seamless gutters

[Dutch445]

I had a quote today for seamless gutters
for the back of my house, about 60' long.
the plastic ones aren't installed properly, and
we have problems with ice. they came back at
about $10 per foot, installed, with me tearing down
the old, and installing some more 1x3 fir strip to help
in the install. (the quote was higher before i offered
to do those items).
this seems high to me, anybody else have recent
quotes? I'm located in upstate NY.
Thanks

 

[schmism]

Amazon.com: Amerimax Home Prod. 3200719 Galvanized Gutter (Pack of 10): Patio, Lawn & Garden

I assume you can get 10' galv/painted sections for about $1.50 per foot material price. not including fastners.

Your quote is for plain 5" AL? with downspouts? with some sort of leaf guard?

ive always heard installers will give GREAT rates on the gutter, and then the downspouts are like $20/ft.

Id charge myself $600 do it myself and use the extra $300 to spend on a tractor toy.

with the amount of work you already agreed to do for "prep" you might as well seal the deal and spend the last 20 min installing the gutter that you just spent 2hrs prepping for.

 

[rmully]

Gutters are easy ...Lowes carries metal ones and you pay about $1 a foot instead of $10 ....You just made $9.00 per ft You could gutter an entire house for $600 ...spend the other $500 on fun !!!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My local Alcoa siding distributor sells gutters different lengths, up to 32' or so in length. You can do it yourself with less joints than the standard 10' lengths.

 

[Pops15]

Most suppliers will run off 5" gutters for $1.35-$1.65 a foot with a 100' minimum. Some have a drop charge of $25 or $50 but no minimum. Downspouts will run about $8 each. Labor to install gutters depends allot on the house. Could be as little as $2 a foot for gutters or as much as $5 a foot, plus $20 -25 for each downspout (each, not per foot). You'll have other accessories like end caps, hangers, possibly miters.

Did they figure a leaf guard? Gutters and leaf guard can EASILY run $10 a foot or more!

Do your existing gutters and fascia have lead paint? If so the installers have to follow specific work procedures mandated by the US EPA. If you have lead paint $10 a foot is probably a bargain considering the extra work required by the EPA!!!!!!


Stay away from the painted steel or galvanized 10 or 20' sections. You'll just be trading one problem for another.

 

[Dutch445]

this is a very simple run, no turns, 1 downspout at 1 end,
and he spoke of using high quality Alcoa aluminum for their
gutter. this quote did NOT include a guard or helmet.
I like the thought of no seams, maybe i'll look into the
drop and go idea, won't be too hard to lift 60' of gutter up
to the roof will it?

no lead paint, yes they would use wedges due to my
fascia being cut back at an angle instead of plumb.

i currently have the raingo plastic ones, and they aren't
installed properly, and don't catch the last 20' of roof due
to them being too low to catch the rain when it's coming down
heavy, it overshoots the gutter. (i guess i could fix this myeslf too)

but, they brag about their carrying capacity etc of the seamless, which
i'm sure is available in 10' long systems also.

 

[Duffster]

this is a very simple run, no turns, 1 downspout at 1 end,
and he spoke of using high quality Alcoa aluminum for their
gutter. this quote did NOT include a guard or helmet.
I like the thought of no seams, maybe i'll look into the
drop and go idea, won't be too hard to lift 60' of gutter up
to the roof will it?

no lead paint, yes they would use wedges due to my
fascia being cut back at an angle instead of plumb.

i currently have the raingo plastic ones, and they aren't
installed properly, and don't catch the last 20' of roof due
to them being too low to catch the rain when it's coming down
heavy, it overshoots the gutter. (i guess i could fix this myeslf too)

but, they brag about their carrying capacity etc of the seamless, which
i'm sure is available in 10' long systems also.

When it rains that hard it won't do any good to catch all of the rain. With only one downspout on 60' it won't run out fast enough.

Get another bid, around here I could get that hung in the $3/ft range.

 

[schmism]

With only one downspout on 60' it won't run out fast enough.

you really cant make that call without looking at the water shed area.... 5' of porch roof (from gutter to ridge) is a lot different than 40' of 12/12 roof.


Remember there are other things to consider in your gutter purchase... seamless AL might sound nice. but is it in an area of the house were you ladder the house a lot? Is it an area of roof that gets a lot of snow shed/ice?

AL gutter is SOFT.... Galv steel will stand up much better ice/ladders etc than thin AL versions.

 

[Duffster]

you really cant make that call without looking at the water shed area.... 5' of porch roof (from gutter to ridge) is a lot different than 40' of 12/12 roof.


Remember there are other things to consider in your gutter purchase... seamless AL might sound nice. but is it in an area of the house were you ladder the house a lot? Is it an area of roof that gets a lot of snow shed/ice?

AL gutter is SOFT.... Galv steel will stand up much better ice/ladders etc than thin AL versions.

You have a good point but to keep it flat enough on 60', one drop probably won't be enough no matter how little the roof is.

I have seen no issues with good quality aluminum guuters holding up.

 

[Dutch445]

The person doing the quote felt that with the capacity of the alum gutter,
50' was max recommended for 1 downspout. the roof is only about 14' to the peak, except
for the last 15' of the run, which is about 10' to the peak due to a change
in the roofline. i have a catch basin at the bottom of the downspout which then
goes underground to open releif, and he felt the 1 drop should be ok. if not,
i can always have them put another one in, but i really can't take it to
the far end of the house due to terrain/runoff.
normally, i use a step ladder on the back deck to access the roof, and we do
get ice in winter that needs to be taken care of once or twice a year,,

thanks for the input, i am trying to find another local guy for another quote..

 

[captaincrab55]

You have a good point but to keep it flat enough on 60', one drop probably won't be enough no matter how little the roof is.

More drops are better and oversize drops are even better...

 

[Bird]

Long time ago (summer, 1997) I had one 54' run with a downspout on each end, and two 16' runs with one downspout each installed on a double wide mobile; total of about 84' and 4 downspouts for $474.11 including tax.

 

[EddieWalker]

A few years ago somebody on here mentioned that when installing the ones sold at the box stores, that you overlap the gutters when connectiong them. Never buy or use the connectors that they sell at the stores, they ALWAYS leak. I tried this with excellent results. Now it's the only way that I'll do it. Just put one end of the gutter inside the other gutter with some gutter sealant. It even looks good!!!!!!!!

I would use two downspouts on a run that long.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Has the price of copper gutters gone down recently?

I ask because I've seen several installs this year... two were like convention aluminum... only in copper.

One, a home in Berkeley, used European style... heave half pipe copper with under-slung copper supports and large round downspouts... I helped do an install in 1982 and the copper has held up to the severe weather common in the Austrian Alps.. and are almost self cleaning.

 

[schmism]

Just put one end of the gutter inside the other gutter with some gutter sealant. It even looks good!!!!!!!!
Eddie

I was going to mention this earlyer. About 2 years ago i put up about 100' of gavl gutters on my dads house. (2 turns and 2 down spouts) We Simply overlap and use sealant and i used a couple of poprivits at the top edge (front/back). (about 7 years ago i caught a seamless guy doing gutters at a neighbors house and had him peal off 2 24' long sections for my garage for me to install.... so i have experience handling both AL seamless and "traditional" gutter)

The 10' lengths were easy to handle... for one long run we attached 2 sections together on the ground and lifted up 20' but it was starting to get heavy and awkward with just 2 people.

Quite frankly i dont know how they would handle a 60' AL seamless in one piece without about 6 guys. It has about half the structural integrity in its naked form that galv does.


With the overlap method 9 of of 10 people wouldn't know the diffrence between 10' sticks and seamless if they looked at my dads house.

 

[EddieWalker]

Has the price of copper gutters gone down recently?

I ask because I've seen several installs this year... two were like convention aluminum... only in copper.

One, a home in Berkeley, used European style... heave half pipe copper with under-slung copper supports and large round downspouts... I helped do an install in 1982 and the copper has held up to the severe weather common in the Austrian Alps.. and are almost self cleaning.

I've seen a few higher end homes with copper gutters around here that I've worked on and the inside of the gutters are not copper, just the outside. I don't know how it's done, but from what it looks like, the copper is either sprayed on or coated in some manner so that it starts out shiny like copper, but then patinas. From the outside, there's no way to tell difference.

Eddie

 

[brin]

I agree with the other poster ...Get another bid or two...that is too high, it seems you are doing much of the work and for 50' or so of run..one downspout will not be enough even if you go with 6" gutters.

 

[ultrarunner]

Eddie... that explains it... they look like regular getters, only copper. Must be copper plated.

The all copper gutters I put up are like the ones on this website...

World Gutter Systems- copper gutters, accessories, and a wide variety of copper products

 

[Pops15]

this is a very simple run, no turns, 1 downspout at 1 end,
and he spoke of using high quality Alcoa aluminum for their
gutter. this quote did NOT include a guard or helmet.
I like the thought of no seams, maybe i'll look into the
drop and go idea, won't be too hard to lift 60' of gutter up
to the roof will it?

no lead paint, yes they would use wedges due to my
fascia being cut back at an angle instead of plumb.

i currently have the raingo plastic ones, and they aren't
installed properly, and don't catch the last 20' of roof due
to them being too low to catch the rain when it's coming down
heavy, it overshoots the gutter. (i guess i could fix this myeslf too)

but, they brag about their carrying capacity etc of the seamless, which
i'm sure is available in 10' long systems also.

One guy can lift 60' of gutter but you'll need two to hang it. Three people would be even better. One guy can hang 40' of gutter but it's no fun!

I agree with the others that you should have two down spouts. If you go with one you should make it a 3X4 instead of the standard 2X3.

Since it's a simple job with no lead paint issues or leaf guard I think the quote you got is pretty high. Keep shopping. Also ask them to show you how they install the hangers. They are supposed to snap over the back of the gutter but most guys shove them down inside so they're easier to nail or screw. That's a recipe for the hangers to loosen over time. Insist they snap the hangers over the back. Better yet have them use the more expensive hangers that have the screw in them. They are wider and stronger. I think I pay about 50 cents each for the better hangers. Put the hangers every 2' and you shouldn't have any issues with ladders. Make sure they tuck the gutter under the drip edge or flash under the drip edge/over the gutter. That's another shortcut some guys will take. I hate installing gutters but I install my own. I stopped subbing them out over 20 years ago because of the poor workmanship the subs were doing.
I suspect part of the reason for the high quote is the wedges, but that's really high. $5 a foot is a reasonable price for a quality but simple gutter job.

 

[Pops15]

I've seen a few higher end homes with copper gutters around here that I've worked on and the inside of the gutters are not copper, just the outside. I don't know how it's done, but from what it looks like, the copper is either sprayed on or coated in some manner so that it starts out shiny like copper, but then patinas. From the outside, there's no way to tell difference.

Eddie

Any idea what those copper clad gutters cost? Are they copper over steel or copper over aluminum?