Gutter repairs and gutter clearing are two different jobs, and plenty of people find that out the expensive way. If the run is blocked, emptying it fixes it. If it has already failed, you can have it emptied every year and it will still drip down the same patch of wall, because the water is not going where it should even with nothing in the way.
Services
Gutter repairs in South Yorkshire
If you have been quoted for a whole new gutter system, it is worth getting a second look first. Split joints, dropped runs and rotted brackets are usually repairable, and a repair costs a fraction of a replacement. I will tell you straight which one yours needs, with the photographs to show why.
Clear, repair or replace?
- Overflows in heavy rain, fine the rest of the time. Blocked rather than broken. That is a clear, not a repair.
- Drips from one spot in every shower. A split joint. Reseal or swap that union.
- Water still sitting in it once the rain stops. The run has lost its fall. Lift it off and re-hang it.
- Sagging or pulling away from the wall. Brackets gone, or the board behind them. Fascia first if so.
- Downpipe gurgles, then backs up. A choked or cracked outlet.
- Cast iron stained and flaking at the back. Rusted through out of sight. That section replaced.
Repaired where it can be, replaced where it cannot
Most of what I get called out to is fixable. A split union gets stripped back and resealed, or swapped for a new one. A run holding water gets lifted off and re-hung so the fall runs to the outlet. A bracket that has rusted or pulled out of soft timber gets renewed, and if the board behind it has gone there is no sense hanging a new one on it, so that comes first.
Replacement is for the lengths that are genuinely finished: plastic gone brittle and split, or cast iron rusted from the back where nobody sees it. Even then it is usually one section, not the whole house.
Repairs, not replacements
A new collar into the old cast iron. The rest of the downpipe stayed. 
A downpipe run renewed on a stone house. 
Where the board behind had gone too, so all three together.
Why gutter repairs cannot be priced off a photo
A picture tells me plenty about a blocked gutter and much less about a broken one, because whatever has failed is usually behind the gutter rather than sitting in it. A joint that looks sound from the pavement can be split along the back edge, and a bracket can look present while holding on to nothing.
So the figure depends on what turns up once the section is off: how many joints have gone rather than the one you spotted, whether the timber behind is solid, and how much of the run has dropped. Height and access count too.
Which is why the quote comes after I have been, not before. If it proves to be one union and an hour, that is what you pay for.
Round here
He went above and beyond for us today.
The questions that come up most
Can cast iron guttering be repaired, or does it all have to come off?
Usually repaired. A new collar goes into sound cast iron and the rest of the run stays put, which is a far smaller job than stripping a whole elevation. Where a length has actually rusted through, that length is replaced and the rest left alone.
Will a repair match the guttering I already have?
Half round and square are easy enough. Ogee and some older profiles are harder, and on a house that has been added to there can be two profiles on one wall. If I cannot get a proper match I will say so before I start.
There is damp on the wall inside. Is the gutter causing it?
Often, if it lines up with a spot that has been overflowing a while, because the wall never dries out. Not always though, and I am not a damp specialist. I can tell you whether the gutter is putting water on that wall, which is worth ruling out first.
Should I do the fascia at the same time?
If the board is what has failed, yes, and it usually is when the gutter has come away rather than just leaked. Doing the gutter now and the fascia next year means paying twice to get up to the same place.
What if the blockage is underground rather than in the gutter?
I clear the downpipe and the outlet, which is where it usually is. If water is backing up out of a gully at the bottom, that is the underground drain and a drainage job rather than mine. Either way you will know what I found.
Older housing, older gutters
Round here you get both. The pre-war terraces and stone houses often still carry cast iron, worth keeping where it is sound and awkward to match if a length has gone. The post-war semis and the sixties and seventies estates are plastic, easy to source but brittle with age.
I cover Mexborough and twenty miles out, so Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Sheffield and the Dearne Valley towns between. If yours turns out blocked rather than broken, that is gutter clearing. If the board behind the gutter has softened, start at fascias and soffits. The full list is on the services page.
Getting it looked at
Photograph the wet patch as well as the gutter. Where the water lands tells me more than the gutter does, and it points straight at the joint that has gone. Send it to 07515 154559 on WhatsApp. If it needs repairing I will say so, if it only needs clearing I will say that, and finding out costs nothing. Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Want it looked at?
I come out and look before I price anything. Free quote, no call out fee.