Gutter installation and repair in Glen Rock, NJ
A large share of Glen Rock was built between 1905 and 1930 on modest lots around two train stations, and those roofs are steep: gables, gambrels, a few still in slate or clay tile. Water leaves them fast and has little room to go. We form seamless aluminum on site, hang copper where the house suits it, and plan every downspout before we quote.
Steep roofs shed water fast. The gutter has to keep up.
Between 1910 and 1930 Glen Rock grew from about a thousand residents to more than four thousand, drawn by the Erie station at Rock Road and the trolley that followed it. The houses of that boom — Colonial Revivals, Queen Annes, Dutch Colonials, and stuccoed Mission-style houses with tile roofs — still stand close together around the Main Line and Boro Hall stations. Their roofs are mostly steep: gables, and a gambrel on every Dutch Colonial.
A steep roof gets its water to the eave quickly, and a gutter chosen by the length of the wall rather than the roof above it spills at the first hard rain, clean or not. We measure each run against the roof that feeds it; on these houses that often means a six-inch profile, larger downspouts, or more of them.
The general sizing rules are on our gutters page.
The same gutter does not suit every house here.
Find your house on the left; the right is what a sound estimate for it should say.
| The house | What the gutter has to handle, and what we fit |
|---|---|
| Dutch Colonial | On a gambrel, the near-vertical lower slope carries the upper slope’s water as well as its own, at speed. A six-inch profile where the numbers call for it, a gutter apron so nothing runs down the fascia, and outlets sized for the whole roof above. |
| Colonial Revival, Queen Anne | Gables meet in valleys, and each valley empties into a short stretch of gutter, often at an inside corner. An outlet near every valley, not only at the ends, and a splash guard where valley water would jump the lip. |
| Stucco, Mission style, tile roof | Tile ends in a thick, uneven edge, and overflow runs straight down the stucco, staining it and finding the cracks. Hangers fixed to the fascia or rafter ends, never through the tile; downspouts on sealed fixings, turned out clear of the wall. |
| Original slate still on | Slate will not take a strap nailed under it without lifting slates, and snow slides off it in sheets. Brackets on the fascia, half-round copper fixed with copper, and snow guards above if sliding snow has torn a gutter down before. |
| A later, plainer house | Long, low eaves and, often, a five-inch gutter nobody checked against the roof. Seamless aluminum colored to the trim; on a split-level, the upper downspout carried past the lower roof, not onto it. |
Close-set houses leave water nowhere obvious to go.
Almost every house in Glen Rock stands on a modest lot, close to its neighbors. On a narrow side yard the easy places for a downspout to empty are your foundation, the house next door and the walk; none of them is a plan.
The side yard
Between two houses, an extension long enough to clear one foundation can end at the other. We move the downspout to a corner facing open ground where we can, or take the water below ground in solid pipe to where the grade falls away from both houses.
The driveway and the front walk
A downspout emptying onto paving lays ice across it every cold night. We move the outlet or run it under the paving.
The trees, including next door’s
If a tree overhangs the roof (on a small lot it may be the neighbor’s), what falls from it decides whether a guard earns its cost, and which kind; see gutter guards and seasonal care.
A downspout onto a lower roof
An upper gutter draining onto a porch or a lower wing pours a concentrated stream onto shingles never meant for it, and overloads the gutter below. The downspout is carried down past the lower roof instead.
Half-round copper on the oldest roofs.
Some original slate and clay tile survive on the houses built before 1930, and the four Dutch sandstone farmhouses of the area’s first settlers, on Prospect Street and Ackerman Avenue, are older still. A squared-off K-style gutter was never part of a house of that age. Half-round copper on brackets suits the roof it hangs from, and outlasts aluminum by decades.
Copper is fixed with copper, because steel or aluminum touching it corrodes, and its seams are soldered, not caulked. Where the roof already has copper valleys or flashing, the gutter makes the whole edge one material.
What copper costs installed, and why the premium narrows over its life, is in what copper gutters cost in Bergen County; the roof itself is on our slate roofing page.
Plenty of old gutters need a repair, not a new run.
We check each run, the fascia behind it and where it drains before saying which yours is.
Usually a repair
Sound metal that has stopped doing its job.
- A run that sags in the middle and holds water
- A hanger worked loose, or a drip at an end cap or an outlet seam
- A downspout knocked off at the elbow or packed solid at a bend
- A copper seam that has opened and can be soldered again
The fascia is checked either way
Usually a replacement
Metal that is too small, worn out, or hung on rotten wood.
- A five-inch gutter that overflows under a steep slope even when it is clean
- Old sectional gutter with a leak at nearly every joint
- Rust eaten through the bottom of a steel gutter
- Fascia or rafter ends gone soft behind the run
Rotten wood is repaired before anything is hung
If only one corner overflows, the valley above may be the cause, not the gutter; roof repair in Glen Rock explains how we trace it.
The roof the gutters hang from.
Roof repair
When the overflow starts on the roof, not in the gutter.
Glen Rock →Roof replacement
New drip edge and gutter apron go on before the gutter does.
Glen Rock →Ridgewood
Copper and seamless gutters across the Ridgewood line.
Neighboring town →Glen Rock
Everything we do on the borough’s houses, from roofs to siding.
Glen Rock →Siding in Glen Rock → · How we size a gutter → · Ice at the eaves, explained →
Do you install seamless gutters in Glen Rock, NJ?
Yes, anywhere in 07452. We roll seamless aluminum on site and cut it to the length of each eave, so a run has no joints except at its corners and outlets, and half-round copper is there for houses old enough to want it. Every run is sized to the roof that drains into it, and where each downspout discharges is written on the estimate.
Why do the gutters on our Dutch Colonial overflow even when they are clean?
Because a gambrel delivers a great deal of water to one edge, and delivers it fast. The steep lower slope carries everything the shallow upper slope has already collected, so an ordinary five-inch gutter, drained only at its two ends, can be swamped in a heavy rain. A larger profile, more outlets and a splash guard where a valley meets the gutter usually put it right.
Can you put gutters on a slate roof without damaging it?
Yes. Instead of nailing straps under the bottom course, which means disturbing slates that can crack when they are lifted, we fix brackets to the fascia and hang the gutter from them. On a slate roof that is usually half-round copper, fastened with copper throughout so no other metal sits against it.
Where should the downspouts go on a small lot?
Somewhere the water can soak in or run off without reaching your foundation, the house next door, or a walk that will freeze. On a narrow side yard that can mean moving a downspout to another corner of the house, or taking the water below ground in solid pipe to lower ground. You see the plan for every outlet before anything goes up.
Do I need a permit for new gutters in Glen Rock?
No. New Jersey’s construction code treats gutter replacement on a detached one- or two-family house as ordinary maintenance: no permit, no inspection, nothing to file with the borough. Re-roofing, re-siding in wood or vinyl, and replacing windows in the same openings are treated the same way; replacing roof sheathing or building a new deck is not.
Every run sized to the roof, every downspout planned.
We measure the roof, check the fascia, and write down the size, metal, outlets and discharge of every run. The estimate is free.