Are Gutters Hard to Install?

Gutters serve as a way to direct water away from your home, which can help you avoid water damage, costly repairs and unnecessary home maintenance tasks. If your home doesn’t have gutters already, it’s time to consider installing them. “Fully functioning gutters are one of the wisest home improvement investments you can make,” according to Summit Roofing and Gutters, a company offering gutter installation in Denver.

Although gutters may not seemhard to install, there are a number of small mistakes you can make during installation. These are mistakes an expert wouldn’t make after their countless hours spent installing gutters. So, yes gutters are hard to install, and here’s why.

1. Type Matters

Gutters come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and materials. Ideally, you’ll want the most durable one you can afford, but it’s not that simple.

You need a gutter that fits in with the size of your roof shingles, and one in a width that works with your home. There is a standard for residential homes, but you can’t just assume it’ll work perfectly for yours.

You’ll also want to choose the right material, such as copper, galvanized or enamel. Then there’s gauge to consider, which is how thick the actual gutter is. You might need a bigger gauge depending on how rainy and snowy your area is.

2. It’s Costly

If you pay a professional to install your gutters, the material costs will be included in the package. If you do it yourself, you have to worry about sticking to a budget for materials, plus an extra emergency budget in case anything goes wrong. And, when you’re inexperienced in a certain area, something almost always goes wrong.

In the end, it’s likely cheaper and easier to leave it up to a professional.

3. The Pitch

You look at a house and it seems like the gutters run perfectly straight along the walls or roof. But the gutters have a slight pitch to them. They decline every 40 feet or so, only about two inches, so it’s hardly noticeable.

This pitch is what keeps your gutters clean of debris, and it’s what’s going to be very difficult to achieve when putting them up. You need to get the pitch exactly right or else the gutters won’t function as they should.

4. Safety

You have a stable ladder and some strong gear, but that doesn’t guarantee your safety. You’re still climbing around on a sloped roof carrying heavy objects. If you don’t happen to do this type of work often, it can be a recipe for disaster.

Your life is worth more than a DIY project, so perhaps you should just let an expert who is well-versed in the art of crawling around rooftops do it.

5. The Mount Counts

There are many ways to mount gutters to your house, and they need to be spaced with expert precision. They should be three feet apart, or less, and the type and weight of your gutters along with your weather will be determining factors, too.

If the mounts aren’t spaced correctly, they’ll sag. And although you may have a pretty good idea of where they should go thanks to a Google search or some other source, you can never really be sure.

Someone who installs gutters for a living will be able to tell how far apart the mounts should go. And no offense to your skills, but he or she will probably be able to mount them more securely, too. And if anything goes wrong with your gutters and they collapse, at least you don’t have yourself to blame.

6. Hidden Issues

You have a good eye, but can you always tell if your shingles are loose or your fascia is ready to rot? These are both problems that will interfere with proper installation of gutters and an expert installer will notice those issues at once.

7. Location, Location, Location

Just like your house, the location of your gutters is significant.

But they go on the edge of the roof, don’t they? That’s where the water runs down, into a nice gutter, and away it goes. But sadly, that’s not quite right. Instead, gutters need to be installed a few inches under your roof for them to work properly. An expert will be able to tell you exactly where.

If your gutters are placed incorrectly, the water can run down your house and cause potential damage, making the gutters you so lovingly installed by yourself useless.