNA roof leak does not wait for a convenient time. Roof Commander repairs leaks, storm damage, failed flashing, and missing shingles across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee, and on urgent leaks we frequently get out the same day you call.
Learn about Roof Repair in Franklin, TNThis page is about the damage and the repair. For how the claim itself works, from filing through the final check, see insurance claim assistance.
Learn about Storm Damage Restoration in Franklin, TNThis page is about the claim process. For what hail and wind actually do to a roof and how we restore it, see storm damage restoration.
Learn about Roof Insurance Claim Assistance in Franklin, TNRoof Commander inspects roofs across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee at no charge. That includes storm damage inspections, pre purchase inspections on a home you are buying, and annual checkups on a roof you want to keep an eye on.
Learn about Free Roof Inspections in Franklin, TNPart of our roof repair service. If water is coming in right now, call (615) 218-6872 rather than reading further.
Learn about Emergency Roof Repair in Franklin, TNPart of our roof replacement service. Compare against asphalt shingle before you decide.
Learn about Metal Roofing in Franklin, TNPart of our roof replacement service. Compare against metal roofing before you decide.
Learn about Asphalt Shingle Roofing in Franklin, TNSiding is the other half of your home's weather envelope, and it fails quietly. Roof Commander installs and repairs vinyl, fiber cement, and Hardie siding across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee.
Learn about Siding Installation and Repair in Franklin, TNRoof Commander handles interior and exterior painting across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee. A lot of this work comes at the end of a restoration job, when a storm put water through a ceiling or hail took the finish off the trim, and the homeowner would rather not hire a separate painter to close out the project.
Learn about Interior and Exterior Painting in Franklin, TNRoof Commander is a general contractor, not only a roofing company. Chad and Grover Warren are third generation contractors, and the family business has covered construction, remodeling, framing, drywall, flooring, concrete, stucco, and plastering going back decades.
Learn about Home Renovations and Remodeling in Franklin, TNShingles are not rated for low pitch, and installing them there is one of the most common roofing mistakes we find in Middle Tennessee. If you have a porch roof, an addition, or a section over a garage that keeps leaking no matter how many times somebody patches it, this is almost certainly why.
Learn about Flat and Low Slope Roofing in Franklin, TNSoffit is the panel that closes off the underside of your roof overhang, the part you see when you stand under the eave and look straight up. Most homeowners in Franklin never think about it until it starts sagging, a squirrel gets behind it, or a painter points out that the wood has gone soft.
Learn about Soffit Repair and Replacement in Franklin, TNFascia is the vertical board that runs along the edge of your roof, capping the ends of the rafters. It is the board your gutters hang on.
Learn about Fascia Board Repair and Replacement in Franklin, TN