Gutter cleaning across St. Charles County, town by town
St. Charles is home, from the old river streets to the subdivisions that grew up around them. The same hand cleaning and repairs reach the rest of the county too, from St. Peters and O'Fallon out to Wentzville. At every stop, what a gutter needs depends on the roof and the trees over it far more than on the town.
Three kinds of house in St. Charles itself
The town was founded around 1769 as Les Petites Côtes, was Lewis and Clark's last stop in May 1804, and served as Missouri's first state capital from 1821 to 1826. Today it is a city of about 72,000, and its houses fall into three groups that need different things from a gutter.
Frenchtown and Main Street
The oldest streets sit along the river. Frenchtown has been a National Register historic district since 1991, about 205 buildings put up between 1830 and 1940 in brick and clapboard, with steep roofs and deep porches. Gutter work here is slower and higher: half-round gutters on some houses, a porch-roof gutter catching what the main roof sends down, and big old trees close to the eaves. Replacing a run on one of these houses is its own job, covered under half-round and seamless gutter replacement.
The subdivisions off Zumbehl Road and Highway 94
Much of the city came in a building wave that started in the late 1970s, when the I-70, I-64 and Route 94 corridor filled in. These are mostly brick-and-siding ranches, split-levels and two-story colonials. On many of these streets the oaks, maples and sweetgums planted with the houses have grown past the roofline, and this is where the pros tend to find the heaviest leaf loads, often in the builder's original 5-inch gutters hung on spikes, sometimes with a downspout running into a buried drain. Sagging runs and slow drains here are a gutter and downspout repair call as often as a cleaning one.
New Town
New Town at St. Charles is a 746-acre planned neighborhood on the north side, with its first model homes opened in 2005. Narrow lots, porches close to the sidewalk, small roofs and young street trees. The gutters here fill slowly, porch-roof gutters first, and a cleaning every year or two is usually enough for now.
The rest of St. Charles County
The county around the city is several times its size, with St. Peters, O'Fallon, Cottleville, Weldon Spring, Dardenne Prairie, Wentzville and Lake St. Louis spread out to the west. A good share of the county's houses went up after 2000, so the gutter work out here leans newer than in the city.
Older streets in St. Peters, O'Fallon and Cottleville look a lot like St. Charles's own subdivisions: trees that have outgrown the roofs, original gutters near the end of their life, downspouts that may feed a buried line.
The newer subdivisions in O'Fallon, Dardenne Prairie, Wentzville and Lake St. Louis need something else. The trees are young, the gutters are often the builder's 5-inch runs on tall two-story walls, and the work is less about leaves than about height, pitch and downspouts that empty too close to the foundation.
Wooded lots, in Weldon Spring or anywhere else in the county, break the pattern. A house that backs onto woods gets the leaf load of a 1970s street no matter when it was built, and it is the house most likely to be better off with gutter guards on the wooded side.
What changes from one house to the next
- The trees against the roof
- A big oak over the eave usually means two cleanings a year. Trees at the back fence, one. Young street trees, one every year or two.
- Roof height and pitch
- A ranch is ladder work from the lawn. A two-story or a steep old-town roof takes a taller ladder, more moves and more time, and the price follows.
- Where the downspouts go
- A splash block is checked by eye. A buried line has to be flushed and proven to drain, and a crushed one gets rerouted.
- Lower roofs
- Porches, garages and additions each add a gutter that fills from the roof above it, often the first one to overflow.
Whatever the street, the visit is the same: gutter cleaning by hand, every downspout flushed, and the written note at the end.
Where the service area ends
St. Charles sits on the north bank of the Missouri River, about 20 miles northwest of St. Louis, at the east end of the 225-mile Katy Trail. This site covers St. Charles and the towns of St. Charles County. It does not cover St. Louis or St. Louis County across the river.
Get a price anywhere in St. Charles County
Give the street and the town. The request goes to a local gutter pro who works that part of the county.
Or call (636) 246-0608. You reach a person, or you get a fast call back.
Questions from around St. Charles County
My house is in St. Peters. Is that too far out?
No. The whole county is covered: St. Charles, St. Peters, O'Fallon, Cottleville, Weldon Spring, Dardenne Prairie, Wentzville and Lake St. Louis. Call or send the form with your street and the request goes to a gutter pro who works your part of the county.
Why would a Wentzville house cost more or less to clean?
Not because of the town. The same price ranges apply across the county, and what sets the price is the house: one story or two, how long the eaves are, how many downspouts, and how full the gutters are.
Can you work on a house in the Frenchtown historic district?
Yes. Cleaning and repair on the old houses is ordinary work, done from a ladder with more care on the steep roofs. If you are changing the gutter style itself, say from K-style to half-round or the other way, check with the city first.