Downspout installation

The downspout is half the drainage system

A gutter collects the water that runs off the roof. The downspout is what gets that water to the ground and away from the house. When people picture gutter work they picture the horizontal run along the eave, but every drop of rain that gutter catches has to leave through an outlet and travel down a wall. A well-protected gutter feeding a short, crushed or badly placed downspout still overflows, because the water has nowhere to go fast enough.

That is why we treat downspouts as their own part of the job instead of an afterthought. The outlet has to sit where the gutter can empty into it, the vertical run has to be fastened securely to the wall, and the bottom has to turn the water away from the foundation. If any of those pieces is wrong, the water ends up in the wrong place: over the front of the gutter, down the siding, or pooled against the basement wall.

When you describe a problem to us, the downspout is often where the answer is. Water spilling over a clean gutter at one corner, a gutter that seems to hold standing water after rain, or soil washing out at one spot along the house can all point to an outlet or downspout that cannot keep up. We ask about those symptoms before we recommend any guard, because a guard cannot fix water that has nowhere to leave.

• The outlet is where the gutter empties; it has to match the gutter and the downspout.
• The vertical run carries the water down the wall and has to be fastened securely.
• The bottom of the run has to send water away from the foundation, not beside it.

Published downspout pricing

Downspouts are priced per foot of downspout, installed. The smaller downspout size is $14 per foot and 6-inch work is $16 per foot. Elbows are included in that rate, and so is the labor to hang it. You are not charged separately for each bend, and the rate does not change because a run needs an extra offset to clear a window or a hose bib.

The downspout line sits alongside the gutter system line, not inside it. A gutter system is priced per foot of gutter: Gutter Clean Pro from $18 per foot over sound existing gutters, T-Rex from $25 per foot with new 5-inch gutters, and DoublePro from $30 per foot with new 5-inch gutters. The downspouts that drain that gutter are measured and added as their own line, so the quote shows you both quantities.

Separating the two is the honest way to price the work. Two houses can have exactly the same length of eave and very different amounts of downspout. A one-story ranch drops a short distance to the ground. A two- or three-story colonial, or a house built into a slope with a tall downhill side, needs much longer vertical runs for the same roofline. Pricing only the gutter feet would either overcharge the ranch or quietly lose money on the colonial, and neither is fair to the homeowner reading the quote.

• Smaller downspouts: $14/ft installed, elbows included.
• 6-inch downspouts: $16/ft installed, elbows included.
• Removing an old system, when needed: $1/ft as its own line.

How the footage gets measured

Downspout footage follows the house, not the roofline. Each run is measured from the outlet at the gutter down the wall to where it turns out at the bottom. The number of runs depends on how much roof drains to each section of gutter, where the corners and valleys send water, and where there is a sensible place to bring water down without dumping it on a walkway or a neighbor's property.

We start from the roofline and the number of stories you describe, then confirm the details that change the count. A roof valley that concentrates water at one short stretch of gutter may need its own outlet. A long run of gutter may need a drop at each end rather than one in the middle. A downspout that currently empties onto a driveway or into a buried pipe of unknown condition needs a decision about where the water should go instead.

Photos help, but you do not need to measure anything yourself. Tell us the address, how many stories each side of the house is, and where the existing downspouts come down. That is usually enough for a first number. The final count is confirmed before you authorize the work, and any change to it shows up as a visible line on the quote, never as a surprise on the invoice.

Where the water goes after the downspout

The reason a drainage system exists is to put roof water at a safe distance from the foundation. Water that comes down a downspout and soaks into the soil right beside the wall is still water against the house. It shows up later as a damp basement corner, a washed-out bed of mulch, or ice on a walkway in February.

The bottom of every run needs a plan: an elbow and extension that carries the water out onto ground that slopes away, or a connection to a drain that actually works. Buried drains are worth a question. If an existing underground pipe is crushed or clogged, connecting a new downspout to it simply moves the overflow underground, where it cannot be seen. We ask how the current drains behave in heavy rain before deciding whether to use them.

New England adds winter to the problem. A downspout that discharges onto a shaded path can freeze into a sheet of ice. Where the water lands matters for safety as much as for the foundation, and it is part of the conversation before the work is scheduled rather than something discovered after the first freeze.

Downspouts with a guard system

A gutter guard changes what reaches the downspout. Debris that used to wash into the outlet and jam the elbows is kept out of the gutter channel, so the downspout mostly carries water. That is one of the practical benefits of protecting the gutter: fewer blocked elbows halfway down a two-story wall, which is exactly the spot nobody wants to reach on a ladder.

A guard does not reduce the amount of water. In a downpour the downspouts still have to carry everything the roof sheds. That is why the size and number of downspouts are part of any guard installation we quote, and why a new gutter system is paired with downspouts that can keep up with it. The two work together, and pricing them as separate, visible lines lets you see exactly what the drainage side of the job costs.

If you are replacing an old system, the downspouts usually come off with the gutters. Removal is $1 per foot of removed run where it applies. If your existing downspouts are sound and correctly placed and you are only adding protection with Gutter Clean Pro, there may be little or no downspout work at all. We will say so on the call rather than adding footage the house does not need.