Hey all,
I’m a DIY homeowner who recently bought a 2200sq. ft. 60’s colonial here in WNY. The house has gutters that are in desperate need of repair. I’m wondering what my options are as far as replacement, and what are some questions to ask when it comes time for estimates? I’m not looking for high end copper…more of a ‘Honda Accord’ of the gutter world!
Thanks for the help!
Kyle
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I think Piffin's telling you to use the seach function?
Anyway, most of the gutters I've dealt with are seamless aluminum. They are formed on site from rolls of prepainted aluminum stock, into lengths that match what the house needs. There are fittings for corners, etc. Downspouts are out of matching aluminum. There are a couple of different gauges of aluminum available, and I go for whatever's thickest. The main problems I see with aluminum are (1) it dents easily if you lean a ladder against it, which someone will do, and (2) a lot of the installers just toss 'em up there without trying to slope them to the downspouts, which means a lot of water sits in them.
I'm good friends with a tin man so I had my gutters made out of 18 ga galv steel, into pre-made sections with end caps, corners, etc. They weigh a ton and you could hit them with a truck and not dent them. They match the period of the house nicely. I used round 2" galv pipe and elbows for the downtubes. All painted to match the trim. I can get on the roof and it doesn't matter.
couple of things to think about when it comes to gutters:
1) do you have trees that shed leaves and branches nearby( what i call tree poop)?
the gutters at our house clogged up in 3 months thanks to a redwood tree nearby.
2) is snow and ice an issue?
3) do you have options as to where you have downspouts, or are you limited by sidewalks, decks, cosmetic looks of the house, or drainage away from the house?
as far as i'm concerned, you can't beat gutters made on site by a machine that extrudes the gutter shape from a roll of metal.. around here, there are several contractors around that will come to your house,extrude and install the gutters.
There are a couple of nifty 'gutter cover' product that let the water in but keep the poop out. The nicest one I've seen is a solid panel, not a screen, and comes in colors to match typical prepainted gutter stock. Saw it at JLC last year... I'll dig out the info if you're interested.
A gutter installer showed me this nifty new product the other day. It is a plastic mesh-like (think scotchbrite) material molded to fit inside the gutter. The water seeps through the voids but the leaves can't penetrate in. Don't know the brand name, but looked interesting. Unfortunately they don't have it for half-round gutters.
The insert-type stuff is called Flo-Free (http://www.dciproducts.com). There's also some other foam stuff that my gutter subcontractor likes, but I haven't tried.I've seen a lot of gutters with solid guards that eventually filled up with silt and overflowed. If you're surrounded by trees, this could be a problem.