Vinyl gutters?

[Pilot]

Built our house 19 years ago and the gutters are getting tired. Had the Leafguard guy out today and he quoted me $7,100! Ouch! Well, we won't go that route. When I told him that, he said they also offered their "Rainpro" line and he quoted $2,161 for that, for house and barn.

But I am thinking I could install vinyl gutters for a few hundred bucks (DYI). The Leafguard guy says they leak at the joints after expansiona nd contraction has worked them and that of all the gutter systems out there, vinyl is the poorest choice. And he says I would be replacing vinyl in just a few years.

So, is that all just salesman's blather? If you have had vinyl gutters, are you happy with them? How long have you had them? Do they leak?

A couple things I liked about the Leafguard and Rainpro gutters is their size. If the ones I have are 4" wide, these must 5 1/2 or 6" at the top. Downspouts are also large and on the downspout they have a cleanout basket which they mount about 4 ft. above the ground. You just lift the thing out of the downspout and dump out anything that's in there.

Our trees are all firs and they throw cones about 3" long and maybe 1.5 inches in diameter. They would probably go down the downspouts of these larger ones, but with my old gutters, they just clog the gutter at the downspout.

So, what do you guys know?

 

[EarPlug]

Leafguard is a franchised product dealership. I believe it is a "patented" product and they charge a premium for the "name". There are alternative product out there that will work nearly the same.

As for the size, any seamless gutter contractor can provide the size you need.

 

[SandburRanch]

I posted this on another site and may as well share my feelings here too.

Guttering is STUPID and my house has 180 ft. of STUPID. I'll never own another house with STUPID.

Gutters don't prevent basement leaks. The appropriate choice of a building site, construction techniques and proper landscape drainage prevent basement leaks.

 

[Scrambler82]

I put Plastic gutters on about 25 years ago, they have faed but are holding up well.

No leaks, clog with leaves easily.

Only problem I had was my drip edge wasn’t wide enough and I had to add a strip of metal along the entire length to run the water in.

All it took was mount some mounting brackets and drain spouts and cut the Gutter to length and snap in place; all of the joints had rubber gaskets.

I would do it again.

 

[Bird]

I helped my brother install the vinyl gutters when we built his house in the mid-90s, but then he only lived there 4 or 5 years before selling the place. I later installed vinyl gutters on an aluminum awning on a mobile home we had and on the aluminum awning on a daughter's mobile home. We never had a leaking problem, but they definitely do shrink and expand in the temperature changes, so they need to be installed properly to allow for that. But of course, we didn't own any of those long term. I'd guess the guy was right that the vinyl won't last as long as the others, but they're cheap and easy to work with. The vinyl ones we used were also not as big as the seamless aluminum on our current home. I think vinyl is pretty good for the do-it-yourselfer, but certainly not comparable to the two brands you mentioned.

 

[EddieWalker]

Best choice is from a seamless gutter contractor that makes them for you on site.

If you want to do it yourself, but the metal ones. Overlap them as you install them and use the gutter glue to seal them. NEVER use the joints that they sell for this. They are guranteed to leak.

Plastic are the worse. They are very hard, if not impossible to not leak. I used silicone where they overlap to get as good a seal as I can, but I will not gurantee my work. Plastic moves quite a bit in the heat. You need to put a ton of fasteners on them to hold them up, and even if you go 2 feet, there will be waves and bows between the fasteners because that's just what plastic does.

I like and I hate gutters. I can argue for them and against them. On my house, I have them. I hate them, but going with out is even worse at my place.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Mike Costello]

I installed vinyl gutters on a new home I purchased. I lived there for 12 years and experienced no problems at all. Nothing broke or leaked. They are probably still on the home after all these years. As I recall, they were pretty easy to install using basic hand tools. Best of all, they were inexpensive. When I built my log home, I paid a professional "gutter guy" to install seamless metal gutters, and quite frankly, I didn't think they were all that much better. Mike.

 

[CurlyDave]

I had vinyl gutters on my house for 20+ years until it burned down.

I installed them myself and was careful to follow the directions. Used lots of the silicone lubricant. Never had a problem except for the disparaging comments from people who sold metal gutters.

The plastic ones never leaked and never rusted.

 

[2manyrocks]

I think it is an appearance issue. The seamless aluminum gutters that are installed with hidden brackets are really nice looking to me. The DIY gutter that have seams --they have seams. The plastic ones I've seen also have a visible mounting bracket. Maybe there are some that mount differently.

I'd be looking for a different gutter installer. Unless you have miles of gutters, it shouldn't be that bad. Some of the gutter guys are going to give you as much price as they think you'll pay. You've got to find the one that's reasonable.

 

[KTurner]

Had the Leafguard guy out today and he quoted me $7,100! Ouch! Well, we won't go that route. When I told him that, he said they also offered their "Rainpro" line and he quoted $2,161 for that, for house and barn.

We had our local (Southeast VA) Leafgaurd people out day before yesterday. We have a single story with a hip roof. 282 ft of leafgaurd gutter, 9 inside miters, 5 outside miters and 135 ft of 3x4 downspouts. $6922, but there was a discount dropping it to $5365. Same company but 5" K style open seamless metal gutters with 2x3 downspouts was $1461. 5" K style with 3x4 downspouts was $1866. Add micro screens to the K style for an additional $987.

Had a second company out yesterday. They said, 5" open seamless metal w/3x4 downspouts for $1932 and 6" open seamless metal w/3x4 downspouts for $2272.

Both of these companies were listed with BBB and the sales people were nice, not pushy. I might call a third company on Monday. I'm fine with open gutters as there's only one tree (maple) close and tall enough for anything to get in the gutter.

Anyone have any comments on downspout size, as I'm pondering that currently as well.

Forgot to mention - the Leafgaurd people were proud of their lifetime warranty. They said it was the only one that transferred from home owner to home owner when the house was sold. And that if the gutter ever clogged, it would be cleaned free. And, if they went out of business, the warranty would be covered by someone else in Leafgaurd.

 

[2manyrocks]

3x4 downspouts are the most common around here. Visually, 2x3 could look odd. I'm surprised there is that much price difference between the two sizes of downspouts.

The way companies come and go, I wouldn't bank on a lifetime warranty for anything.

 

[Bird]

I like and I hate gutters. I can argue for them and against them. On my house, I have them. I hate them, but going with out is even worse at my place.

I feel the same way.:laughing: I've got a live oak tree too close to the house on one side, so I have to clean out the gutter several times a year. But not having the gutters would be even worse.

 

[JDgreen227]

I posted this on another site and may as well share my feelings here too.

Guttering is STUPID and my house has 180 ft. of STUPID. I'll never own another house with STUPID.

Gutters don't prevent basement leaks. The appropriate choice of a building site, construction techniques and proper landscape drainage prevent basement leaks.

I saw and commented on your post on LMF...gutters do not PREVENT basement leaks, true, but they do help.

 

[JDgreen227]

When we built an addition on our house back in 2002, I removed the old vinyl gutters on part of the house and installed the premium vinyl gutters and downspouts that are sold at Lowes..the gutters themselves are Genova Severe Weather with a 5 inch sized gutter. I installed about 160 feet of them on the house and garage with 8 downspouts. We get a LOT of rain and roof ice buildup here, but so far the product has held up well, with the only broken part being an inside corner at the area of heaviest ice buildup on one section.

Rather than using rubber seals, Genova requires you to use PVC pipe cement to fasten the sections together...after a few years the cement weathered away so I used regular roof cement on the seams to seal them. While the lengths of gutters and downspouts are reasonably priced, the hangars, connectors, etc. are what add up in cost. Still, I am happy with my choice, and something I really like about the Severe Weather product is that although they look like aluminum, they are vinyl and very durable.

One tip...use more gutter hangers than they recommend, I installed one every two feet, the cost is more but the gutters withstand ice and snow very well with the extra reinforcement.

 

[JB4310]

I work on alot of houses and end up repairing and cleaning alot of gutters Only one of them are vinyl. When the guy put them up I thought they wouldn't last, I didn't like them, probably because I was unfamiliar with them.

Well that was over 10 years ago and they have held up maybe better than aluminum in this application, this guy has a slate roof and snow slides down hard often damaging metal gutters. So I think the vinyl being flexable must be a benifit.

I still am not that crazy about them, those ones I have experiance with are on the small side, not sure if they make larger sizes.

Eddie mentioned seemless, that's what I have on my house, my buddy has the machine so I let him do it. I didn't realize they are much thinner gauge than what I install for people. I don't install alot of aluminum gutters, but whenever I do I use Alcoa, they are the heaviest gauge I've seen, Plus you can buy lengths up to 37 feet, a little tricky to transport but for most homes that would make them seemless.

Gutters are a high maintenance PITA no doubt, like you can't live with and can't live without them. Gutter guys are gonna have alot of business around here this spring, the heavier than normal snowfall/ ice dams has ripped more gutters off houses than I have ever seen before.

JB.

 

[JDgreen227]

Should have mentioned, the first inside corner I installed with my vinyl gutters cracked from the ice build up, it was partly because the instructions that were furnished told the installer to just use about 2 inches of gutter on each side of the inside corner, when I installed the second one I mitered the ends of both gutters 90 degrees so they went into the inside corner full length and met each other, this effectively doubled the thickness of the inside corner, this winters ice build up was the worst yet but nothing broke. And another thing, the instructions tell you to use two separate gutter sections where you have a downspout drop outlet, one on each side of the drop outlet, well if you can it makes a lot more sense to use one section of gutter and make a cutout in the bottom that lines up with the hole for the drop outlet. MUCH stronger and fewer chances to leak. Although butting up sections of gutter in the corner offers more chances for problems with expansion I have not experienced any yet.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I used vinyl gutters on a shed, don't really care for them. How long are the gutter? My local Alcoa siding distributor has premade aluminum gutters in lengths up to 30+ feet. When I did my garage, I just had them drop one off at the house and I put it up my self.

 

[300UGUY]

I put up vinyl gutters when I built my 40x40 barn. They worked well for years, until I was playing with the dog one day, and hit the downspout with a stick. There was just a clicking sound, and the downspout was gone!! I found little shards all over the lawn, none bigger than a couple inches. A 2 ft section of downspout was missing, I guess the stuff rotted in the sun. I replaced it with site made aluminmum gutters.

 

[andrec999]

I installed vinyl gutters on our house in 1978 , and they lasted untill I had them replaced with aluminium ones last year.
Well they lasted, but I had to replaced a few lenghts due to ice damage , but in general they did the job , and they did not owe me anything.
I went with seemless aluminium this time for the look , as they are one piece . It cost us 900.$ for around 120' lenght and 4 downspouts , so the price was very descent.
Ice and snow is very hard on them and a steel roof even worst, they dont garantee any breakage due the weather meaning ice , snow,sind etc.
Here,the insurance companies are forcing us to have them or else they wont cover water danmage.

 

[ustmd]

Built our house 19 years ago and the gutters are getting tired. Had the Leafguard guy out today and he quoted me $7,100! Ouch! Well, we won't go that route. When I told him that, he said they also offered their "Rainpro" line and he quoted $2,161 for that, for house and barn.

But I am thinking I could install vinyl gutters for a few hundred bucks (DYI). The Leafguard guy says they leak at the joints after expansiona nd contraction has worked them and that of all the gutter systems out there, vinyl is the poorest choice. And he says I would be replacing vinyl in just a few years.

So, is that all just salesman's blather? If you have had vinyl gutters, are you happy with them? How long have you had them? Do they leak?

A couple things I liked about the Leafguard and Rainpro gutters is their size. If the ones I have are 4" wide, these must 5 1/2 or 6" at the top. Downspouts are also large and on the downspout they have a cleanout basket which they mount about 4 ft. above the ground. You just lift the thing out of the downspout and dump out anything that's in there.

So, what do you guys know?

My neighbor had there house leveled last year (a common thing in Central Texas). As a condition of the life time warranty on the house leveling, they had to install gutters on the 2700+ sq ft house.

The house is in the middle of a Live Oak grove that drops a bizzon leaves every winter. They had the Leafguard and Rainpro guys out. The quotation was about the number you got. They they had the independents out to quote seemless gutters made on site: 5 inch I think. The highest price was $1500 and several bids were under $1000. The addition of the micro screen or leaf guard type product was about another $500-$700.

They went with one of the sub $1000 guys with added $600 for the micro screen. They came out and had it done in a day. No problems.