Box gutters
Box gutter repair in Cincinnati
If your house was built before 1940 and there’s no gutter hanging off the edge, you have box gutters. They were built to last a century, and the liner didn’t. We reline them, rebuild the rotted wood underneath, and make the internal downspouts drain again.
What a box gutter is
On most Cincinnati homes built before the Second World War, the gutter isn’t attached to the house — it’s part of it. A wooden trough was framed into the roof edge behind the cornice, lined with terne (tin-coated steel) or galvanized sheet, and drained into downspouts that often run inside the wall. From the street you see a cornice and no gutter at all. Some people call them Yankee gutters or built-in gutters. Hyde Park, Clifton, Northside, Walnut Hills, Norwood, Price Hill and Covington are full of them.
The liner is the weak point. Terne needed repainting every few years, and most haven’t been painted since the 1970s. Once it pinholes, water goes into the trough wood, then the cornice, then the top of the wall, and shows up as a stain on a second-floor ceiling or bubbling plaster. Every winter the water in the trough freezes, lifts the liner, and opens the seams a little wider.
How to tell yours is failing
- A brown stain on an upstairs ceiling along an outside wall, worst after a thaw
- Paint peeling off the cornice or the soffit under the roof edge
- Icicles hanging from the cornice itself in January
- Water dripping from behind the trim, or from a downspout that emerges partway down the wall
- A sag in the roof edge visible from across the street
What we do about it
Reline with EPDM membrane. The most common fix. We clean out the trough, repair the wood, then bond a single sheet of EPDM rubber membrane into it, up under the slate and out over the front edge, with the outlets flashed in. No seams, no paint, and it flexes with the freeze-thaw. Expect 25 to 30 years.
Reline with new metal. Galvanized or copper sheet, soldered at the seams, for owners who want the original material, or where a historic district review asks for it. Copper is the long-term answer — 60 years or more — and priced accordingly.
Rebuild the trough. Where the liner failed years ago, the wood is gone. We cut out the rotten trough boards and sometimes the rafter tails, rebuild to the original profile, then line it. This is carpentry first, and it’s the part most gutter companies won’t do.
Sort out the outlets and downspouts. An internal downspout rusted through inside the wall is a leak nobody finds from outside. We test each outlet, replace the drop where it’s accessible, and where it isn’t, bring a new downspout out through the cornice.
What it costs
Box gutter repair Cincinnati homeowners pay for is priced per foot of trough, and it varies more than hanging gutters because the wood underneath is unknown until we open it. Typical ranges, not a quote:
| Job | Typical price |
|---|---|
| EPDM relining, sound wood | $35 – $75 per foot |
| Trough rebuild plus EPDM liner | $80 – $150 per foot |
| Copper relining | $120 – $200 per foot |
| Replace an internal downspout drop | $300 – $900 each |
A typical Hyde Park foursquare has 80–120 feet of box gutter, so a full EPDM relining on sound wood is usually $3,500–$8,000, and a rebuild is more. We open a section and show you the wood before the price is final.
The wrong fix
The wrong fix is the one we get called to undo: elastomeric coating brushed over a rusted liner, or a roofer who fills the trough with foam and shingles over it. Both trap water in the wood, and roofing over a box gutter sends the water down the face of the cornice. If a roofer has suggested that, get a second opinion before the roof goes on.
Slate, tile and half-round
Most of these homes have slate roofs, and the box gutter is where the slate ends. We lift and re-hang the bottom courses to get the liner under them. Where a box gutter is beyond saving, half-round copper on cast brackets is the period-correct replacement, covered on the installation page. In a designated local historic district, exterior changes visible from the street may need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city’s Historic Conservation Board; we’ll tell you if that applies.
More on how these gutters fail, and which fix suits which house, in box gutters on older Cincinnati homes. Ordinary gutter repair covers the hanging aluminum on the porch or garage.
Other gutter services
Gutter Repair
Corners opened by ice, runs pulled off their hangers, split downspouts and rotted fascia — most fixed in a morning for $150–$600.
Gutter Repair →Seamless Gutter Installation
Seamless aluminum run on site to the length of each wall, sized for Cincinnati storms and hung to survive the freeze-thaw.
Seamless Gutter Installation →Gutter Guards
Micro-mesh and screen guards, chosen for what your trees actually drop — oak tassels, maple seeds, pin oak leaves in January.
Gutter Guards →Gutter Cleaning
Every run cleared by hand, downspouts and underground drains flushed, and a ladder inspection so you hear about a problem before it becomes March’s repair.
Gutter Cleaning →Questions we get asked
Can a box gutter just be sealed instead of relined?
For a season, sometimes. A small split at a seam can be patched with a compatible membrane or soldered if the metal is sound. But coating a rusted liner with roof paint or elastomeric traps water in the wood and makes the eventual repair bigger. If the liner is pinholed along its length, relining is the honest answer.
Should I convert my box gutters to regular hanging gutters?
Usually not. The cornice was built around the box gutter, and hanging aluminum on it looks wrong and often leaks behind. A relined box gutter with EPDM lasts 25–30 years for less than many people expect. Conversion makes sense only when the trough and cornice are too rotten to save, and half-round copper is the right replacement then.
Do you work on box gutters under slate roofs?
Yes. Most of the box gutters in Hyde Park and Clifton are under slate. We lift the bottom courses, run the liner up under them, and re-hang the slate with copper nails or hooks. We don’t replace slate roofs, and we’ll tell you if the slate itself is what’s leaking.
Need gutter work in Cincinnati?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.