How to Choose a Gutter Contractor in Charleston and the Lowcountry

Before comparing prices, find out who you are dealing with. A local office, a local phone number and an owner you can name all matter when a seam needs attention two summers from now. So does knowing whether the people on the ladder work for the company or were hired out for the day.

• Where is the company based, and how far is that from your house?
• Who owns it, and who will be your contact from the first visit to the final cleanup?
• Will its own crews do the work, or will the job be handed to someone else?
• Does it form seamless gutters on site, or bring in pieces cut somewhere else?
• Can you read its reviews, including the bad ones?

Here are our answers. The Brothers That Just Do Gutters Charleston belongs to Gabe Gomez, a Marine Corps veteran, and is run out of Mount Pleasant. Our own crews work 25 communities across the Lowcountry, from downtown Charleston and Daniel Island to North Charleston and Hanahan. You can meet the team before anyone comes out, and we publish every review, good or bad.

The S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR) also runs a free Licensee Lookup on its website. If a company tells you it holds a state license or registration, you can confirm it there in a minute.

On financing, we agree with the state: compare terms. Ours runs through a third-party provider that makes the credit decision, and our payment options page lists the questions to ask before you sign.

Sources: S.C. Department of Consumer Affairs, consumer alert on hiring a contractor, December 2024; S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Residential Builders Commission.

• Every run measured, with the footage for each side of the house.
• The gutter size for each run, such as 6 inch or 7 inch, and the reason for it.
• The profile and the metal: K-style or half-round, in colored aluminum, copper, galvalume or galvanized steel.
• How the gutters will be hung. We use hidden hangers screwed into sound fascia, not spikes through the face.
• Where every downspout goes and where each one lets the water out.
• Fascia repairs and gutter guards as separate lines you can accept or decline.
• What the warranty covers, and who stands behind it.

Our Charleston gutter cost guide walks through the eight things that move the price on a Lowcountry house. If one company comes in far below the others, lay the free estimates side by side and look for the difference in the size, the metal, the number of downspouts or work that was left off.

Ask about the warranty, too. When BroGuard gutter guards go on with a new seamless system from our crew, the whole system falls under one Limited Lifetime Warranty, and our BroGuard warranty page shows the manufacturer’s terms word for word.

Which metal suits my distance from the water?

Near the beach or the marsh, the answer should be specific. Aluminum has no iron to rust, which is why it is the usual pick on the islands and along the marsh. Galvalume and galvanized steel are coated steel that can rust where the coating is cut, so they fit better inland. Copper outlasts the rest but should never drain onto another metal. Our coastal and raised home gutters page has the details.

Where will the water go on a raised house?

On homes up on piers or pilings in Isle of Palms, Folly Beach or Kiawah Island, a downspout can drop a full story. Ask how it will be strapped to the structure and how the water will be carried out from under the house instead of dumped between the piers.

Will the gutter keep up with a metal roof?

Standing seam metal throws rain off the eave fast. Ask how the contractor sizes and places the gutter so the stream lands in the trough instead of sailing over it. Our post on gutters for metal roofs explains what to look for.

Does my house fall under historic review?

Downtown and in parts of Mount Pleasant’s Old Village, preservation rules can reach the roof edge. A contractor who works there should know what the Board of Architectural Review expects before ordering anything. See our historic district gutter guide, and for porches, our porch and piazza gutter guide.

Is the system sized for our summers?

NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for Charleston International Airport put 25.79 inches of the year’s rain in June through September alone. Ask what size gutter the contractor plans for each run and how many downspouts. We hang 6 inch gutters as our standard here and step up to 7 inch where a large roof plane needs it. Our gutter sizes page explains how we decide.

Rain data: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals from NCEI, Charleston International Airport station.

In a consumer alert issued after a hurricane in 2018, LLR told South Carolina homeowners to be on the lookout for scam artists following the storm. The state’s Residential Builders Commission said the biggest problems it sees are homeowners paying too much in advance and hiring unlicensed contractors. It also warned about anyone offering discounted material left over from another job.

1. Take photos.Document the damage from the ground before anything is moved or hauled away.
2. Get it in writing.LLR says to keep a signed copy of the contract that lists the company’s name, address and license or registration number, along with the work, the materials and the payment terms.
3. Pay as the work gets done.Do not hand over everything up front. Look over the finished work before the final payment.
4. Call someone local.A company with an office here will still be around when the next storm season starts.

Our Charleston Storm Check shows what NOAA has logged in your county over the last ten years, and our hurricane season gutter prep guide covers what to do before the tropics turn active. After a storm, a free post-storm check from our crew finds loose hangers, split seams and crushed downspouts, and our gutter repair team fixes them. If the system is past saving, our gutter installation crew forms new seamless runs in your driveway.

Source: S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, consumer alert on property repairs following a hurricane, 2018.