Seamless gutter installation and replacement in Portland

Why seamless

Seamless means the gutter comes off a forming machine in the driveway as one continuous length per wall, with joints only at the corners. Hardware-store sectional gutter is joined every 10 feet, and in a climate where the trough stays wet for eight months each of those joints eventually weeps. Seamless gutters Portland-wide are the only sensible choice for a house you plan to keep.

Sizing for Portland

Portland rain is not intense. Most of it falls at well under a quarter inch an hour. What we do get is volume — atmospheric-river days that drop two inches over 24 hours — and debris. A gutter here has to carry a moderate flow while partly full of fir needles. That changes the sizing rules.

• 5-inch K-style with 3x4 downspouts on most single-story bungalows and ranches. The larger downspout matters more than the gutter size here, because it is the outlet that clogs first.
• 6-inch with 3x4 downspouts on two-story homes, cedar shake and other steep roofs that shed water fast, and any run collecting more than about 600 square feet of roof.
• An extra downspout on any run over 35 feet. One downspout on a 50-foot run is the most common design mistake we see on 1970s–90s houses in Beaverton and Tigard.

Materials and finish

We hang .032 aluminum — heavier than the .027 that comes on most quotes — in a range of baked-on colors that will match nearly any trim. Hidden screw hangers into the rafter tails every 24 inches; no spikes. Aluminum gutters Portland crews hang do not rust, and unlike galvanized steel they do not need paint every decade. Copper and half-round profiles are covered on the half-round and copper page.

What replacement includes

• Tear-off and haul-away of the old gutters and downspouts
• A fascia inspection before anything new goes up, with rotten boards replaced and quoted per foot
• New seamless gutters, mitres, end caps and downspouts
• Outlets cut to match the downspout, not punched with a 2-inch hole
• Downspout extensions, splash blocks or reconnection to the existing rain drain, so the water lands somewhere safe
• A hose test through every run and downspout

What it costs

Installed seamless aluminum in the Portland area runs about $11 to $18 per linear foot in the Portland area — a little above the national range, because labor here costs more and a lot of our roofs are steep and cut up. Expect $1,700–$2,700 on a single-story bungalow (about 150 feet, four downspouts) and $2,600–$4,200 on a two-story (about 210 feet, six downspouts). Six-inch, fascia and guards each get their own line so nothing hides in a lump sum. Gutter installation cost Portland-wide is covered in detail on the pricing page, and the post on what the price per foot buys explains how to compare quotes.

Homes that never had gutters

Less common here than in the South, but we still find them: garages, 1950s ranches on the east side where a previous owner tore off rusting gutters and never replaced them, and additions where the builder skipped the back wall. A trench in the bark dust under the eave and mud up the siding mean the wall needs a gutter. New installation costs what replacement costs, less the tear-off.

Roofs without a drip edge

Cedar shake and many older composition roofs in Portland have no metal drip edge, so water can run down the fascia behind the gutter. On those roofs we hang the gutter tight to the shingle line or add a drip edge flashing under the first course. It is a small line item that prevents the most expensive kind of rot.