Reviewed November 3, 2026. Gutter Installation St. Louis is a referral service; independent contractors do the work.
Larger buildings need larger gutters, sized to the roof area, and they often need lifts, sidewalk protection and work scheduled around tenants. Many St. Louis commercial buildings also have parapets, scuppers or internal drains, and the gutter may be just one part of the system. Ask for a contractor who does this size of work, and ask who handles permits and sidewalk use.
- Typical buildings
- Storefronts, flats, apartment blocks, churches, warehouses
- Often different
- Bigger profiles, scuppers, collector boxes, lifts
- Ask about
- Certificate of insurance naming you, sidewalk permits, tenant notice
- Rules
- Commercial work often needs more permits. Ask your city.
What's different at scale
- Roof area. Large flat or low-slope roofs may drain to a few points, so outlets and collector boxes do the heavy work.
- Height. Lifts or scaffolding, and in the city often a sidewalk or alley to deal with.
- People. Tenants, customers and parked cars under the work. Ask about protection and notice.
- Ice. Falling ice over a public sidewalk is a liability question for the owner. Look at how downspouts discharge in winter.
Two-families and flats
St. Louis has many brick two-family and four-family buildings. They're residential in size but shared in use. Downspouts next to shared gangways, basement entries and tenants' parking need more thought, and in some neighborhoods the same historic rules apply as for a house. Check the permit guide.
Permits
The city's residential guidance doesn't settle commercial work, so ask the Building Division directly. Inside a City Historic District, exterior work usually needs review. In St. Louis County, a commercial job goes through Transportation and Public Works or the municipality that handles its code enforcement. Ask who applies, and get it into the contract.
Getting comparable bids
Write a short scope for bidders: which elevations, which materials, which access, and what hours. Ask for a certificate of insurance and any additional-insured wording you need, and ask to see similar jobs nearby. Your property manager or building engineer should walk the roof with whoever bids.
What to ask the contractor
- Have you worked on buildings this size?Ask to see similar work, and how they handled access.
- How will people be kept safe?Ask about sidewalk protection, parking and tenant notice.
- What sizes, and how did you calculate them?Ask them to show the sizing for the roof area.
- Who applies for permits?Ask them to say so in the contract, including sidewalk or alley use.
Commercial around St. Louis
See what's different about each place.
City of St. Louis
- Soulard
- Lafayette Square
- Benton Park
- Tower Grove South
- Shaw
- Central West End
- The Hill
- Dogtown
- St. Louis Hills
- Carondelet
St. Louis County
- Clayton
- University City
- Webster Groves
- Kirkwood
- Maplewood
- Ladue
- Creve Coeur
- Chesterfield
- Ballwin
- Affton
- Oakville
- Florissant
St. Charles County
Commercial: questions
What size gutters does a commercial building need?
It depends on roof area, slope and the local design rainfall, so have it calculated, not guessed. Larger K-style or box profiles and bigger downspouts or scuppers are common. Ask the contractor or your design professional to show the numbers.
Can you pass on requests for a two-family?
Yes. Mention it on the form, along with who should be contacted and whether there are tenants. We pass your request to an independent contractor.
Do you handle property-management contracts?
We don't contract for work at all. A contractor who takes the request would agree terms with you directly.
What about a flat roof with scuppers?
That's mostly a roofing question. A gutter contractor may handle the collector boxes and downspouts, while a roofer deals with the membrane and scuppers. Ask who's responsible for the joint between them.
Further reading
Related work
- Gutter Installation: New gutters and downspouts for brick city houses, postwar ranches and newer subdivisions, planned around freeze and thaw and heavy spring rain.
- Downspouts & Drainage: Getting roof water away from old foundations and out of the sanitary sewer, without sending it to the neighbor.
- Gutter Repair: Leaking joints, sagging runs and downspouts pulling off the wall, and how to tell a small fix from a warning sign.