Houses in Forest Hills, Church-Cherokee Streets and Kennesaw Avenue sit in local historic districts with their own rules. The city’s preservation ordinance treats new gutters as a minor repair, with no Certificate of Appropriateness needed, when they go in the same place and at the same scale as the old ones. Gutters added where a house never had any are exempt too.
Exempt doesn’t mean anything goes. The design guidelines for those three districts ask that replacement gutters be designed, installed and placed to cause as little damage and visual change as possible, and that materials match the originals as closely as they can.
Downtown, the bar is higher. The Downtown Marietta Historic District’s guidelines say historic gutters and downspouts should be retained, and that worn-out historic gutters should give way to new ones of the same appearance, color and size. Material exterior work there, even maintenance, generally needs the Historic Board of Review to issue a Certificate of Approval first.
Before you get quotes, note what you have now: half-round or K-style gutters, round or rectangular downspouts, and the color. Half-round gutters usually pair with round downspouts. Ask each company whether it can match your profile. If you aren’t sure the job counts as a minor repair, the city’s preservation staff can sign off on it or send it on to the commission that oversees those districts.