Middletown Quality Gutters has spent more than 20 years installing, repairing and cleaning gutters in Eatontown, and one question now comes up more often than it used to: what happens to a gutter system after a hailstorm? Our answer starts with a ladder and a close look along every run, not a guess made from the driveway while the lawn is still wet.
We handle the full range of gutter work here. That means seamless aluminum runs formed on site, downspouts sized to the roof area each one drains, guards chosen for the trees on the lot, and repairs to the sections, elbows and hangers that take a beating. Every job ends with photos of what we found and what we left behind.
This page focuses on storm damage because hail can change a gutter system in a single evening. Dents and cracks rarely leak right away, which is exactly why they get missed until the next heavy rain. Below we explain what hail does to aluminum, what it does to gutter guards, and how a post-storm check works on an Eatontown house.
Hail on the Record: July 2, 2022
What the Storm Prediction Center Logged
On July 2, 2022, the Storm Prediction Center recorded hail measuring 1.50 inches at Eatontown, logged at 2220 UTC, which is 6:20 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The report came from a social media photo of ping-pong-ball-sized hail, relayed through the National Weather Service office at Mount Holly, and the time was estimated from radar.
The same minute of that log carries a wind report placing trees down on wires about 1 mile east of Eatontown. That pairing matters to gutters. Hail and falling limbs can arrive together, and a branch dropping across an eave line can bend a run or pull hangers loose during the same storm that pelts the gutter face.
One Report, No Damage Count
We want to be precise about what that record says. It is a single report built on one photo, and it describes no damage to houses, roofs or gutters anywhere in the borough. We are not claiming that storm harmed any particular home. What the record does establish is that hail of that size has fallen here, and it can fall here again.
Eatontown sits in the National Weather Service forecast zone named Eastern Monmouth, zone NJZ014, served by the Mount Holly office. Severe thunderstorm warnings for the borough are issued for that zone, so the name is worth knowing when a summer watch goes up and you want to judge whether a storm cell is headed toward your street.
Why Ping-Pong-Ball Hail Deserves Attention
Hail at 1.50 inches across is large enough to matter to thin sheet metal. Pea-sized hail tends to bounce off a gutter without leaving a mark, but stones the size of a ping-pong ball carry enough weight to leave dimples in an exposed gutter face. That is general trade knowledge rather than anything reported from this particular storm.
Direction matters as well. Hail driven by thunderstorm wind strikes the gutters on the windward side of a house far more than the sheltered side, so marks often show on one or two elevations only. A quick look at the front of the house can miss dents on the back runs, where the storm actually came through.
Looking for gutters closer to Aberdeen? See Gutters in Aberdeen.
What Hail Does to Aluminum Gutters and Downspouts
Dimples Along the Gutter Face
Residential seamless gutters are commonly formed from .032 aluminum coil, which is stiff enough to hold its shape under snow load and ladder pressure but can still dent under a direct hail strike. The damage usually shows as a row of shallow dimples along the front face of a K-style profile, easiest to see in low-angle morning or evening light.
A dimpled face is mostly cosmetic at first. The trouble starts when a dent lands near a seam, an end cap or an outlet, where sealant can crack, or when a strike bends the front lip enough that the gutter no longer holds its pitch. Water then pools in the low spot instead of running toward the downspout.
Flattened Downspouts and Elbows
Downspouts take hail differently. The flat face of a 3x4 downspout and the curved A and B elbows at the top and bottom sit fully exposed, and a hard strike can flatten an elbow enough to narrow the passage inside. A pinched elbow catches leaves and shingle grit, and the next heavy rain backs up into the gutter instead of draining.
We test each downspout by running water through it from the gutter outlet and watching the discharge at the bottom. A strong, steady flow tells us the path is open. A trickle, or water spilling over the gutter edge near the outlet, points to a pinch or a clog that a look from the ground would never catch.
Repair or Replace
Not every dent calls for new gutters. A single damaged downspout section or elbow can usually be swapped on its own, and a short dented length can sometimes be replaced while the rest stays. When dents run the full length of several sides, a new seamless run formed on site from coil is often the cleaner answer, one piece per side.
Our estimates put repair work and new gutters on separate lines, because New Jersey taxes them differently. Under the Division of Taxation’s S&U-2 guidance, new gutters are an exempt capital improvement documented on Form ST-8, while repairing existing gutters is a taxable repair. Seeing that split helps you compare a repair quote against a replacement quote fairly.
Gutter Guards After a Hailstorm
Cracked Plastic Screens
Plastic gutter guards are lighter and cheaper than metal ones, and they are also the part of a gutter system most likely to crack under large hail. A cracked screen can still look intact from the yard. Up close, the breaks show as split ribs or missing corners, and those openings let leaves and twigs straight into the trough the guard was meant to protect.
Broken guard pieces also tend to slide down into the gutter and lodge at the outlet, where they act like a small dam. After a storm we lift a few sections on each side of the house, look underneath, and clear any fragments before they can block a downspout during the next downpour.
Matching Replacement Guards to the Lot
If guards need replacing, we match the new screens to the trees around the house rather than to a single product line. Oak leaves sit on top of a coarse screen and blow off, while pine needles slip through anything but a fine mesh. Stainless steel micro-mesh handles needles well and stands up to impact better than molded plastic.
New guards are set so the back edge tucks under the first course of shingles or rests against the drip edge without lifting it, and the front edge locks to the gutter lip. A guard that rattles loose in a windstorm ends up lying in the yard after the next one, so fastening matters as much as the screen itself.
When Guards Hide Damage
A full set of guards can hide dents in the gutter below. We remove sections at the corners and at each outlet to check the trough itself, since those are the points where a dent is most likely to break a seal. A cracked joint found there now is a quick fix with tripolymer sealant, well before it starts dripping onto a walkway.
Checking Gutters After a Summer Storm
What You Can Check From the Ground
You can start a post-storm check without a ladder. Walk around the house in late afternoon light and look along each gutter face for dimples or a wavy line, at the downspouts for flattened sections, and at the ground below for shingle granules, guard fragments or fresh splash marks. Note any gutter that seems to tip forward or pull away from the fascia.
Then watch the next rain. Water spilling over the front edge mid-run, dripping from a seam, or pouring out of a joint in a downspout all point to a problem the storm may have caused or exposed. Write down where you saw it, because those notes make our inspection faster and keep the estimate focused on the real trouble spots.
What We Check Up Close
On the ladder we check hangers, the slope toward each outlet, the sealant at miters and end caps, and the fascia board behind the gutter. Hail and falling limbs can loosen hangers, and a gutter that pulls away lets water run down the back of the board. Any soft or rotted fascia is shown to you before we replace it.
We also follow each downspout to where its water lands. If an Eatontown downspout empties against the foundation, we propose an extension, a pop-up emitter or a drywell, and the estimate states where each leader will discharge. Roof leaders are never tied into the sanitary sewer, which the borough’s sewer code lists among prohibited connections under section 266-12.
Paperwork and Timing
In New Jersey, the repair, replacement or installation of exterior gutters and leaders is listed as ordinary building maintenance under the state Uniform Construction Code rules, so a standard gutter job on a house does not wait on a construction permit. That keeps a post-storm repair from stalling, and work can usually be scheduled once the damage is documented.
If you plan to talk with your insurer, our before-and-after photos and written findings give you a record of what the gutters looked like after the storm. We cannot tell you what a policy will pay, and coverage questions belong with the insurance company, but clear documentation makes that conversation simpler and keeps it grounded in what is actually on the house.
Houses That Need a Second Look
About 40.9 percent of Eatontown’s housing units are detached houses, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates released for 2024. Those homes carry the most exposed gutter line per owner, and every side faces weather, so a storm moving through from the west can mark one elevation and leave another untouched.
When a summer storm drops hail on Eatontown, put the gutters on the same checklist as the roof. A morning on the ladder after the weather clears costs far less than chasing a hidden leak into the fascia, the siding or the basement wall months later, and it gives you photos to keep with your house records.
- 20+ Years on Gutters
- Seamless, Formed On Site
- Before-and-After Photos
