Talk to an Expert 504-688-3797
Talk to an Expert 504-688-3797
Start here: NOAA sets the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 to November 30, and its climatological peak falls around September 10. If your gutters have not been cleared and checked this year, that work belongs in the next two weeks, not after a storm is named.
A gutter system is sized for steady rain. A tropical system does not deliver steady rain. It delivers several inches in a few hours, driven sideways by wind, onto a roof that is also shedding leaves and small branches into the trough while it happens.
New Orleans already asks a lot of a gutter in an ordinary year. The city averages roughly 62 to 66 inches of rain annually, with the heaviest months falling in summer. Add a tropical system on top of that and the failure points show up fast.
Here at Big Easy Gutters, the calls we get after a storm are rarely about the storm itself. They are about a clog, a loose fastener, or a downspout that was already a problem in July.
If your gutters have not been looked at this season, contact us to get an inspection on the calendar before the busy stretch.
The five checks below are ordered by what fails first.
This is the whole job in one line, and it is the one most often half-done. A gutter with two inches of packed debris is not a gutter working at reduced capacity. Water finds the low point, pools, and goes over the front edge instead of to the outlet.
There are three separate parts to clear, and finishing one is not finishing the job.
Clear it end to end rather than section by section. Debris scooped from the middle and left near the outlet travels straight back to the outlet with the next rain, which is why a gutter cleaned in a hurry can be blocked again after one afternoon storm.
Wet leaf matter here does not lift out the way dry debris does. It mats down, holds its own water, and has to be pulled rather than swept.
This is where a plug actually forms. Debris migrates toward the drop, wedges into the opening, then packs harder every time water pushes against it.
An outlet that looks open from above can still be choked an inch below the rim. Check it by hand or by flow, never by eye.
The part nobody checks. Pour water in at the top and watch the bottom. If it trickles, or backs up and rises, the blockage is inside the run and clearing the trough has done nothing for it.
Do all three before the forecast turns, not during. Roof work in wind is how people get hurt, and a wet roof in New Orleans humidity stays slick long after the rain stops. Our gutter cleaning service exists for exactly this window.
Wind does not usually tear a gutter off in one pull. It works a section that was already loose.
Walk the run and look at the hangers or spikes. Anything visibly pulled away from the fascia, tilted, or missing entirely is a failure point. So is a seam that has opened even slightly, because storm-driven water goes through a gap that ordinary rain passes over.
Pay attention to the fascia board itself. If the wood behind the fastener is soft, the fastener has nothing to hold. Re-driving it into rotted wood buys nothing. That section needs the board addressed first.
Corners and long unsupported spans are where this shows up first. Look there before you look anywhere else.
Spacing matters as much as condition. A run carrying storm volume with hangers set too far apart will flex under the weight of moving water even when every fastener is sound. If a section has always sagged slightly between supports, that is a spacing problem rather than a maintenance one, and adding supports is the fix.
A cleared gutter that discharges against the slab has moved the problem two feet, not solved it.
Follow each downspout to where it ends. The water should be carried away from the foundation, not dropped at the base of the wall. Extensions and splash blocks get knocked out of position by mowing, by traffic, and by the last storm, so this is worth re-checking every season rather than assuming.
On raised and pier homes, look at where the discharge lands underneath. Water pooling under the house in August does not dry out quickly here.
Think about volume rather than inches. A downspout gathers everything a whole roof plane sheds and releases it at a single point, so during a tropical system it moves far more water per minute than any other outlet on the property. Two feet of extension is not much. Getting that discharge several feet out, onto ground that slopes away, changes where a very large amount of water ends up.
Most storm gutter failures in this city are not caused by wind alone. They are caused by what the wind puts into the gutter.
Branches overhanging the roofline shed constantly during a tropical system, and a trough that was clean on Monday can be packed by Tuesday afternoon. Cutting back the limbs that reach the roof reduces both the debris load and the risk of a limb coming down on the run.
If you are not comfortable on a ladder with a saw, this is a job to hand off. It is also not a job to attempt once a storm is in the forecast.
Storm damage is usually old damage that finally gave way.
A sagging section, a seam weeping in ordinary rain, a corner that drips, a joint that has separated a quarter inch. None of these are urgent in July. All of them are the first thing to fail under storm volume. If you already know about a sign of gutter damage on your run, the pre-season window is when it costs the least to correct.
The same goes for a section that was patched last year as a stopgap. A temporary fix is fine until it meets six inches of rain in three hours.
Use this to sort what you are looking at:
| What you can see | What it usually means | What to do before the season |
|---|---|---|
| Water spilling over the front edge in ordinary rain | A blockage, or the trough has lost its pitch | Clear the full run first, then re-check for a sag |
| A section visibly dipping between fasteners | Hangers pulling out, or fascia gone soft behind them | Have the fasteners and the board behind them checked |
| A drip or stain at a corner or joint | The seam has opened | Reseal now, since storm-driven water widens an open seam |
| Nothing coming out of a downspout after real rain | A blockage inside the vertical run | Flush it and confirm flow at the bottom |
| A splash block or extension out of position | Discharge is landing at the foundation | Reset it, then check it again after the next storm |
| Staining or soft wood on the fascia | Water has been running behind the gutter for a while | Get it looked at, because fasteners will not hold in soft wood |
None of those rows describe an urgent problem today. Every one of them describes something that fails first under storm volume, which is the whole argument for doing this in late summer rather than in October.
Every item above is ordinary maintenance done in the right order at the right time of year. None of it is complicated. What makes it urgent is the calendar, because the weeks before peak season are also the weeks every other homeowner in the metro decides to deal with it.
The work is far cheaper now than the repair it prevents. A cleared trough, tight fasteners and a downspout that carries water away from the wall is a few hours of attention. Water that has run down a wall and into a foundation for a season is not.
If you want your run checked, cleared and fastened before the busy stretch, our team at Big Easy Gutters can get out and look at it. Call us at (504) 688-3797 to book a time.
When should I have my gutters cleaned for hurricane season in New Orleans?
Before the climatological peak, which falls around September 10. Late summer is the practical window, since it puts the work ahead of both the busiest storm weeks and the contractor rush. If it has been more than six months since the last cleaning, do it now rather than waiting for a specific forecast.
Can I do this myself?
Clearing a single-story trough and checking downspout flow is within reach for many homeowners with the right ladder and footing. Fastener replacement, seam repair, fascia work and anything on a second story is worth handing off. Never attempt any of it once a storm is in the forecast.
Will gutter guards mean I can skip this?
No. Guards reduce how much debris reaches the trough, which is worth having, but they do not eliminate maintenance. Fine grit and shingle granules still accumulate, and the guards themselves can collect a mat of leaves on top that sheds water straight over the edge. Check them the same way.
My gutters look fine from the ground. Do I still need to look?
Yes. Packed debris sits below the front edge and is invisible from the yard, and a fastener pulling out of soft fascia shows nothing until it lets go. Ground level tells you the gutter is still attached. It does not tell you it works.
What if a storm is already in the forecast?
Stay off the roof. At that point the useful work is on the ground: clear the downspout outlets, move splash blocks and extensions back into position, secure anything in the yard that could be thrown into the run, and note what to have looked at afterward.
How long does a pre-season check take?
For a typical single-family home, clearing and inspecting a full run is usually a few hours. Repairs found along the way add time depending on what they are. Booking early in the season means the schedule is open enough to handle both in one visit.
Do downspout extensions really matter that much?
Yes, more than most homeowners expect. A downspout carries the entire roof’s water to one point. Releasing that volume at the base of a wall concentrates it exactly where you least want it. Getting the discharge a few feet out is one of the cheapest protections available.
What should I check right after a storm passes?
Once it is safe, look for new sagging, sections pulled away from the fascia, debris packed at the outlets, and any place water is now running where it did not before. Photograph anything that changed. Small storm damage left through the rest of the season becomes the failure point in the next one.
By Admin 
Aug 24, 2026