Gutters in Tulsa: a guide to repair, installation and hail damage

What the local weather does to a gutter

This part of Oklahoma gets about 40 inches of rain a year, and a lot of it arrives between late March and June in storms that drop an inch or more in an hour, with short bursts far heavier, and often bring hail with them. A hailstorm that dents the roof usually dents the gutters too: a front lip peppered like a golf ball, downspouts flattened on the windward side, end caps knocked loose. Then winter turns the same water into ice. The ice storms here load gutters with a frozen slab that can weigh 20–30 pounds a foot when it is packed with ice and wet leaves, far more than old spike hangers were meant to hold, and a pecan limb coming down under the same ice finishes the job.

In between, the trees do their work. Midtown, Brookside, Maple Ridge and most of the older neighborhoods between the river and Yale Avenue sit under mature pecans and oaks. Pecans drop leaves, husks and nuts from late October into December, oaks hold their leaves into winter, and both fill a gutter faster than most people expect. A gutter that is full when the ice arrives is a gutter that comes down.

The housing stock matters too. The 1950s–70s ranch homes in midtown — Lortondale, Ranch Acres, Patrick Henry, the blocks around 41st and Harvard — mostly still carry their original or second-generation gutters on fascia that has been wet for decades. Out in Broken Arrow and Owasso the homes are newer and bigger, and the problem is the opposite: builder-grade 5-inch gutters with one small downspout trying to drain a two-story roof. Guttering in Tulsa has to handle both.

The main gutter jobs, explained

Gutter repair. Resealing corners and end caps, re-hanging sagging runs on hidden hangers screwed into the rafter tails, replacing crushed or hail-flattened downspouts, adding downspouts where a long run has only one, and replacing rotted fascia before anything new goes up. Most repairs typically run $150–$600 and take a morning. The gutter repair guide lists each job with a typical price range.

Seamless gutter installation and replacement. Aluminum formed on site from a coil to the length of each wall, 5-inch or 6-inch, with 3x4 downspouts where the roof area calls for them. A single-story midtown ranch with 150–180 feet of gutter usually lands between $1,500 and $2,700; two-story homes in Broken Arrow and Jenks run higher. The installation guide covers sizing and what should be included, and the cost page has the tables.

Hail and storm damage. If a storm dented the roof, it probably dented the gutters, and they usually belong on the same claim. Photograph the damage yourself from the ground, read your policy, and make sure the roofer's scope includes the gutters. The hail and storm damage guide explains how gutters fit a roof claim.

Gutter guards. Under pecans and oaks the right guard cuts cleaning from three visits a year to a rinse. Under two ornamental trees in a new Owasso yard it is money you do not need to spend. The gutter guards guide says which is which.

Gutter cleaning. Every foot cleared by hand, downspouts flushed, and a look at the hangers and fascia from the ladder, so a loose section gets found before the ice does. The gutter cleaning guide explains what a clean-out should include and what it typically costs.

Most homes need some mix of gutter installation and repair over the life of the system, and the guides above are written so you can tell which one you are looking at before anyone climbs a ladder.

Areas this guide covers

All of Tulsa and Tulsa County: midtown and downtown, south Tulsa out to 121st Street, east Tulsa, north Tulsa and the Gilcrease area, and west across the river to Sand Springs. The suburbs are covered too: Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby, Jenks, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Glenpool, Catoosa, Coweta and Claremore. Broken Arrow and Jenks have their own guides because their housing is different enough to matter: Broken Arrow and Jenks.

What a gutter has to handle here

Carry a heavy spring storm without going over the front lip. Put the water 4–6 feet from the foundation, more on flat or back-sloping clay, because Tulsa County clay swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, and a slab or a pier-and-beam foundation that moves is an expensive foundation repair. Survive an ice load without pulling the fascia off. Be sized so one downspout is not draining a thousand square feet of roof. That is the checklist any good estimate on Tulsa gutters should cover, and it is why a careful contractor asks about the roof and the downspouts before asking about the leak.

Reading this after a storm

If a hailstorm or a windstorm has just come through, photograph everything from the ground before anything is touched or cleaned up, then call your agent and read your policy. If something is hanging, keep people and cars clear of it and say so when you request an estimate. If you are reading this in a quiet week instead, the storm-season checklist is a ten-minute walk-around for the whole house, and why clean gutters still overflow explains the overflow that is not a clog.