Gutters on Stucco Walls: Where the Hangers Really Go

If your house has a stucco wall at the eave, the gutter does not hang the way it does on aluminum siding. The hanger has to go into something solid, and on stucco that something is usually a wood fascia board or a rim joist sitting behind a coat of cement-based finish. Before any crew drills a hole, you need to know where that wood is, how deep the stucco runs, and who will seal the holes afterward. This page covers those three questions for a St. Louis homeowner who is comparing gutter bids and wants to know what a careful install looks like.

Why stucco changes the hanger

Gutter hangers grip the fascia board, and the fascia board is the wood piece that runs along the roof edge. On a stucco house, the fascia may be covered by a stucco soffit or by a stucco band at the top of the wall. The gutter is then attached either to the wood fascia behind a stucco lip, or to the stucco itself with a masonry anchor. The two methods are not interchangeable. A spike or screw driven into stucco alone will pull out after a few freeze and thaw seasons, because the finish does not hold a fastener the way wood does.

Ask the installer which method they plan to use before the work starts. A good answer names the material each hanger reaches: into the fascia board, through the stucco into the rim, or into a masonry anchor set in the wall. A vague answer such as "we'll make it secure" tells you nothing about the hold.

Older stucco houses in the city may also have metal lath under the finish. A fastener that catches a lath strand can rust there over time, and the rust stains the wall below the gutter. Ask the crew to probe the fascia with a small test bit or a pilot screw at each planned hanger location before the real hole is drilled. If the test finds soft wood or metal lath, the hanger position should change, and you should hear about it before the crew moves on.

What the freeze and thaw cycle does to the edge

St. Louis winters move water in and out of stucco all season. Rain soaks the surface, a cold night freezes it, and the expansion opens hairline cracks at the corners of windows and along the top of the wall. Those cracks are where the gutter line can start to fail. A hanger set close to a crack loosens as the surrounding finish shifts. A gutter that was level in October can show a dip by February, and the dip often sits right where the stucco cracked.

When you walk the house with the installer, look for cracks within about a foot of where each hanger will sit. Mark them with pencil and ask whether the crew will set the hanger away from the crack or repair the crack first. Patching stucco is a separate line in many bids. Leaving it out is how a clean-looking install ends up with a sagging run by spring.

Where the water goes at the stucco edge

Stucco walls often end at the eave without a drip edge tucked under the finish. In that case, water running down the wall can slide behind the gutter and into the gap between the trough and the stucco. The fix is a metal flashing or a properly shaped gutter front that sits over the stucco lip, with the water pushed out past the edge. If the gutter is installed with its back flush against the stucco and no flashing, water will find its way behind it within one or two heavy rains.

Ask each installer what sits between the gutter back and the stucco. The answer should name a material and a fastener. Vague answers about sealing it up are not enough. Caulk alone is not a flashing, and caulk on stucco usually fails sooner than the caulk tube suggests.

Sealing the holes afterward

Every hanger that goes through stucco leaves a hole, and every hole is a path for water into the wall. A careful install seals each hole with a masonry-rated sealant or a patch compound that matches the finish, and it does so after the hanger is set, not before. Sealing before the hanger is in place means the seal gets pushed out when the screw goes in.

Check how the crew plans to close the holes. A common approach is to set the hanger, drive the fastener, back-fill the hole with sealant, and then touch up the finish color. The touch-up matters on a visible wall, because a patch that does not match will show from the street for years. Ask to see a sample patch on a scrap piece of stucco if your house has a distinctive texture.

Gutters and guards on a stucco house

If you are adding gutter guards, the stucco wall adds one more question. Guards are clipped to the gutter or sit inside it, and their weight adds load to every hanger in the run. On a stucco wall, that load goes through the stucco into whatever the hanger reaches. A guard that looks light on the shelf can pull a loose anchor out of the wall during a heavy ice load or a hard pile of leaves.

Ask the installer to name the hanger type and the anchor depth for each section of the run, not just the total number of hangers. Ask how the hangers will be spaced at the corners and near the downspouts, where the water and debris load is heaviest. A guard installed on a loose hanger will need to be reset, and the reset is a visit many homeowners would rather not pay for.

What it costs

Stucco work adds labor that a plain aluminum install does not carry. Locating the fascia, drilling through the finish, setting masonry anchors, flashing the edge and sealing each hole all take time on the ladder. Some installers price this as a separate line. Others fold it into a per-foot rate. Neither approach is wrong, but a single per-foot number on a stucco house may leave out the work that makes the install last.

When you compare bids, ask each company to list the stucco items separately: the flashing, the anchors, the sealant, the patch, and any crack repair. Then you can see what each bid includes. A low total that leaves out the flashing is not the same job as a higher total that includes it.

What to ask

• Which material does each hanger reach: wood fascia, rim joist, or a masonry anchor?
• Where are the stucco cracks along the run, and will they be repaired or worked around?
• What sits between the gutter back and the stucco, and what is the flashing made of?
• How are the drilled holes sealed, and is the sealant rated for masonry?
• Will the finish be touched up to match, and can you see a sample first?
• If guards are included, what hanger type and anchor depth are used on each section?

Keys Roofing can walk the stucco edge with you before any work is scheduled. Call the office at (314) 220-2333 and ask for a walk of the eave. Bring your bids and mark the spots where you see cracks, and we can put the hanger plan in writing before the ladder goes up.