Most of what goes wrong with an eavestrough is boring. It fills with leaves, it overflows, somebody cleans it, everyone forgets about it until next autumn. This one was boring too, right up until the part where it put a person in a cast. The homeowner had been dealing with ice on her front steps for years and had filed it under Canadian winter. It was not Canadian winter. It was about a quarter of an inch of missing fall in one corner of her eavestrough, sixteen feet above the place she walks every day.
The call: ice on the front steps, every winter
Quick answer: The Etobicoke homeowner booked a $200 eavestrough cleaning in August 2026, but her actual complaint was 8 months out of season. Every winter, ice built up on her front entry steps. She assumed it was weather. She had never connected it to the trough running directly above those steps.
People rarely call a gutter company about ice. They call a gutter company about leaves, or about water coming over the edge in a downpour, and if something happens in February they call a snow contractor or they buy more salt. That gap is the reason this problem survived several winters.
What she described on the phone was specific and, in hindsight, diagnostic. Not ice everywhere. Ice in one place, on the steps, forming overnight, coming back after she cleared it. General winter does not behave like that. General winter coats everything evenly. A repeating patch of ice in exactly one spot means water is being delivered to exactly one spot, and something above is doing the delivering.
What we found once the trough was empty
Quick answer: The whole system was blocked, front and back, with leaf matter that had rotted down into a dense mat. Clearing it took most of the visit. The finding that mattered came after: 1 corner of the front run, the corner a roof valley discharges into, sat lower than the outlet it was supposed to drain toward.
The cleaning itself was ordinary. Both the front and rear runs were packed, the rear especially, and the stone-coated metal tile roof above had enough lichen on it to tell you how long the surfaces had gone untouched. We cleared it by hand into buckets rather than blowing it off the roof, which on a tile roof with a valley is the only sensible way to do it.
Then the trough was empty and the real problem was visible. Look at the mitred corner in the photographs and you can read it without any tools: rust bloom and a dark residue line concentrated at the corner, and clean metal either side. Metal stains where water sits. Water sits at the lowest point. If the lowest point is a corner rather than the downspout outlet, the run has been installed with the fall going the wrong way, or with no fall at all.
The flush test: how a level fault finally shows itself
Quick answer: We run water into the cleaned trough and watch where it goes. On a correct run it travels to the downspout and leaves within seconds. On this run it collected in the corner and stood there. That 1 test is the difference between a cleaning and a diagnosis, and it takes about 2 minutes per run.
Every eavestrough cleaning we do finishes with water, not with a photograph. A clear trough photographs beautifully and tells you almost nothing, because debris is only half of what stops a gutter working. The other half is geometry, and geometry only reveals itself when there is water in the channel to obey it.
So the hose goes in at the far end and we watch. Water should move visibly toward the outlet and the trough should empty behind it. Here the water ran a short distance, reached the corner under the valley, and stopped. It pooled, sat level, and stayed. Nothing was blocked at that point. The trough simply had nowhere lower to send it.
That is the moment a routine visit becomes something else. We are a cleaning crew, and cleaning had already been done. What we could add was the answer to a question she had been asking every February for years.
How much slope should an eavestrough have?
Quick answer: The common working rule is a fall of 1/4 inch for every 10 feet of run toward the downspout, with 1/8 inch per 10 feet treated as the practical minimum on long runs. Some installers work to 1/2 inch per 10 feet. On a 40 foot run that is a total drop of about 1 inch, which is why the eye cannot see it and water can.
The numbers vary a little by source, and that variation is itself worth understanding. Fine Homebuilding puts the ideal at roughly 1 inch per 16 feet. Most North American gutter installers quote 1/4 inch per 10 feet. Some go to 1/2 inch per 10 feet on shorter runs where the visual drop stays hidden behind the fascia. They all describe the same intent: enough tilt that water always has somewhere lower to go, and little enough that the trough still looks parallel to the roofline.
The practical rule we use in the field is simpler than any of those. A run is correct when water poured in at the high end reaches the downspout on its own and leaves nothing standing behind it. That is the same test a level gives you, without the argument about which fraction is right, and it is a test any homeowner can run from a ladder with a garden hose.
Runs also lose fall over time even when they were right on day one. Hangers loosen, fascia softens, ice loads pull sections down, and ladders leaned against the trough itself bend it. A gutter that drained correctly for a decade can stop draining correctly without anyone touching it.
How a slow drip in October becomes ice in January
Quick answer: Standing water in a trough has 2 exits in winter: it evaporates, or it finds a seam. At a corner that holds water permanently, the seam is always wet, so it always weeps. In Toronto, where daytime thaw and overnight freeze trade places for months, that weep lands on the same square of step every night and freezes.
A properly draining eavestrough is empty most of the time. That is its whole design: catch, carry, discharge, dry out. A section that holds water is wet permanently, and permanently wet seams leak, because sealant is asked to hold back a standing head of water instead of a passing flow.
Then Toronto weather does the rest. Our freeze and thaw pattern is not one long cold season, it is a long series of small ones. Afternoon sun melts snow on a metal tile roof, meltwater runs to the trough, the trough is holding water and cannot take more, and the surplus goes over the lip or through the seam. Overnight temperatures drop and whatever landed below turns to ice. Repeat for a season and you get a permanent, self-renewing ice patch in one location, which is precisely what this homeowner had been salting for years.
The detail that makes it dangerous is that this ice arrives overnight, on a surface that was clear at bedtime, in a spot the porch roof keeps in shadow. It is thin, it is fresh, and it is exactly where a person puts their foot on the way out.
"She kept saying the same thing on the phone: it is only ever the steps. Not the driveway, not the walkway, the steps. When someone tells you the ice is always in one place, stop thinking about winter and start looking at what is above that place."
DT Cleaning technician, Etobicoke, August 2026
What this cost the homeowner
Quick answer: The repair that would have prevented this is 2 items, a corner re-seal and a run re-hung to fall, and it is an hour or two of work. The winter before last the homeowner stepped onto ice that had formed overnight, did not see it, slipped and broke her arm. She is still in rehabilitation and told us recovery has been slow.
We are writing this part carefully, with her permission and without naming her, because it is the reason the article exists. She went out of her own front door on a morning that looked like any other, stepped on a patch that had refrozen overnight, and fell. The arm broke. Well over a year later she is still doing rehabilitation, and she told us the healing has taken far longer than she expected.
There is no dramatic failure anywhere in this story. Nothing collapsed. No water came into the house. The eavestrough did not look broken from the ground and does not look broken in our photographs. The entire fault is a fraction of an inch of fall in one corner, invisible from every angle a homeowner ever views their house from, and it took a hose and a ladder to find.
That gap between how small the defect is and how large the consequence was is the part worth carrying away. Exterior maintenance problems are usually priced by what they damage: a soffit, a foundation, a basement. This one was priced in a person.
What fixing it involves, and who should pay for it
Quick answer: 2 things. Re-seal the corner mitre so the standing seam stops weeping, and re-hang the affected section so the run falls toward the outlet. Neither is a replacement job. We quoted it as a repair, and the homeowner is taking it to the company that installed the system first, because a run without fall is an installation defect.
The corner needs cleaning back to bare metal and re-sealing properly, not a bead of sealant over old sealant. The run needs its hangers reset so the trough drops continuously toward the downspout. On a section this size that is a short job, and it is the kind of work that pays for itself the first winter it stops the ice.
Who pays is the more interesting question, and we told her the honest version rather than the version that books us the work. A run installed without fall was wrong when it went up. If the original installer offers a workmanship warranty, this is what that warranty is for. She is calling them first. If they will not stand behind it, she is coming back to us and we will do it.
We would rather lose that job than have her pay twice for the same mistake. It is also the more useful position for anyone reading this: before you pay someone to correct a gutter that never drained properly, find out who put it up and whether they still warrant it.
If it is your steps and someone else falls
Quick answer: In Ontario the Occupiers' Liability Act puts a duty on whoever controls a property to take reasonable care that people entering it are reasonably safe. Since 2021 there is also a 60 day written notice requirement for injury claims caused by snow or ice. This is general information, not legal advice.
This homeowner fell on her own steps, so no claim arises. Change one detail and it becomes a different story: a visitor, a delivery driver, a grandchild, a contractor. Section 3 of Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act requires an occupier to take such care as is reasonable in the circumstances to see that people entering the premises are reasonably safe while they are there.
A 2020 amendment added section 6.1, which requires written notice of a snow or ice injury claim, including date, time and location, within 60 days of the injury. The City of Toronto separately sets out property owner obligations in its winter maintenance information.
We are a cleaning company, not lawyers, and nothing here is legal advice. The practical point is narrower and firmly in our lane: a known, repeating ice hazard on an entrance is worth fixing at the source, and a dated record of what was inspected and what was found is worth having. That is part of why we photograph every job.
What this visit cost
Quick answer: $200 covered the full eavestrough cleaning on this Etobicoke home, front and rear, hand-cleared, flushed and tested. The slope repair was quoted separately and has not been done yet, because the warranty question comes first. No single number fits every house: roofline, storeys, access and years since the last clean move it more than anything else.
We do not publish a rate card. What we can publish is what particular jobs have billed, and why each landed where it did. These are all documented visits from our own case studies.
| Job | What was found | What it billed |
|---|---|---|
| Etobicoke, August 2026 (this visit) | Full system blocked front and rear, hand-cleared and flush tested. Corner with no fall discharging onto the front steps, quoted as a separate repair | $200 cleaning |
| Thornhill, 2026 | Overflowing downspout, diagnostic visit to find the cause | $130 diagnostic, repair quoted $180 to $260 |
| Aurora, 2026 | Five years of compacted debris, downspouts taken apart and refitted | $200 flat |
| Toronto, July 2026 | Brick home, 5 years of buildup, fully clogged downspout system | $230 |
The pattern across all four: the cleaning is the predictable part and the finding is the valuable part. Every one of those visits was booked as a clean and produced a diagnosis the homeowner did not have before. Full context on the rest of our pricing sits on the Toronto eavestrough cleaning cost page.
How to check your own eavestrough before the freeze
Quick answer: 4 checks, none of which need tools beyond a hose. Run water in at the far end and watch it leave. Look for rust or a residue line at any low point. Note where any winter icicles hang. And walk the ground below the trough after rain, looking for a wet patch that has no business being there.
The residue line is the one most people can read without a ladder at all. Stand back with binoculars or a phone camera at full zoom and look along the underside and the seams. Streaking below a joint, a rust bloom at a corner, or a green algae stripe on the fascia under one point all say the same thing: water leaves the system here, repeatedly.
Icicles are the winter version of the same message. An evenly loaded roof edge grows icicles fairly evenly. A cluster of them hanging from one seam or one corner, year after year, marks the spot where water is escaping rather than draining. Photograph it in February and you have your map for the spring repair.
The ground tells you too. After rain has stopped and the roof has finished draining, everything under a working eavestrough should be dry apart from the splash zone at the downspout. A persistent damp patch under a mid-run seam, or moss growing on one paving slab and not its neighbours, is an escape point.
What this house should tell you
Quick answer: A gutter has 2 jobs, catching water and getting rid of it, and cleaning only ever fixes the first one. This system was cleared for $200 and still would have iced those steps this winter if nobody had run water through it afterwards. Ask whoever cleans your gutters whether they flush test, and what they found.
Nothing about this property was neglected. The house is cared for, the homeowner is attentive, and the ice had been treated as a fact of Canadian life rather than a symptom. That is the ordinary way these things go: the defect is quiet, the consequence is loud, and the two are separated by enough time that nobody connects them.
The connection here ran from a fraction of an inch of missing fall, through a corner that never dried out, through a weeping seam, to a patch of overnight ice, to a broken arm and a rehabilitation that is still going. Every link in that chain was cheap to break except the last one.
Eavestrough cleaning and slope checks across Toronto and the GTA
Quick answer: DT Cleaning hand-clears eavestroughs, flushes and tests every run, clears downspouts and reports what we find, across Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area. Owner-operated since 2023, 2 permanent crews, 500+ five-star Google reviews, $2M liability insurance and full WSIB coverage on every visit.
This job ran in Etobicoke, but a run installed without fall is not a regional problem. We find them on new builds and on houses that have not been touched in thirty years, and the tell is always the same: staining at a low point that is not the downspout. We service these areas:
Every technician holds Ontario Working at Heights certification, ladder work follows CCOHS portable ladder guidance, and the reasoning behind all of it matches what CMHC tells every homeowner: controlling where water goes is the cheapest protection a house gets. Our eavestrough repair service covers the re-sealing and re-hanging work described here.
Eavestrough slope and winter ice: the questions we get asked
How much slope should a 10-foot gutter have?
About 1/4 inch of fall over that 10 feet, sloping toward the downspout. Some installers work to 1/2 inch per 10 feet on short runs, and 1/8 inch per 10 feet is generally treated as the practical minimum on long ones. Across a 40 foot run, 1/4 inch per 10 feet totals roughly 1 inch of drop.
Are gutters supposed to have a slope?
Yes. A gutter that sits perfectly level holds water instead of moving it, and standing water is what rots seams, feeds algae and freezes in winter. The fall is deliberately small so the trough still reads as parallel to the roofline, which is exactly why a missing slope is so hard to spot from the ground.
What is the recommended pitch for rain gutters?
Sources differ slightly and all describe the same intent. Fine Homebuilding puts the ideal near 1 inch per 16 feet. Most North American installers quote 1/4 inch per 10 feet. The field test that settles it: water poured in at the high end should reach the downspout on its own and leave nothing standing behind it.
How do you change the slope of an eavestrough?
By resetting the hangers, not by bending the trough. The section is unhooked, the high and low points are re-marked so the run drops continuously toward the outlet, and the hangers are refastened to that line. On a single run it is usually an hour or two of work, and it is repair rather than replacement.
How do I know if my eavestrough has the right slope?
Run a garden hose into the far end of a clean trough and watch. Correct fall carries the water to the downspout within seconds and leaves the trough empty behind it. If water collects anywhere and stands there, that point is your low spot, and if it is not the outlet, the run is wrong.
Is it normal for gutters to drip in heavy rain?
A little overshoot in an extreme downpour is normal, especially on a steep roof. Dripping from the same seam in ordinary rain is not. On this Etobicoke job the corner wept in any weather because it was holding a standing head of water, which sealant is not designed to resist.
Why does ice form on my front steps every winter?
If it returns to the same spot every year, something above is delivering water there. Weather ices a whole property fairly evenly. A repeating patch usually traces back to a seam, a corner or a downspout discharging where it should not, and it renews itself overnight through Toronto's freeze and thaw cycle.
Can a clogged gutter cause ice on a walkway?
Yes, and it is one of the most common winter hazards we trace. A blocked or non-draining trough sends meltwater over the lip or through a seam instead of down the downspout. Whatever is below collects it, and in Toronto that water freezes overnight for months at a time.
What is the most common problem with gutters?
Blockage is the most common, and it is the one homeowners know about. The most commonly missed one is drainage geometry: a run that no longer falls toward its outlet because hangers loosened, fascia softened, ice loaded it or a ladder was leaned on the trough. Cleaning does nothing for that.
What are common DIY gutter mistakes?
Three we see repeatedly: leaning the ladder against the trough, which bends it and destroys the fall; blowing debris off a roof instead of removing it, which packs the downspouts; and calling the job done at a clean trough without running water through to confirm it drains.
Who is responsible if someone slips on ice at my house in Ontario?
Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act places a duty on whoever controls a property to take reasonable care that people entering it are reasonably safe. A 2020 amendment also requires written notice of a snow or ice injury claim within 60 days. This is general information, not legal advice, so get proper advice for your situation.
How often should eavestroughs be cleaned in Toronto?
Twice a year suits most GTA homes, in spring and again in late autumn after the leaves drop. Properties under mature trees often need a third visit. Ask for a flush test each time, because 2 cleanings a year still will not find a slope fault if nobody puts water through the run.
Related eavestrough work from our crews
Ice returning to the same step every winter?
DT Cleaning hand-clears eavestroughs across Toronto and the GTA, then flushes every run and tells you where the water ends up. If the fall is wrong, you will hear it from us before you hear it from a February morning.
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