How Much Does it Cost to Replace/Repair Gutters?

Job	Description	labour
1	Let’s assume gutter replacement to all three sides of a semi with a bedroom bay window and no ladder access problems. You are having cheap and cheerful (and perfectly acceptable) 4” (100mm) “half round” black plastic guttering, easily connectable to your neighbour’s stuff (they had theirs done 2 months ago) with no down pipe renewal. Including buying and tipping, it will take 2 men, 1.5 days.	£425
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£325
2	As above but with either an additional new down pipe, or replace an existing one and shoe.	£880
3	A larger detached house now, with a more complex guttering configuration, allowing for four new down pipes and full gutter replacement. This will take 3 days including buying and tipping.	£925
	Plus materials etc. for the above	£475
4	If you really insist on just a repair. To fix up to three leaking joints on CAST IRON guttering. Here the roofer will release (with great difficulty) the square nut that has been holding the joint together since long before England were rubbish at football. He will dry and clean the joint with a wire brush, apply some gutter sealant and then bolt it back together. This can all be done from a ladder.	£100

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc). Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on the cost of Gutter Replacement

Materials

Gutters and downpipes can be made from a variety of materials but plastic is the most popular nowadays, on account of its affordability. It doesn’t rust, but will become brittle in time.

In the past, it was common for houses to have cast iron, stone, or even wooden guttering. You may hear it being referred to regionally as troughing. Certainly, you will come across these materials still in use and it is testament to their longevity that some have been up there for decades continuing to do their job with only the occasional removal of leaves and silt and a lick of paint now and again by way of a make-over.

Cast Iron has been a popular choice since Victorian times. It is elegant and strong and has a life expectancy of more 120 years when maintained correctly. It can be bought either primed or ready painted.

Aluminium comes in a variety of powder coated colours and doesn’t corrode. It can be constructed in long continuous lengths.

Galvanised steel is extremely weather resistant, but requires welding. It also needs painting and it will eventually corrode.

Copper can be a stylish, but expensive.

Concrete (Let’s just forget about concrete shall we)?

Profiles
Guttering comes in a variety of profiles, the choice of which will be influenced by the material they are made from and the water flow they are expected to deal with.

They include half round, ogee, square/box and deepflow. The most common plastic gutters usually come in half round, but it is possible to buy plastic ‘cast iron effect’ guttering that comes in a variety of profiles.

Maintenance
This will depend upon the material your gutters are made from. Iron, steel and wood will need painting; plastic will need nothing! However, they will all benefit from a regular clean out, especially if you live in a wooded area. You can also save yourself a bit of work by installing a gutter guard, which will help prevent rainwater from backing up and overflowing and eventually causing dampness (as well as wet, slippery surfaces).

Repair or Replace?
Nothing in my 30 years as a builder / roofer has created more problems for this esteemed writer than trying to fix that persistent little leak in your collective guttering. It took me 15 years to work out how to solve all guttering leaks at a stroke… replace the whole lot!

Patched repairs, a bit of gutter sealant here and there, never lasts and inevitably creates friction between the customer and builder.

If the builder has got any sense he will tell you that any repair you ask him to make will be temporary. At some point the repair will fail and you will call the builder back. But when is that cut off point? A week, a month, six months?

If you must have a repair, ask the builder to give you a short-term guarantee. Get this in writing, but be prepared for him to say “No” because, as I stated earlier, the only sure-fire way of fixing a problem for good (10-15 years or longer) is to replace the whole lot!

The problem with repairs is, there are so many manufacturers and sizes and shapes (and colours) of guttering which change over time and one brand doesn’t connect to another. All this means that going to buy a new replacement piece is a virtual impossibility. If a joint is botched with silicone, two weeks later it may leak again. You have no idea just how much plastic gutter expands and contracts daily!

Another problem is the down pipes. If your house is old and you need to replace the cast iron guttering then the chances are, that it will be set right up under the slates due to its shape. This means the down pipes are set high as well and new plastic guttering which is fixed a bit lower, won’t empty into them. You can’t manipulate cast iron so they have to be replaced also. Guttering must have a constant 1:40 fall towards an outlet where the down pipe is and in some situations that is impossible.

There are further complications because several houses very often share down pipes and so the roofer has to reconnect your new stuff to the neighbour’s remaining old stuff with all the problems of adaptors and falls. Some manufacturers don’t even make adaptors.

Questions to ask the builder during his quotation visit:

Will you need scaffolding ?
Usually there’s no need for this unless your conservatory is in the way. If it’s necessary, ask him to quote for “snow guards” fitted above the conservatory at the same time even if it is the middle of summer! They don t just stop snow. A tile dropping off your roof will make a right pig’s ear of a fifteen foot square sheet of glass conservatory roof and that jigsaw underneath that you’ve been doing for the last decade!

Can you please include a price for painting the fascia boards (that’s what the guttering is fixed to) when the old stuff has been removed? If the house is Victorian these won’t have seen the light of day since the old king (bless him), went to that great palace in the sky and a lick of acrylic won’t do any harm at all.

Will the down pipes need changing and if he removes the old cast iron ones, will he make good their fixing holes?
In the olden days, before electric drills, they used great big metal spikes belted into the brickwork to hold the downspouts in place. They can be a nightmare to get out and often leave dirty great holes in your brickwork.

What distance does he leave between fixing brackets?
Much more than 30 inches (800mm) and plastic guttering could start to distort or sag over time.

Is he happy with the length of existing guttering runs (and therefore the falls) between existing downspouts?
He may be able to add an extra downspout. They should empty into gullies (drains) but if a little-used path “falls” away from the house a new spout could terminate onto it. It should be able take a the water and a new spout could possibly prevent a lot of water cascading down the walls in 5 years’ time as the gutter gets full of silt. (Please tell me where this silt comes from, I would love to know).

Will he be putting a “shoe” at the bottom of each down pipe?
That’s a directional end piece, it doesn’t really do a lot in most cases but it finishes the job nicely and only costs £2.50!