Wooden gutters don’t just keep water away from your home, they look great. Depending on the craftsmanship of the piece, a wooden gutter can become the kind of detail that makes your home stand out. Wooden gutters are designed to help maintain period integrity of a historic home, but that doesn’t mean they are not good at getting the job done. Wooden gutters are both charming and practical.
The average cost to install wooden gutters ranges between $4,000-$5,200, with the average homeowner paying $4,600 for 200 linear feet of k-style gutters made of cypress and the removal of the old gutter system.
Wooden Gutter Installation | |
---|---|
National Average Cost | $4,600 |
Average Range | $4,000-$5,200 |
Minimum Cost | $3,800 |
Maximum Cost | $5,500 |
There certainly are a lot of decisions to make when choosing the right gutter style for your home. With multiple shapes and styles of gutters available, you may be having a hard time choosing. Let's take a quick look at the most popular wood gutter styles available.
Style | Cost |
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Half-round | $18 per linear foot |
K-Style | $23 per linear foot |
V-Shaped | $25 per linear foot |
This may be a basic style of gutter, but it remains one of the most popular among traditional homes due to its efficiency. Featuring a semicircular trough and a curled front lip, it supports a round downspout, which tends to handle a stronger water flow. The average cost for a half round gutter is $18 per linear foot 1 for materials and installation.
One of the most common gutter shapes, the K-style features a flat bottom and a profiled face. It tends to be more popular due to its look, which resembles the kind of crown moldings 1 often found inside more traditional homes. The cost of this style of gutter averages $23 per linear foot 1 for materials and installation.
One of the most popular styles for 18th century homes, the V-shaped gutter is simplistic in its design, but offers both practical function and an aesthetically pleasing look. Originally made by attaching two long boards together, or simply hollowing out a log, the v-shape allowed the water to pour out at the end of the run. Today, wooden gutters can be molded into a similar v-shape to increase water capacity. The average cost of this style is around $25 per linear foot 1 for materials and installation.
Gutters can be made using any kind of water-resistant wood, but redwoods and cedar are usually best. Check out our guide below to see the pros and cons of different wood species to help make your gutter choice easier:
Pine Gutters are a good option if you are looking for something inexpensive and with more rustic charm. Unfortunately however, these gutters are structurally weak, can crack easily, and need more maintenance than other types.
Cypress gutters have many advantages–they are water repellent, strong, and inexpensive. One downside is that this material may be difficult to find.
These gutters are ultra-strong and can be painted or stained, but they are somewhat bland and lack the curb appeal of varieties with a more pronounced grain.
Cedar is an excellent option for gutters because it repels insects, resists rot, contains natural oils, and needs little maintenance. You should bear in mind, though, that its cost is higher and it changes color as it ages.
Although redwood 2 gutters are the most expensive and the trees are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered, this material has many advantages. It is long lasting (up to 100 years), has low shrinkage, is very low maintenance, is rot- and termite-resistant, and rarely cracks or warps.
You may worry that wooden gutters won’t hold up to the elements, or that they will take too much work to maintain. These are all valid concerns, but there are a lot of positive aspects to installing this type of gutter system. Although wooden gutters are costly to install and require more maintenance, they are very effective. They are also aesthetic, architecturally appealing and have a high-end look, but wood will need to be treated to avoid rot. You should bear in mind that wooden gutters have shorter lifespan and are less effective than other types of gutters.
There are a lot of things that can impact the overall price of a wooden gutter system. While one home may cost $18 a linear foot for materials and installation, another could run $28 or more. When looking to add wooden gutters to your home, be sure to consider these cost factors:
Before installing wood gutters, a roof inspection should be performed. The inspection will take a look at the slope of the roof to determine how much water your gutters will need to manage as well as the condition of the fascia and current gutter system. From here, measurements will be taken and a design of the new wood gutter system will be created. Wood gutters are custom built to the specifications of the home. In most instances, wooden gutters will be installed on older homes to help retain architectural integrity. This means that installation will have to follow a specific order. Wooden gutters generally come in 10- or 20-foot sections, sometimes smaller to fit around turrets or angles in the architecture. There is a very specific joinery process that requires the installer to use beveled scarf joints 3. This practice will help to prevent leaking and decay. Once installed, wooden gutters need to be painted or sealed using a wood gutter sealant on the outside and oiled on the inside. A non-drying oil, such as mineral oil or shingle 4 oil, should be used.
When it comes to installing wood gutters, experience reigns. Putting new wooden gutters on your home is not as simple as installing vinyl or aluminum ones. Wood gutters are usually customized, which means they must be installed in a certain way. There’s no pulling a standard piece out of the truck and hanging it when it comes to this unique style gutter system.
In addition, you need an experienced professional who understands the variants associated with wood gutter systems and is prepared to manage the unique concerns that may arise during the installation process. This is partly due to the fact that many historic homes also have a variety of unique shapes and features to work around (like turrets or towers), which tend to make the job more difficult.
Many people mistakenly believe that installing new wooden gutters is going to take several weeks. The reality is that an experienced professional usually needs about 10 work hours to complete the average home, as long as the weather remains pleasant and no unforeseen problems arise. So be prepared to have workmen at your home for two full work days to complete the job.
Keep in mind that, while gutter installation prices may vary slightly by geographic region, in most cases the cost is derived by the amount of gutter being installed (linear feet), not by location. Most homeowners can expect to pay between $50 and $200 per hour for installation labor fees.
Size, too, can have a big impact on a gutter’s efficiency. Standard gutters come in a 5- or 6-inch diameter. Wooden gutters, however, come in two basic channel sizes: 4x4 or 4x6, due to the milling process. This is a bit smaller than the average gutter made of vinyl 5, aluminum, or copper, which means that more outlets and downspouts are needed to handle the influx of water during a rainstorm. Standard lengths for wooden gutters are 10-feet and 20-feet. Choosing the size of the gutter will depend on two things: the amount of water you expect them to handle and the look you are after.
Wooden gutters are beautiful and add a period look to any older home. But let’s face it, they do need a bit more maintenance care than more modern gutter materials. The fact is, water can (and will) eventually damage any wood surface. Still, if cared for correctly, those new wood gutters you have installed can last at least a quarter of a century. So what needs to be done to ensure that your wooden gutters last? Here are a few must-have maintenance tips to follow:
Even when the best maintenance is performed, wooden gutters will eventually need to be replaced. If large areas of your wooden gutters appear cracked, are leaking, and/or have become disconnected from the house or downspouts, it is likely time to replace them. In some instances, the cost to remove, haul away, and dispose of old wooden gutters will be included in the new installation cost. If not, expect to add on $100 to $200 to the installation price.
If you are replacing existing gutters, then you will need to factor in the cost of removing and disposing of the ones already there. The average cost of removing gutters is $12-$50 per hour. This includes removing one downspout per 30 linear feet of gutter, removing hardware and gutter sections as well as removing materials from the property. Removal costs billed separately will run $13-$15 for 25 feet of gutter materials.
Painting wooden gutters doesn’t just look nice, it can help protect them from harsh and wet weather. The cost of painting the exterior of your gutters will likely run $200-$500 for about 200 linear feet.
Gutter guards are covers that help stop debris from clogging your gutter system. The average cost of these guards range from $7.50-$10 per linear foot, which means you will likely pay $1,500-$2,000 for the average sized home.
Heat tape (or heat cables) help keep ice from jamming gutters in cold-weather climates. They can be easily installed in the gutters and turned on when needed. The average cost of heat cables is about $50 per 100 feet. Installation can cost another $25-$50 per hour.
While most gutter installers do include one downspout per 30 feet of gutter, wooden gutters traditionally do not carry as much water as their more modern counterparts, which may mean more must be installed. The cost of additional downspouts averages about $160 each.
Seamless gutters generally cost about $10 per linear foot. This price includes the gutters, downspouts, anchors, corners, outlets, and labor.
The cost of new gutters depends solely on the type of materials used. For instance, while aluminum gutters cost between $5 and $10 a linear foot, vinyl 5 ones only run between $3 and $6 a linear foot. Wooden varieties tend to cost $12 to $28 per linear foot, on average.
The typical gutter system made of vinyl, steel, or aluminum lasts about 20-30 years. Copper ones can last twice as long, or about 50 years. Well-maintained wooden gutters are expected to last about 25 years; ones made of durable redwood 2 can last up to 50 years if taken care of properly.
To determine if it is time to install new gutters, looks for signs of wear and tear such as cracks, holes, rust spots, rot, broken fasteners 8, signs of loose nails (or nails found on the ground), mold and mildew, sagging, separation (gutters that have pulled away from the roof), peeling paint, leaks, and/or eroding landscape under the edge of your roof.
Regular gutters are assembled in short sections, using fasteners and nails. Seamless gutters, on the other hand, are usually formed on site into a continuous gutter that has no seams 3 or breaks. They are almost always made of aluminum, but can also be fashioned from steel and copper. Seamless gutters are made exclusively for your specific home and manufactured on site for the perfect fit. This, combined with the lack of breaks in the gutter, makes them more efficient; plus they tend to last longer.
Cost to install wooden gutters varies greatly by region (and even by zip code). To get free estimates from local contractors, please indicate yours.