Gutters Installation and Gutter Installers

There are thousands of legitimate and well-established professional gutter installers in the market. But because it costs little money to start a company (a used gutter machine can be purchased with a credit card for a couple thousand dollars) and there are few requirements (no contractor license or professional credentials are needed), the gutter business also attracts large numbers of less experienced gutter installers.

The problem is that gutter installation is much more than simply hanging them up. In fact, experienced installers talk in terms of your home's gutter system. Your system must be designed to adequately drain the surface area of your roof and that requires some calculation. Are the gutters large enough? (See our article on gutter sizes.) Are there enough downspouts, adequately sized and placed, to handle the water volume? And if your roof is steeply pitched or has multiple roof valleys, can the gutter system handle the extra flow?

The gutter installer must rely on a combination of industry manuals and past experience with similar homes to design a gutter system that's right for your residence.

Yet even a well-design gutter system can fail if it's not properly installed. For one thing, gutters are not parallel to the roofline and perpendicular to the ground. They must be slanted enough so that gravity can assist water flow—but not too slanted lest the appearance of your home be compromised.

If your house is newer then there's a good chance the gutter system was installed with "hidden hangers," which today are the industry standard. These hangers can allow the gutters to slide a bit as the metal expands and contracts with the weather. Nevertheless, your gutter installer must determine the proper spacing of these hangers. Water is heavy and, if your gutter system isn't held in place by a sufficient number of hangers, then the gutters—especially if they're made of aluminum—can sag.

But if your house is older, then the gutter installation was done with the spike-and-ferrule technique. Ferrules are metal tubes and spikes are essentially big nails. So your gutters were literally nailed into the fascia board underneath the roof edge. But because the spikes don't allow the gutters to expand and contract then, over time, the gutters will pull away from the house. Water then leaks between the gutter and the fascia board, causing the board to rot.

So if your gutters are leaking because they were inadequately designed or installed, you'll need an experienced gutter installer to spot the extent of the problem and suggest a solution. The question is: Can your existing gutters be reinstalled? Or is a new gutter installation required?

Does Gutter Helmet® Really Work?

Gutters Installation and Gutter Installers