Downspout Coming Loose or Overflowing? Rain Drainz Installs and Repairs Downspouts in Wilmington, DE

Water is running down your brick instead of through the pipe. The downspout has pulled off the wall, or it dumps a stream right at the foundation every time it rains. In Wilmington, 53.7% of homes are attached row homes. Many have a single downspout on the front and a single one on the back. When one fails, half the roof's water lands in one spot.

Rain Drainz repairs, installs, and extends downspouts so roof water is carried away from the wall and kept where it belongs.

Downspout installation and repair involves sizing, hanging, securing, replacing and extending the pipes that carry water from your gutters down the wall and away from the foundation.

Downspout work from Rain Drainz includes:

• Installing new downspouts on new or existing gutters, sized to the roof area they drain
• Replacing crushed, split or rusted sections
• Re-securing downspouts that have pulled away from the wall
• Re-sealing leaking elbows and seams
• Adding a second drop to a gutter run that overflows at one end
• Installing above-ground extensions and splash blocks that move the outlet away from the wall
• Building color-matched aluminum, plus copper for copper gutter systems

Here's the thing about Wilmington: on a row home, the downspout has few places to go. Property walls on both sides mean the pipe lands on the front or the back. It shares that wall with a stoop, a walkway, a bay window or a neighbor's pipe. Placement is a real decision. We pick the drop location, size and outlet direction based on where the water can be carried away, not just where the old pipe used to hang.

This page is part of our Gutter Company in Wilmington, DE hub, which covers every part of the gutter system. The downspout is one link in that chain. It is the narrowest point, and it takes the most abuse from ladders, mowers and car bumpers.

Our job on this page ends where the water leaves the bottom of the pipe. After that, it is a drainage question. If you want the outlet tied into an underground line, see downspout drains. If you want that line routed away from the house below grade, see buried downspouts.

Downspout repair is due when you see any of these during or after the rain:

• Water sheeting down the wall behind or beside the pipe
• Dark streaks or a green film on the brick below a seam or elbow
• The gutter overflows in one spot while the rest of the run stays dry
• Straps missing, bent or loose, and the pipe rocks when you touch it
• A crushed or kinked bottom section from a mower, trash can or bumper
• Rust holes or split seams on older steel or thin aluminum
• A trench washed into the mulch bed or gravel under the outlet
• Ice on the sidewalk or steps below the outlet in winter
• No extension at all, with the pipe ending within a foot of the wall

Downspouts pull away from the house when the straps or the fasteners behind them give out. In Wilmington this happens on a schedule. Roughly 78 freeze-thaw cycles a year knock every fastener loose, and trim that is often 80 years old or more no longer grips a screw.

Water sits in every seam and elbow between rains. When it freezes, it expands by about 9%. That pushes the joint open. When it thaws, the joint settles back, but not all the way. Do that 78 times a year and the seam splits, the strap hole widens, and the screw spins out.

What the strap is fastened into matters as much as the strap. Screws set into old wood trim, or into mortar joints instead of brick, hold for a season and then let go. On a three-story row home, that is 30 feet of pipe hanging on two or three failing points, catching wind in every storm.

Downspout installation on site starts at the roof, not the ground. We measure the roof area each drop has to carry and check the gutter size and outlet. We confirm 2″×3″ or 3″×4″ from those numbers.

Then we pick the drop location. On a row home, that means checking the stoop, the walkway, the meter, and where the neighbor's pipe lands, so the outlet has somewhere to send the water.

We cut and fit each section, set elbows tight to the wall, and fasten straps into solid masonry or framing. Every seam is sealed. The bottom elbow gets an extension or splash block that carries water at least 4 feet from the wall. We run a hose through the gutter before we leave to prove it drains.

Downspout installation in Wilmington costs around $179 to $379, depending on how many drops, whether they are 2″×3″ or 3″×4″, the material, the height of the wall, and what the pipe has to be fastened into. Every job starts with a free written estimate.

What moves the price:

• Number of drops. A row home with two drops costs less than a detached colonial with six.
• Size. 3″×4″ uses more material than 2″×3″, with little change in labor.
• Material. Aluminum is standard. Copper costs several times more and is matched to copper gutters only.
• Height. A three-story wall means more pipe, more straps and more ladder time than one story.
• Fastening surface. Setting anchors into 80-year-old brick takes longer than screwing into new framing.
• Extras. Extensions, splash blocks and cutting a new outlet into an existing gutter are line items.

Downspout installation and repair from Rain Drainz starts at our office at 11 Lewis Circle in Wilmington and covers Wilmington, New Castle County, and nearby service areas. Wilmington is our home base and our busiest downspout market. Its row homes, twins and 80-year-old trim create more downspout problems per block than anywhere else we work.

Newark homes, from university rentals to family neighborhoods, see the same freeze-thaw wear on a different mix of housing. Middletown's newer developments sit on lots where grading is still settling, so an outlet that dumps at the wall shows up as a soft spot in the lawn within a season.

We serve the rest of New Castle County and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as well.

Larger projects reach about an hour from Wilmington. Small repairs stay within about 45 minutes, so a loose downspout gets fixed fast.

Not sure if you are in range? Ask when you request your estimate.