Rain gutters for San Antonio homes that never had them

Why so many San Antonio homes have no gutters

It's a dry-climate habit. From the 1950s ranches in Jefferson and Woodlawn Lake to the 1970s houses off Bandera Road and the 2000s two-stories in Stone Oak and Cibolo, builders left gutters off because 32 inches a year didn't seem worth the money. Some homes got a single run over the front door and nothing else. The result is a house that handles a light rain fine and takes a beating twice a year when the real storms come.

What it does to the house

• A trench in the mulch under the roofline, where the drip line has been hitting the same six inches of ground for decades.
• Mud and lime splashed up the brick or siding to knee height, and a green tide line on the north side.
• Water running along the slab. On the limestone and caliche north of Loop 410, rain doesn't soak in; it runs. Without gutters it runs along the foundation and into the garage or the low corner of the yard.
• Wet entries. A sheet of water off the roof edge right where you're trying to unlock the door.
• Rot at the door and window trim directly under a roof valley, where two planes of roof pour onto one spot.

None of that is dramatic in any one year. Over twenty years it's a foundation contractor's business model.

You may not need the whole house

This is where first-time installation differs from replacement, and where a lot of quotes are padded. Most homes need rain gutters San Antonio storms will actually load: the sides over the front entry, the garage door, the patio, and wherever the AC unit sits. A back wall that drops onto a lawn sloping away from the house may not need anything. We walk the house in a rain if we can, or read the ground if we can't, and quote the runs that solve the problem. Adding the rest later is easy.

Where the water goes on rock

Collecting water is half the job; the other half is putting it somewhere. On a caliche lot a downspout can't just dump onto the ground beside the slab, because the ground won't take it. We use rigid extensions carrying water four to six feet out onto the lawn, splash blocks where the yard slopes away, and on flat lots a buried line to a pop-up emitter at the curb or a low spot. Downspouts and your foundation goes into what the soil here does with water and why the extension is the most important $40 on the estimate.

What it costs

First-time installation is priced like a seamless install minus the tear-off: $9–$14 per foot for 5-inch .032 aluminum with 3x4 downspouts, 6-inch where a big roof calls for it. A partial job covering the front, the garage side and the patio on a single-story home is often 60–90 feet, so $600–$1,300. Whole-house on a single-story runs $1,400–$2,200. Rain gutters San Antonio TX builders should have put on in the first place cost less than a single foundation-repair pier. The pricing page has the tables.

Is it worth it at all?

Sometimes not. A small single-story with a wide roof overhang, on a lot that slopes away on every side, with no splash on the walls and no water in the garage, can go on without gutters and be fine. We'll say that if we see it. Do you need gutters on a San Antonio home? walks through the decision from the ground before you call anyone.