Every hurricane checklist in Florida covers water, batteries, shutters and gas. Very few mention gutters, which is strange, because in a storm that does not take your roof off, water is what does the damage — and the roof edge is where water either leaves your house properly or does not.
Season runs June through November, and the useful window for this work is April and May. Here is what actually matters, in order.
1. Clear the gutters completely
Not "spray them out" — cleared. Debris needs to physically leave the trough, because anything still in there when a tropical system arrives becomes the plug in your downspout at the exact moment you need every gallon moving. Bagged and hauled away, not blown into the beds where the next rain washes it back to the roofline.
2. Water-test every downspout
This is the step that gets skipped, and it is the one that matters most in a storm. Run water into every downspout and watch it come out the bottom. If it backs up at the top, the elbow is packed and the entire run it serves has nowhere to drain.
A house with four downspouts serving a long roofline has very little redundancy. One blocked outlet in a two-inch-an-hour rain means water sheeting over a whole side of the house.
3. Clear the roof, not just the gutter
Loose debris on a roof is projectile and blockage at the same time. Wind moves it into the valleys precisely when rain volume peaks, and it heads straight for the gutters you just cleared. Leaf packs behind chimneys and skylights, needle beds on low-slope sections, and anything sitting in a valley should come off before the season, not after.
4. Check the hangers and the fascia
A gutter full of storm water is heavy. If the hangers are already loose — very common on older homes with spike-and-ferrule fasteners, which means most 1960s and 70s Carrollwood and Seminole Heights houses — a tropical downpour is what finishes the job and pulls the run off the house.
- Sagging anywhere along a run, or a visible gap between gutter and fascia.
- Nail heads or spikes backing out of the fascia board.
- Soft or discoloured fascia wood behind the gutter, which means water has been sitting there.
- Separated end caps and seams — sealant shrinks and cracks in Florida sun.
5. Look at where the water lands
Once every downspout drains, follow the water. A downspout discharging two feet from your slab is soaking the ground against your foundation every time it rains, and in a multi-day tropical rain event that is how water finds its way into a garage or a lanai. Splash blocks, extensions and a downspout turned to face away from the house are cheap and they work.
6. Secure or remove anything loose near the roofline
Downspout extensions that are not fastened, decorative rain chains, loose sections of guard or screen, and anything stored on a flat roof or lanai roof. All of it moves in 60 mph gusts, and it moves into your gutters.
What to do after a storm passes
Check the gutters again, from the ground first. Overflow marks, fresh sagging, a downspout that has come apart at a joint, and debris visibly above the gutter line all mean the system took on more than it could move. Palm fronds and small branches in the trough are normal after any real wind and they will block a downspout as effectively as anything.
If you want it looked at properly, call or text (267) 317-0494. Post-storm weeks are busy but we prioritise houses that are actively overflowing, because that is the one where waiting costs money.
Rather not do this yourself?
Bert's cleans gutters across Tampa and the Bay area. Single-story homes start at $199, every downspout gets water-tested, and you get photos of your own roofline the same day.