I Have Gutters! (The Company I Used + The Cost)
Y’all, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if gutters just aren’t a thing in central Texas over the last few years, I’d probably have at least enough to do something extravagant like by a beef fajita dinner at Rosa’s Cafe. 😀 In all honesty, I’m sure that I’ve been asked a few more times than that because our house doesn’t have gutters on it, and then my workshop sat there for almost four months without gutters. And I’ve done quite a bit of complaining lately about the dirt continually splashing up on the skirting, which has led to several people asking, “Do houses in your area not have gutters?”
Yes, houses in our area do have gutters. In fact, when I went searching for a company to install gutters on the workshop, I was actually surprised at how many gutter companies there are in my relatively small city. And when I started looking, I thought all gutters were the same. A gutter is a gutter, right? I learned very quickly that that’s not the case.
I didn’t remember our house having gutters on it when we bought it, but I went back and looked at those original pictures I took the day we closed on the house, and there were gutters on the front porch.
I can’t remember any other gutters on the house. I could be mistaken, though. After we closed on the house, we immediately had the roof re-shingled, and I’m pretty sure that’s when the gutters were removed because I know they replaced the metal fascia trim (that metal piece that covers the fascia boards just under the shingles). But if they put them back up (which I don’t remember them doing, and probably at my request to leave them off), they for sure came down for good when we had the vinyl siding replaced with Hardiboard siding.
And then when I finally started working on the front exterior of the house, I always had it in the back of my mind that we needed to put up new gutters, but that item on my “to do” list just never made it to the top of the list. So here we are, eleven years later, and we still don’t have gutters on our house. The only place I’ve ever really considered it a problem was on the front porch. When we get a heavy rain, it’s impossible to walk into the front porch without feeling like the slanted roof is funneling rainwater directly onto the top of your head.
Again, it’s always been in the plans, but since we don’t have really long rainy seasons like other parts of the country, it’s only been a minor inconvenience. And since the house doesn’t have white skirting, the dirt splashing up hasn’t caused a huge eyesore that I can’t unsee. The foundation around the house does get very dirty (as you can see just to the left of the front porch in the photo above). And while it’s not pretty, it’s not nearly as noticeable since that footing around the house is concrete and not bright white like the workshop skirting.
But when I added white skirting to the bottom of the workshop, the problem became very obvious. No matter how many times I go out and sweep off the dirt off of the skirting, it always looks like this a few days later.
And that just won’t do. I’m working too hard to make this workshop look cute because it’s a big part of our overall plan for our back yard, and I just can’t have that white skirting covered in dirt every time it rains. I have plans to tame that dirt that includes covering that area with cardboard, adding lots of mulch, and using mulch glue to hold it in place. (Don’t worry! I don’t be using rubber mulch. 😀 Y’all successfully talked me out of that idea.) But I finally came to realize that no matter what I do to tame that dirt around the building, no amount of cardboard, mulch, and mulch glue is going to solve the problem completely as long as I don’t have gutters on the building.
I’ll be honest. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of installing gutters on my workshop. I guess I’ve never really paid much attention to gutters, but in my mind, they were just going to detract from the cute cottage look that I was trying to achieve. I imagined them being very distracting and kind of ugly. But I knew they were necessary, so I started looking at the various options.
After looking at several options, I went with a company called Leaf Filter. I liked that their gutters were made of a thicker metal, so they felt and looked much more durable and substantial than the gutters offered by other companies. But what sold me was the way that the leaf guard was constructed. To me, they seemed far and above what others offered, which seemed to be a thin screen of some sort that covered the top of the gutters. I couldn’t imagine those thin screens lasting through the years.
By contrast, the Leaf Filter screens have a pretty heavy vinyl (or maybe PVC, I didn’t ask) grid holding them up from underneath, and that screen/vinyl grid fits inside the top of the gutter, sits on top of metal straps at the top of the gutter, and sits just underneath a metal lip on both the front and back of the gutter along the top edge. Those screen assemblies get screwed into place so that they can’t move around. The whole construction of this design is what sold me on their product. Here’s a look at the screen/grid that fits inside the gutters. And they come with a lifetime warranty that is transferable one time.
But what really shocked me was how much these gutters added to the look of the building. Rather than distracting and being ugly, they gave the building such a finished look that I wasn’t expecting. My workshop has such shallow eaves, and the gutters added depth and gave them a much better appearance. I was so pleasantly surprised! Not only did they NOT look ugly and distracting, but they actually enhanced the look of the building. Never in my life did I expect to LOVE the look of gutters.
I selected white for the gutters, and then I selected a color called Clay for the downspouts. I was also pleasantly surprised at how closely they matched the gray color of the siding.
Here’s a look at the front with the gutters installed. I had them split the front into two sections, leaving me 92″ over the door for the pergola that will go there. And when I told him that my pergola was 92″ wide, he left exactly 92″ centered over the door.
The color match of the downspouts isn’t exact, but it’s pretty darn close!
And again, just look at how much that added to the look of the shallow eaves! Y’all, I couldn’t have been more excited.
I never thought that I’d be so excited about gutters. 😀 But they looked so good that I kept going outside just to look at the gutters.
There’s no pergola going on the back side of the building, so the back is just one long gutter with the downspout on the far end. Here’s a look at the back side without the gutters and with the very shallow eaves.
And here it is with the gutters adding some much-needed depth to the look of the eave on this side.
Here’s a side view so you can see the difference.
And while I didn’t plan the front just to suit my obsessive need for symmetry, I have to admit that I love the fact that it’s two sections, each with its own downspout, making the front perfectly symmetrical. While I would never insist on gutters meeting my need for symmetry, this was the happy result of my planned design.
Of course, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense right now without the pergola. But it’ll make sense once it’s all finished. I do have a plan. I promise. 🙂 And I realize that others may have done this differently, but this is how I chose to do it (after giving it a whole lot of thought and thinking through the plan), so there’s no going back now.
I want to get that dirt off of the skirting boards now and wait for our next rain (which will actually be today, so I need to work fast) so that I can see just how much of a difference the gutters make.
I suspect that they will be doing the bulk of the work to keep the dirt off of the skirting. The rest — the cardboard, mulch, and mulch glue — will help while the gutters do the heavy lifting.
As far as the cost, the Leaf Filter gutters aren’t cheap. I could have gone with other companies for a whole lot less. Even Leaf Filter would have installed gutters without the leaf guard for 1/3 the price that I paid. But since we have so many trees (and my workshop sits very close to a huge oak tree), and I don’t want to be cleaning out gutters on a regular basis, their specific design of leaf guard is the very thing that sold me on this company’s product. I wasn’t at all interested in having them installed without the leaf guard. The total price for my workshop gutters came to $3665. That’s a lot more than I had intended to pay for gutters, but again, I wanted that leaf guard. I hope that investment pays off. And I like the idea of testing this product on my smaller workshop before diving in and having them installed on our house, which will be a much bigger investment if we stick with this company and their product. I’ll keep y’all updated on how they work out.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I have used Leaf Filter and loved their product. Good choice!
Awesome!!! Gutters do so much more than just catch water. They will extend the life of the building they are on. I love the color of the downspout. Our house is white, so they all stayed that color when we had them installed. We could not go with leaf filter; we have a metal roof, and the water comes down too fast for a screen. But we have friends that have them, and they love them. Your cottage, er, I mean workshop is looking so amazing. It’s giving me ideas for jazzing up our barns and the chicken coop. I can see my husband’s eyes rolling now. Way to go!
Cheers!
Did the company provide you with clay color downspout extensions?
No, but I’m sure I can get them if/when I need them.
Looks awesome!
My Mom had Leaf Filter installed a few years ago. She has a metal roof and has quite a pitched roof, not sure of the angle, but she’s had to install those snow bars across the roof this fall so the heavy snow would stop tearing down at the filter. They had came out two years in a row to repair it.
A few years ago we had a rep come out to give us a bid for our 1806 sq. ft. ranch style house just for the leaf filters (our house was only a few years old then, with new gutters when it was built.) He quoted us $15K FOR THE FILTERS ONLY!!!! When we tried to show him the door, he suddenly dropped the price to $12K, to which we still said no, as we are retired on fixed income. He then dropped to $10K, still too much, and at this point we no longer trusted someone who would initially try to get the most money he could. (How much is the wholesale price if he can drop $5K like that?) He never went lower, and was becoming an annoyance so much I thought we were going to have to call the police to get him to leave! My husband actually told him we were going to do that! He finally gave up then, but was making rude comments as he left. It’s been a few years now, and my husband still wants the guards (we have tried DIY products with not great success) so we are considering having the gutters replaced with wider ones, and getting guards installed with the gutter specialist. At this point, we are ready to accept a REASONABLE cost for this, because it’s too dangerous for my husband to clean the gutters at his age, especially on the rear of the house which sits 3 stories high! Glad you are happy, but be sure you get the best price you can from them for the house!
I got him to come down 20% from the original price he quoted me, so there’s definitely some bargaining room with the company.
We bought our DIY guard inserts from Costco. They are aluminum and installation was fairly easy. We’ve had them for years now. We are on a 2.5 acre heavily wooded property and they’ve been awesome and have held up great in our leaf filled fall and harsh winters. I highly recommend them for a very reasonable priced option.
We also bought the guards from Costco and they have been great so far. We have 1.25 acres with heavy tree cover (mainly live oaks) and they have been lifesavers. They even survived Hurricane Beryl.
We’ve had nothing but trouble with ours, I’m so glad you didn’t go with them. The notion of never having to clean them again is highly misrepresented. Ours got so nasty with a mold that water couldn’t go into the gutter. Therefore, it cascaded over the edge and back flowed into the fascia board. I see their displays at various local shows and just shake my head. I would discourage anyone from using them. That whole price changing, arguing, acting like a used car salesman is such a turnoff. Fortunately our salesperson wasn’t that bad. Overall, ours was money wasted in my estimation.
I’m really looking forward to seeing your workshop with the pergola installed. I’m in NY State, near the Adirondacks, and I have to say that I’m a bit surprised at the pricing. We had our home resided, this past spring. At that time, we also had high quality seamless gutters, with heavy duty leaf guards. And for our 1500 sq ft ranch home, the total cost was $4000. That included the entire back and front of our home, and the family room addition, along with both sides of our new front porch. I guess prices do vary around the country.
Your workshop is looking better and better, and I’m tickled to hear that you used fake flowers in the window boxes, lol. I too have used fake flowers and plants around my deck in the past year and I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner. I don’t have to worry about them drying up, being eaten by insects, or freezing in the historic cold weather we’ve had here in southeastern Louisiana in the past few weeks. They look realistic even up close, there is a good variety of flowers from which to choose, and with my “black thumb”, they LAST. Which plants did you use? Is there a link?
Do you have a plan to redirect the water from the downspouts? French drain? Weeping tile? I can’t remember which direction your slope is, but you certainly don’t want that water heading toward the house, based on your floor experience.
Or pooling under the workshop. A plan to move the water away from the structures needs to be on the short list for sure!
Not yet. I still have to figure out those details.
Fabulous!!
Great choice.
I’d buy good quality house gutters from a different company and get gutter guards from Costco. MUCH less expensive and they work great.
We don’t have Costco here.
You can order them on costco.com and they are often on promotion.
Yea, that’s pricey but worth it. I like to decorate my downspouts with cute little runoff thingies. You know, they have flat ones, ones that supposedly unroll with the rain, but don’t and the ones with a creature at the end so water comes out of its mouth! Anyhow, good job. Now your foundation won’t get water under it.
I’m confused, how does a pergola keep the rain off your stoop? As it rains the water will run off right on top of you as you go in or out. I would recommend getting the guttering all across the front. Also, the leaf filter gutter system doesn’t work (at least here on the east coast). The screens become clogged with dirt/dust/debris, and then the rain water can’t pass through. I’m sorry to sound negative, but those are the facts.
My design takes care of the water runoff on the steps.
I’m on the East Coast in Central Virginia where we get HEAVY sudden downpours for most of the summer. We had some generic metal gutter guards on our gutters that didn’t work, were getting clogged and needed to be cleaned out every year, sometimes twice a year.
We replaced with Leaf Filter. They work wonderfully and we love them. The Leaf Filter guarantee states that if they become clogged, Leaf Filter will clean the gutters for free. We couldn’t be happier!
Kristi – you have made a great choice and have no doubt you will be pleased. The workshop is looking absolutely lovely! Keep up the great work!
Kristi,
The gutters are an amazingly wonderful upgrade! I also love how it beefed up the look of the eave.
Again you have helped me to definitely put gutters up when the time comes
Thank! again!
Will you be putting a water diverter on the ground under your downspouts? If not, you could have a washout in that area, or a hole in the dirt. I guess you could put a paver or some bricks there if you don’t want a diverter. When it rains, we have a whole lot of water coming out at once.
I will. I just need to figure out those details. One step at a time. 🙂
We have Leaf Filter as well. They’re wonderful. We have a 1400 sq ft house and a roughly 400 sq ft garage and a lot filled with trees (and I do mean filled! It’s almost impossible to dig any holes on the property due to constantly hitting tree roots) and they did both in one day. That was summer of 2023, and I painted them in summer of 2024. Still look and perform amazingly. Granted, it’s only two years, but I’ve been happy. 🙂 It cost us $10k. Hope you have a great experience with them, they look so nice on the shed and they make such a big difference!
KRISTI!!!! Gutters =Trim for roofs and houses :).
we all know how much you love trim! 😉
it’s looking so cute.
Also, please don’t glue the mulch – surely that can’t be good for your
soil … i’m sure all your more experienced gardeners than i can comment
on that … but we’ve put in loads of mulch over the years and it really
doesn’t move that much. It breaks down and settles into the soil anyway.
Ha! Yes, they ARE like trim! And I do love trim! 😀 I never knew how much like trim they are!
As far as the mulch glue, I did quite a bit of reading before ordering. I found several sites written by long-time gardeners and landscapers (not pros, but people who have spent years enjoying landscaping their own homes) who recommend mulch glue. They say that it’s not toxic for plants or soil, and that it actually helps to maintain plants, maintain moisture in the soil, and greatly reduce weeds. I’ll do more reading before applying it, but unlike the rubber mulch, I don’t think mulch glue is a bad thing from what I’ve read.
Good choice about getting gutters installed. We bought a 30-year-old house in San Diego that had termites and rot in the window frames because there were no gutters. Apparently gutters are optional down here since there’s not much rain.
Kristi l had those gutters 4 years ago at a previous house. They are amazingly accurate in stopping leaves and twigs. Once a year or so you do have to blow them off because some accumulate together. Wet leaves are sticky. But even so the gutters still worked. I had 4 huge oak trees. At my smaller house now that I’ve been redoing everything alone l don’t have gutters. I do have a huge pecan tree behind my house. I’ve been working on the inside only for 4 years so that’s way down in my list. I can’t do anything outside in the 100 degree weather we get. Then a week of snow on the ground when we seldom reach freezing was a shock. My work seems to depend on the weather. At 75 lm slow but still able to do it all myself. You have helped me a lot. Thanks!
Who would have guessed that gutters look like decorative trim?!? Looking good! 😄
I certainly never would have guessed it! But now I know. And now I want them on our house ASAP! 😀