Matching, not installation
Repair, replacement, guards, and ice-related issues
The Exterior Desk is a matching service, not a contractor. If we have a local partner in your area, we recommend one. You decide whether to hire them. Free for homeowners.
Photo: Zeynep Sude Emek. Illustrative, not a project we completed.
Frozen downspouts, pulled hangers, and ice-packed troughs are a regular Northeast Ohio problem, especially in the Lake County snowbelt and on bungalows with short eaves. The Exterior Desk is a free matching service, not a gutter company. We recommend a local contractor when we have someone who covers your area.
Snow slides off a roof and loads the front edge of a gutter. Ice expands in the trough. Downspouts freeze from the bottom up after a thaw-and-refreeze. Mentor, Willoughby, and other snowbelt towns often see heavier lake-effect totals than the west side of Cleveland; Parma bungalows and similar postwar houses often have short eaves that leave little room for ice to sit harmlessly. None of that means you should climb a ladder in January.
A cleaning or a hanger repair is a different job from a full replacement or a guard system. Guards can help with leaves and may not solve ice by themselves. Tell us what you are seeing — overflow, stains on fascia, a pulled-away run, ice in the trough — and we will try to match you with a contractor who does that kind of work in your city.
We do not send a crew. The contractor should explain the work, any need for roof or fascia repairs, and whether a permit applies in your city. You decide whether to hire them.
FAQ
If we have someone in our network who covers your ZIP, a person at the desk will recommend one local contractor. We do not sell your request to a list of companies. There is no fee for a homeowner to request a recommendation. A recommendation is not a contract, and we do not guarantee the work.
A person at the desk personally knows, or has worked with, every professional we recommend, and we recommend one at a time. We confirm liability insurance and city or state registration or license, look at reviews and past customer feedback, and follow up after the job. For public adjusters and attorneys, we verify licenses with the State of Ohio; for appraisers, we confirm registration or license where it applies. We do not sell your request to a list of companies, and we will tell you if we do not have someone for your ZIP or situation. We do not invent licenses or ratings. The full account is on the How we pick our pros page.
There is no fee for a homeowner to request a recommendation. You can hire the person we recommend, or anyone else, or no one.
We publish city pages and city-specific service pages across Northeast Ohio. Coverage still depends on whether we have a partner who covers your ZIP. If your town is nearby but not listed, send the ZIP anyway.
Along the lake and inland
Guides: Gutter cleaning in a Northeast Ohio winter. Or get a recommendation.