What are seamless gutters?
Is your home ready for seamless gutters?
If you’re getting gutters, is it time to go seamless? During the fall and winter months, your gutters need to protect your home from the elements. They can’t get clogged, and they need to flow easily even during heavy rain, snow, and during a storm. Seamless gutters help your roof system manage the flow of water successfully, no matter what the weather brings.
What Are Seamless Gutters?
What does a gutter look like? When you think of gutters, you may think about those sections of metal trough that you can buy at the local home renovation store. Those are gutters, but they’re not the only gutter product out there. Seamless gutters are often made from aluminum, but they can be made of materials such as copper as well. They’re custom-made at your home, and your gutter contractor will make sure that they fit.
Choosing Seamless or Sectional Gutters
Should you choose seamless gutters? Many people do: here are the pros and cons of seamless and sectional gutters.
Sectional gutters allow you to purchase your supplies and install the gutters yourself, although you don’t need to DIY. They come in a wide variety of materials from vinyl to copper. Unfortunately, sectional gutters have inherent zones of weakness. Those seams that make it easy to mix and match gutter pieces make it harder for the gutters to work well. If you install them improperly, sectional gutters can leak or start to sag at the seams. Debris accumulates, and the gutters begin to twist and warp at those joints. Water damage occurs behind the gutter, and water slides over the edges of the gutter, down the siding, and onto your landscaping and your foundation.
Seamless gutters are more expensive than sectional gutters. They’re made to fit your home, so they don’t have seams in the middle of a section, just at the corners. This means that they have fewer potential areas of weakness, leading to fewer problems with your gutters.
Installing Seamless Gutters
If you’re adding gutters to your home, can you add seamless gutters yourself? The answer is no, and there’s a good reason why. Seamless gutters are made on the spot in custom sizes to fit your home. Unless you’re planning to go into the gutter installation business yourself, you’ll need to hire someone who can create your gutters for you. Seamless gutter companies not only make gutters, they also install them to ensure that the gutters are working properly on your home.
Sectional gutters are a DIY product. You can piece them together until you have the gutter length that you need for a particular side of your home. They are less costly than seamless gutters, but they are also more prone to clogging, warping, sagging, and leaks.
Adding seamless gutters can improve water flow around your home and prevent costly repairs.
The Cost of Seamless Gutters
The cost of a home renovation is always a consideration for homeowners. Are seamless gutters expensive? Seamless gutters are a more expensive product than sectional gutters, in large part due to the fact that they’re a custom rather than an off-the-shelf product. You also need to pay for labor to install the gutters.
However, seamless gutters can also save you money. If you install a sectional gutter incorrectly, this has ramifications for the health of your home. Incorrectly installing a seamless gutter could lead to warped and sagging gutters. These cause debris to accumulate and water to back up onto the roof or the ground. Overflowing gutters can cause expensive damage to your home. For example, you could experience the following costs:
- Landscaping costs due to erosion: $100-$1000
- New gutters and downspouts due to damage: $1000+
- Rotten siding due to leaks: $2500
- New fascia and soffits due to leaks: $2500+
- Flooded basement: $7000
- Cracked and shifting foundations: $12,000
Even cleaning those warped, clogged gutters costs in the hundreds of dollars per year. Seamless gutters are an investment that’s easy to justify since they’re an investment in the longevity and integrity of your home.
At Lednor Home Solutions, we’re here to make your home life easier. Have a seamless transition: install your seamless gutters today. Schedule an appointment to see how new seamless gutters by Lednor Home Solutions will work for your home.
