Installation

New Construction Gutter Problems: What Builders Skip

By San Antonio Gutter Pros · November 9, 2026 · 8 min read

The house closed in the spring, the first fall storms came through in October, and there's water pouring off the back corner onto the patio slab. The builder's warranty line says gutters are "cosmetic." New construction gutter problems like this are common in the new subdivisions along FM 1103 in Cibolo, off Potranco Road in Alamo Ranch, and out past Schertz Parkway, and there's a pattern to them. Here's what builder grade gutters usually include, the five problems that show up first, and what's worth raising before the one-year walkthrough.

What builder-grade means

A production builder is putting gutters on two hundred houses and pricing them by the foot at the lowest bid. What that bid usually contains:

• 5-inch .027 aluminum on every run, regardless of roof size. Fine on a 1,600-square-foot single story. Not fine on a 2,800-square-foot two-story with a steep roof.
• 2x3 downspouts, the minimum, and as few of them as the plan allows. It's not unusual to find one downspout on 45 feet of gutter under a roof valley.
• Spike-and-ferrule hangers at 30 to 36 inches, or hidden hangers spaced wide. Fewer fasteners, faster install.
• Downspouts cut off at the slab with a splash block dropped on the ground, or no block at all because the landscaper came later.
• No gutters on some elevations. The plan calls for gutters over the front entry and the patio, and nothing over the side yards.

None of that is a defect the builder will recognize. It meets the plan. It just wasn't designed for the way rain arrives here.

New construction gutter problems: the five that show up first

1. Overflow at the back. Two-story houses in these subdivisions have most of their roof area draining to the rear, often through a valley that concentrates two planes. A 2x3 downspout handles roughly 600 square feet in moderate rain and closer to 400 in a Hill Country downpour. The fix is a 3x4 downspout ($120–$220) and usually a second one on the long run ($180–$300).

2. Sag between hangers. Hangers at 36 inches on .027 metal let the run belly in the summer heat, and a belly holds water. Adding hangers to 24-inch centers and resetting the pitch is $150–$300 per run.

3. The side-yard erosion trench. Zero-lot-line houses in Cibolo and Converse have five feet between walls and no gutter on the side elevations. Two roofs drip into a strip of fill dirt, and by year three there's a trench along the slab and mud on the neighbor's AC pad. First-time gutters on the two side runs, 60 to 80 feet, are $600–$1,100.

4. Downspouts dumping at the foundation. Most new lots here sit on a few inches of imported fill over caliche. Water that lands at the slab sits on the rock and works sideways under the slab. Extensions to six feet or a buried line to the curb are the cheapest fix on the whole house and the one the downspouts and foundation guide covers in detail.

5. Corners leaking by year two. The corners were sealed in a hurry, on a hot day, over dust. The first summer bakes the sealant and it lets go. A proper reseal is $150–$250 per corner.

What the warranty actually covers

Many builders offer a short workmanship warranty, often described as one year, but the builder's own warranty document is what controls, not the salesperson, and terms vary. Check with your builder's warranty department, in writing, on whether gutters are covered and for how long. Where they are, it's usually for workmanship items like a downspout that came loose or a run that was never sealed. Overflow is a harder argument, because the gutters are doing what they were specified to do; the specification was the problem.

Two things worth doing before the one-year walkthrough:

1. Run a hose into each gutter run for five minutes and watch every corner and every downspout bottom. Note anything that drips or backs up.
2. Photograph the ground under each downspout and along any elevation without gutters. Erosion is the evidence that the drainage design doesn't work.

Bring both to the walkthrough in writing. Builders fix documented items; they don't fix "it seems to overflow."

Third-party warranties

Some builders here offer a longer structural warranty through a third-party company. Those are generally about the foundation and structure, not gutters, and what they cover depends entirely on the policy, so check with the warranty company or a real estate attorney before relying on one. Either way, dated photos of drainage problems are worth keeping; don't expect the warranty company to pay for gutters.

Adding to what's there versus replacing it

On a house under five years old the gutters are almost never worth tearing off. The metal is fine. The problems are downspout size, downspout count, hanger spacing, and missing runs, and every one of those is an add-on. A typical fix-up on a two-story in Schertz is two 3x4 downspouts, one added mid-run, hangers tightened on the back run, and gutters added to one side elevation: $700–$1,300 all in, against $2,400–$3,400 for a full replacement that wouldn't be any better on the runs that already work.

The exception is a house where the builder used vinyl, which turns up occasionally on entry-level lines. Vinyl in this sun goes brittle in a handful of years and there's no fixing it, only replacing it, and the sooner the better.

What to ask a gutter company

You want someone who'll measure the roof planes, not just the gutter length. Ask what size downspout they're proposing and how many square feet of roof each one serves. Ask whether the hangers are hidden and at what spacing. Ask about the sides with no gutters and whether they need them. The gutter installation page explains how a system is sized from the roof, and the cost page has the add-on prices so you can check a quote. New home gutters in San Antonio are one of the easiest fixes on a house, as long as nobody sells you a new set of the same thing.

A first-year checklist for a new build

Work through this once in the first few months and again before the one-year walkthrough:

1. Count the downspouts. Note how many feet of gutter each one serves, and flag any run where one downspout sits under a valley.
2. Check the size. Measure one downspout. A 2x3 on the back of a two-story is the most likely overflow point.
3. Look along each run. A belly between hangers holds water and dirt; standing water a day after rain confirms it.
4. Walk the side yards. Look for a trench under the eave, mud on the slab or on an AC pad, and bare soil where rain lands.
5. Follow every downspout to its end. Anything that empties at the slab gets an extension or a buried line.
6. Hose-test the corners. Five minutes per run, watching the corners and end caps for drips.
7. Write it down with dates and photos, and send it to the builder's warranty department in writing.

Mistakes new owners make

• Waiting until month eleven to report problems. Items found early and documented are easier to get fixed.
• Accepting a splash block as the fix for water at the slab. On fill dirt over caliche it rarely carries the water far enough.
• Paying for a full replacement when the metal is fine and the real issue is downspout size and hanger spacing.
• Letting the landscaper bury a downspout in a flower bed with no outlet, which turns the bed into a pond.
• Assuming the neighbor's fix will work on your lot. Roof shape and lot slope change which corner floods.

Common questions

Will a builder warranty cover gutters?

Sometimes, for workmanship items in the first year, but it depends on your builder's warranty document, not on what anyone said at closing. Check with the builder's warranty department in writing. Overflow caused by undersized gutters or downspouts is often treated as working to the plan rather than as a defect.

What should I check on a new-build gutter?

Run a hose into each run for five minutes and watch the corners and downspout bottoms. Count downspouts against gutter length, look at hanger spacing, and note any elevation with no gutter at all. Then check where every downspout discharges; at the slab is the most common miss.

Why do builders put gutters on only one side?

The plan often calls for gutters only over entries, patios and walkways, which keeps the bid low. On narrow lots that leaves side elevations dripping into a five-foot strip. Adding gutters to those runs is usually a small add-on job rather than a reason to replace anything.

Should I replace builder-grade gutters on a new house?

Rarely in the first five years. The metal is usually sound; the fixes are bigger downspouts, more of them, closer hangers and extensions. Those add-ons typically cost far less than a full tear-off and new system.