What we actually check during a cleaning
A cleaning here is not just scooping out what is visible from the top. We check every downspout for a clog at the elbow, since that is where fluff and seed pack tight and it is invisible from above. We check the pitch of each run with a level, because a gutter can look clean and still be holding an inch of standing water at the low end if a hanger has pulled and dropped that section.
We also check the back edge where the gutter meets the fascia, since that is where a slow leak shows up as a dark stain on the trim board long before anyone notices water on the ground.
Hangers, spikes, and why gutters sag
The most common repair we do is not a new gutter, it is fixing an old one that has started to sag between hangers. Older installs used spikes driven straight through the gutter into the fascia, and over years of freeze and thaw those spikes work loose and the gutter pulls away from the house at that point. We replace failed spikes with hidden hangers screwed into solid wood, spaced closer together than the original install if the sag pattern shows the spacing was too wide to begin with.
A gutter that sags in the middle of a run holds water at that low point permanently, and standing water in an aluminum gutter through a Fargo winter is one of the fastest ways to split a seam.
Re-pitching a run that has gone flat
Pitch is easy to get wrong on the original install and easy to lose over time as a house settles or hangers shift. We reset the string line, correct the fall toward the downspout, and re-hang the run so water actually reaches the downspout instead of sitting until it evaporates or freezes. On longer runs we sometimes add a downspout in the middle rather than forcing all the water to travel the full length, which cuts down on standing water even in a heavy storm.
When repair stops making sense
Aluminum gutter has a real lifespan, and a run with splits at multiple seams, hangers that have torn out of soft fascia, and a section that has already been patched more than once is usually past the point where another repair is the honest recommendation. We will tell you plainly when replacement costs less over the next few years than another round of patching, and we will also tell you when a repair is genuinely the right call, because most of the calls we get are exactly that.