Sagging, full of last fall's leaves, and somehow still leaking onto the front door. Seamless aluminum, sized correctly, installed in a day. Goodbye art, hello function.
Gutters fail quietly. A clogged downspout looks fine from the ground for weeks before water finds its way behind the fascia. A sagging section pulls the spikes loose, the gutter tilts, and now water sheets over the front edge during every storm. The first sign you usually notice is one of the expensive ones — a ceiling stain, a wet basement, or ice dams in February. By then, the damage downstream of the gutter is several thousand dollars deep.
You should consider replacement when you notice any of the following:
Sectional gutters from the box store come in 10-foot pieces and get joined together on the house with sealant. Every joint is a future leak. Seamless gutters are formed on a coil-fed brake machine in your driveway — one continuous run per side of the house, with the only joints being at the corners (and those are mechanically sealed in a controlled way).
Aluminum is the right material for residential gutters in New England: it doesn't rust, it's light enough not to tax the fascia, it holds paint well, and it's available in 30+ stock colors so we can match your trim. Copper looks great if budget allows but lives in a different price category — for the value/durability tradeoff, aluminum is the answer for almost every home.
Gutter capacity scales with the area of the roof draining into it. The right size depends on roof square footage, pitch, and how rainfall is concentrated by valleys. Undersizing is one of the most common installer mistakes we see — it's also one of the easiest to avoid.
The residential standard. Handles roughly 5,500 sq ft of roof drainage when sized correctly, which covers the vast majority of NH homes. Pairs with 2"×3" downspouts. The right pick for a typical Cape, ranch, or modest colonial.
Roughly 40% more capacity than 5". Recommended for larger homes (3,500+ sq ft roof footprint), steep pitches that accelerate runoff, roofs with major valleys that funnel a lot of water through a single channel, or any home that currently overflows during a heavy rain. Pairs with 3"×4" downspouts that move more water and clog less easily.
The honest answer is "it depends on what's hanging over your roof." If you have pines, oaks, or maples within 15 feet of the gutter line, guards almost always pay for themselves — both in cleaning trips you don't make and in the ice-dam damage they help prevent by keeping debris from blocking the flow during the freeze/thaw season. If the roof is fully exposed with no tree cover, you can usually skip them.
The most cost-effective time to add guards is when we're installing new gutters in the same project. Measurements are exact, the install is clean, and there's no separate trip charge. Multiple guard styles are available — we'll walk through what fits your home and your level of tree exposure.
If your roof is getting replaced anyway, that's the right time to do gutters. The crew is already on-site, the drip edge is fresh, and the new gutters get installed against new flashing instead of old — meaning the system works as one assembly the way it was designed to. You also save the cost of a separate mobilization. We'll quote it both ways during your estimate so you can see the bundled vs. standalone numbers side by side.
Gutters are priced per linear foot, plus downspouts, corners, and any fascia repairs. Most NH homes fall in a predictable range — we give you exact written pricing after measuring on-site.
5" K-style handles most homes. We recommend 6" for larger roofs, steep pitches, valleys that concentrate runoff, or any home that's chronically overflowing. We'll size it correctly during the measurement.
Need depends on your tree cover. If you have pines or oaks anywhere near the roofline, guards usually pay for themselves in saved cleanings and prevented ice-dam damage. We'll honestly say whether they make sense for your home.
Most homes are done in a single day. We form the gutters on-site from aluminum coil stock, so there's no waiting on prefab pieces.
Yes. Full tear-off and haul-away of the old gutters and downspouts is included in the proposal — no surprise add-ons.
If you have existing underground drainage, yes. If not, we'll talk through whether it's worth adding or whether splash blocks and extensions are enough for your yard.