Gutters
 

Recommendations wanted for someone to install gutters on my new house.

Stipes

Hills

Good reliable and reasonable

Call Daniel Kilcrease Gutters. Great job, good price 352-693-8212

Another vote for Hills.

Does anyone know if Hills does Gutter Helmets?

M and M.

Another vote for Stipes !!!!

Another vote for Stipes !!!!

Because he takes pride in his work, not just a job

Whoever you use, make sure they use enough brackets. It is difficult to compare sometimes because one company will say, "Our gutter price is only $1.00 per foot"......what they may not tell you is that they charge more for downspouts, etc.....

As a person who climbs on roofs in The Villages everyday, I see some gutter jobs where they only put a bracket every 5-6 feet or more..I've seen brackets even 6-7 feet apart. This is not enough. One should be able to place a ladder against a gutter without crushing it.

A good gutter installation should have the gutter thick enough that it does not bend when leaned against. I would insist on gutter brackets no more than 3 feet apart at the most.....preferably every 2 foot apart or so.

I know it can be a contentious issue, but I also like to see splash guards installed on the inside corner pieces when the valleys are large to prevent waterfalling during a hard rain. Some say that this can hurt the sheathing, but I have not yet seen evidence of that.

Make sure the gutter is large enough to carry the amount of water it needs to, especially on long runs.....also make sure you have enough downspouts and they are placed in the proper areas.

Frank

Another recomendation for M&M

Thanks for the good information.

So you're saying that is no standard in the building codes for how many brackets and how far apart they must be placed?

That is correct. Up north, we cared about bracket spacing because of snow and ice damming, etc. Down here it is not as critical, as the "load" would only be copious amounts of water during a downpour.

To me it is more of "best practice". I should be able to make the assumption that if I carefully place a ladder on a gutter at a 75 degree angle, it should not deflect.

The reality is that I need to check first before placing the ladder on the gutter, because if the ladder has NO brackets near it, a cheap, thin gutter will crush. A better quality thinker gutter installed with brackets every 2-3 feet will lessen the chance of this happening. But, if the gutter people need to be competitive pricewise, and the homeowner always goes for the lowest price then sometimes the gutter guy might save a few bucks by using less brackets. Using 20 less brackets on a home saves the installer some money, and "Hey, the homeowner will never know.....all gutters look the same from the ground, and they will never climb on the roof...."

So...the guy that perhaps quotes a better quality job with proper thickness and brackets, etc, is $100 more, he probably will not get the job because he was not the cheapest, all because no one is comparing apples to apples. On the other hand, it is also unwise to assume the higher price will be the better job...so the lesson here is to get the specs....how many brackets, how many downspouts, what is the size and thickness of the gutter, how far away will the leaders be from the house, do you go under the sidewalk with the water, using draintile, etc, do you install splash guards, etc, etc.

As with everything in life, details are everything....

Hope this helps!!

Frank

Me too.