Fall Storm Season Gutter Checklist for San Antonio Homes
San Antonio has two storm seasons, and the second one starts about now. The tail end of the Gulf hurricane season and the first cold fronts of the year meet over the Hill Country in September and October, and the result is the kind of rain that made the October 1998 flood and puts flash-flood warnings on your phone at 2 a.m. The gutters have had a dry, hot summer to loosen up. This is the ten-minute walk-around we'd do on our own houses this week.
Up at the roofline
1. Hangers and straps
Walk the outside of the house and sight down each gutter run. You're looking for a run that dips in the middle or has pulled away from the fascia at the top edge, showing a dark gap. Summer heat dries out fascia boards and lets old spike hangers back out; the first heavy rain fills the sagging section, and the weight finishes the job. Push up gently on the middle of any run you can reach. If it moves more than half an inch, it needs hangers.
Then downspouts: each one should be strapped to the wall at the top, the bottom and every eight feet between. A downspout with a loose strap rattles in wind and then comes apart at the elbow.
2. Corners and end caps
Look under each corner for a drip stain on the ground, a green streak on the wall, or a tide mark on the porch. Sealant that cracked in August will leak in September. If you can get a ladder up safely, run a hose into the gutter above the corner for a minute and watch. A dripping corner is a $150–$250 reseal now and a rotted fascia board in three years; how to find a gutter leak walks through the full hose test.
3. Fascia
The board the gutter hangs on. Push a screwdriver into it at each corner and under each downspout. Sound wood stops it. Soft wood lets it sink, and a gutter on soft wood is coming down in a storm. Also look for paint bubbling in a band along the roof edge. If you find it, the gutter needs to come off that section and the board replaced before it's re-hung, which is a small job in a dry week and a big one after the gutter has fallen.
4. Flow
Gutters full of the dust and catkins that fell after the May cleaning won't overflow on their own, but the downspout outlets will be caught. Flush each downspout from the top with a hose and watch the bottom. A trickle means a plug, usually at the elbow. If you can't get up there, at least watch the downspouts during the first rain: one that barely runs while the gutter above it overflows is blocked.
On the ground, and above the gutter
5. Extensions
The most-skipped item. Every downspout should discharge four to six feet from the wall onto ground that slopes away. Most extensions have been kicked off by the mower since spring. Put them back, and on caliche lots make sure the water has somewhere to go once it's out there. Downspouts and your foundation explains why this matters more on rock than it does in the rest of the country.
6. The roof edge
From the ground with binoculars, or from the ladder: is there a drip edge (a strip of metal flashing) under the first row of shingles, extending into the gutter? Do the shingles reach the gutter? On roofs replaced after a hail year the drip edge is often missing, and water runs behind the gutter and down the fascia in every storm. It's a roofing fix, but it's why some gutters "leak" that aren't leaking.
7. Trees over the roof
Live oak and cedar elm limbs that rest on the roof or hang over the gutter drop debris every time the wind blows and can take out a run in a storm. September is a reasonable time to have them trimmed back. Don't trim live oaks between February and June, when the oak wilt fungus spreads; Texas A&M Forest Service has the oak wilt guidance if you want the reasoning.
The checklist
- Sight every run for sag; push up on the middle
- Check downspout straps at top, bottom and every 8 feet
- Look under corners for drips and stains; hose test if you can
- Screwdriver the fascia at corners and under downspouts
- Flush each downspout and watch the bottom
- Put extensions back; six feet on clay, four on ground that slopes away
- Check for a drip edge and shingle overhang
- Trim limbs off the roof
What to do with what you find
A sagging run, a leaking corner or a bad downspout is a same-week gutter repair at $150–$600, and doing it in a dry September week beats doing it after the run is on the lawn in October. If the list is long — three corners, two runs, soft fascia on two sides — it's worth reading repair vs. replacement before spending on patches. And if the house has no gutters and the mulch is trenched along the drip line, this is the last dry window before the storms show you exactly where they'd go.
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