Gutter and fascia replacement in Cape Town
Gutters and fascias do a quiet but important job: they carry roof water away from your walls, foundations and windows. We handle gutter and fascia replacement in Cape Town on commercial and industrial buildings, sectional title complexes and homes, from a single leaking joint to every gutter on a large site.
Andre or our foreman, Randall, oversees each job across Cape Town, the Helderberg and the West Coast.
Signs your gutters or fascias need replacing
Look out for:
- Sagging sections, where the gutter has pulled away from its brackets or the fascia behind it has weakened.
- Rust, on older steel gutters, often starting at the joints, corners and outlets.
- Leaking joints, which drip in a line down the wall and leave stains or algae on the paint.
- Overflowing in heavy rain, even after the gutters have been cleared.
- Rotten or split fascia boards, especially on timber fascias that haven’t been painted for years.
- Peeling paint or damp patches on the wall just below the roof line, a sign that water is getting behind the gutter.
- Brittle, cracked or discoloured uPVC, after years of strong summer sun.
If you have one or two of these on a mostly sound system, a repair may be enough. If they’re showing all round the building, replacement is usually the better spend.
Why do gutters leak and overflow?
Gutters leak and overflow mainly because of blockages, lost fall and failed joints. Leaves, sand and birds’ nests stop water reaching the downpipes. Brackets loosen and the gutter loses the slight slope it needs, so water sits in the low spots. Seals and sealant at the joints dry out and crack.
Most of the year’s rain falls in winter, roughly May to August, and a heavy downpour shows up every weakness at once. The summer south-easter blows sand and debris into gutters, and on the Atlantic Seaboard, in Blouberg, on the Southern Peninsula and up the West Coast, salt air speeds up rust on metal gutters and fixings. Large commercial roofs in the Northern Suburbs and the Cape Flats industrial areas shed a lot of water, so undersized gutters and too few downpipes struggle there.
uPVC and Brink gutters
We fit two kinds of gutter and help you choose the one that suits the building:
- uPVC gutters don’t rust, are light, and come in a range of colours. They are a practical choice for many homes and sectional title complexes, including those near the coast.
- Brink gutters are the range we use where the building calls for something other than uPVC, for both normal gutters and box gutters.
Whichever you choose, we check that the gutters are sized for the roof, set to the right fall, and fitted with enough downpipes to clear the water in a winter storm, replacing or adding downpipes where needed.
Fascia board replacement
The fascia is the board along the roof edge that the gutters are fixed to. When it rots or splits, the gutter brackets lose their grip, the gutter sags, and water gets into the roof timbers behind it.
We remove damaged fascia boards, check the rafter ends behind them, repair any rotten timber, and fit new fascias before the gutters go back up. A new gutter on a failing fascia won’t stay straight for long, so we often replace both together.
When the problem is the roof, not the gutter
Sometimes the water comes from the roof itself: a slipped tile, a lifted sheet end or a failed flashing just above the roof edge. If that’s the case, we’ll tell you and fix it with a roof repair. If the roof is near the end of its life, it makes sense to plan the gutters as part of a roof replacement.
Box gutters are a waterproofing job
Box gutters sit inside the roof line, behind a parapet or between two roof slopes. When they fail, water goes straight into the building, and repairing them usually means relining them with a waterproofing system. See box gutter waterproofing.
Old asbestos cement gutters and fascias
Many older buildings in Cape Town still have asbestos cement gutters, downpipes or fascias. They should be left undisturbed until they are removed properly: don’t cut, break or drill them.
Asbestos removal is carried out by our sister company, Indi Maintenance Services, a Registered Asbestos Contractor (Type 2), certificate 2025RAC/CI-180, valid until 26 August 2028. The plan of work and asbestos documents carry Indi’s name. Indi quotes the asbestos work, and Roof Direct quotes and fits your new gutters and fascias, so you have one point of contact throughout. If the roof sheets are also asbestos cement, see asbestos roof removal.
Commercial, body corporate and home gutters
- Commercial and industrial: long gutter runs planned around your operations, with working-at-heights compliant teams and rope access where needed. See commercial and industrial roofing.
- Body corporates: whole complexes quoted block by block, ready for trustees to table. See body corporate roofing.
- Homeowners: new gutters and fascias that suit the house and clear the water properly. See roofing for homes.
Guarantee
Our gutter and fascia work carries a Roof Direct workmanship guarantee, and the materials carry the manufacturer’s own guarantee, with the terms for your job set out in your quote.
Get a free gutter and fascia quote
Request a free gutter and fascia quote, call us or send photos of your gutters on WhatsApp. See all roofing services.
