Repair

How to Find a Gutter Leak Before You Call Anyone

By Tampa Bay Gutter Repair · September 8, 2026 · 5 min read

Water on the walkway under the gutter means one of three things, and they cost very different amounts to fix. A corner leak is a $150–$250 reseal. Overflow is a capacity or pitch problem. Water coming down the fascia behind the gutter is a roofing detail, not a gutter at all. You can tell which you have with a garden hose and twenty minutes on a dry morning, and knowing before you call saves everyone a trip.

What you need

A hose long enough to reach the far end of the run, someone to hold it or a spray nozzle you can hang in the gutter, and a dry day. Do this in the morning before the afternoon storm season kicks in, so you can see where the water goes and not where the rain went.

You do not need to get on the roof. If the gutter is single-story, a step ladder to set the hose is plenty. If it is two stories, set the hose from a window or an extension ladder held by someone, or skip the ladder and do the ground observation in the next real storm instead.

Step 1: fill the run slowly

Put the hose at the end of the run farthest from the downspout and let it run at a moderate rate, roughly what a bathtub tap gives you. Walk the run from below.

Drips at a corner or an end cap while the gutter is only partly full: that is a sealant leak. Look for a dark water line on the underside of the miter or a white mineral streak on the fascia below it. The sealant has cracked or pulled away. On a Tampa gutter that is baked at 130 degrees at the roof edge every afternoon, this happens at eight to ten years. Fix: clean the joint back to bare metal and reseal with a polyurethane gutter sealant, or replace the miter if it has corroded. $150–$250 a corner.

Drips at a seam mid-run on a sectional gutter: same thing, at a joint. If it is one seam, reseal it. If it is three, read repair vs. replacement, because the other seams are next.

A drip from the bottom of the gutter, not at any joint: a pinhole. On steel that is rust. On aluminum near the bay it is salt pitting. Either way the metal is at end of life on that run; sealing it buys months.

Step 2: turn the hose up

Now open the hose fully. A single hose puts out far less than a storm does, so this test finds pitch problems, not capacity problems.

Water pools mid-run and the downspout barely flows: the run has lost its pitch. Look for a dip; on block homes with add-on gutters it is usually where a spike hanger backed out or, near the water, rusted off. Fix: re-hang and reset the fall, $150–$300 per run. Sagging gutters and how a re-hang works covers it.

Water goes over the front edge before it reaches the downspout, with the gutter clean: pitch again, or the run is simply longer than one downspout can drain. A second downspout is $180–$300.

The downspout takes it all and nothing spills: the gutter is fine at hose volume. If it still overflows in a storm, that is capacity, and why gutters overflow in Tampa rain is the next read.

Step 3: look behind the gutter

This is the one people miss. Spray the roof edge above the gutter, so water runs down the shingles or tile into it the way rain does. Then look at the fascia.

Water running down the fascia behind the gutter, with the gutter half empty: the roof has no drip edge, or the shingles stop short of the gutter's back edge, and water is wicking down behind. It looks exactly like a leak from the ground. It is common on 1920s bungalows in Seminole Heights that have had three roofs and gutters added between two of them, and on block homes where the gutter was hung a little low. Fix: a strip of drip edge flashing tucked under the shingles and over the back of the gutter, $6–$10 a foot. A roofer or a gutter crew can do it; a reseal will not.

Step 4: check the downspout itself

Water at the base of the wall below a downspout, with the gutter behaving: the elbow at the top or the joint mid-way has separated, and water is spraying out inside the pipe. Push the joints together, screw them, and strap the downspout. Ten dollars in screws. If the downspout is crushed where the mower hit it, replace it and go to 3x4 while you are at it.

The quick reference

What to tell us

Which of the seven rows you landed on, and a photo of the spot from the ground. That is enough to give you a price range on the phone and bring the right parts. Anything on the table is a gutter repair job, priced in writing from a ladder, and most of them are done in the same visit.