I want to expand on Brian’s gutter post from yesterday to talk a bit about sourcing all the elements for our gutter install.
I’d avoided dealing with gutters for a long time because I find them generally both ugly and surprisingly complicated. Our gutter run is on the side of the house that you first walk up to, so it was important to us to do something that complemented the house instead of feeling like an afterthought.
We probably could have had success ordering through a specialty shop, but we’d already exhausted the goodwill of our local roofing supply with lots of small piecemeal orders, and I couldn’t bring myself to hassle them again. On the upside, there are lots of online suppliers selling half round gutters in every finish imaginable. Downside, gutters come in 10 foot sticks. Every quote involved $400+ of crating and freight charges for one piece of gutter and one downspout.
It turns out Home Depot sells half-round in a limited number of finishes online. The gutter came with free shipping, and while the downspout was subject to a $55 freight charge, we were able to get a stick of each, plus the end caps and elbows for about $150 total. Despite reviews that they were poorly packed or flimsy, we went with the Spectra brand – they arrived in great shape and were plenty sturdy especially for such a small run.
What Home Depot didn’t have was the more architectural mounting brackets- they offer one hidden bracket option, in white. Same with the drop that connects the gutter to the downspout. For that stuff, I ordered through Classic Gutter Systems . Their 6″ Stamped Half Round Fascia Brackets in colored aluminum fit the HD gutters perfectly, as did their downspout brackets. Plus, browsing their collection of historic reproduction decorative gutter hangers is way more fun than it sounds.
All told, this gutter set up set us back around $200, including shipping. White K gutters would have been a fraction of that and a quick run to the store, but I feel like these were worth the extra cash both in looks and in their super sturdy attachment to the house.
Liz
