How to Price Gutter Installation per Linear Foot: Worked Job

Here is how to price gutter installation per linear foot so the number holds on a two-story colonial and a one-story ranch alike. Measure the eave, not the perimeter. Count the downspouts from the footage. Pick the size and the metal with the customer. Then build the foot price from coil, hangers and downspouts at list price, labor at a published wage, and a share of the machine.

Step 1: Measure the eave in linear feet, not the perimeter

Gutter hangs on the eave, the low edge of each roof plane; the gable ends, the rakes, carry none. So a 60 by 30 ranch with a plain gable roof has two 60 foot eaves and 120 feet of gutter, not the 180 foot perimeter. Every porch and attached garage adds its own eaves, and a hip roof has gutter on all four sides.

1. 1Step 1: Walk each eave with a wheel, or trace the roof outline on satellite imagery; the free measuring tool reads perimeter when you close a shape, and you drop the rake sides.
2. 2Step 2: Write each run on its own line with its story height; a second-story run costs more ladder time per foot.
3. 3Step 3: Count inside and outside corners; each one is a miter you buy or fabricate.
4. 4Step 4: Note the fascia: rotten boards, missing drip edge, or crown molding that needs wedges all change the hanging.

Amerimax, the gutter maker behind most hardware-store sections, calls for a minimum slope of a quarter inch per 10 feet of gutter. On a long run that fall decides whether one downspout at the end will do or the run needs a high point in the middle and a drop at each end.

Step 2: Count downspouts from the footage

Amerimax's installation FAQ recommends one downspout per 20 feet of gutter, and says larger roof areas and heavy-rainfall areas may need more. Read it as a floor: a 120 foot ranch gets six by that rule, placed where the grade carries water away from the foundation.

Each drop is a section per story, two elbows at the top, one at the bottom, an outlet, and two bands per 10 feet of downspout. Price it as one item, "Downspout, installed," times the count, with a higher price for second-story drops.

Step 3: Pick the gutter size with the roof, and half-round

LeafFilter's guide, updated June 5, 2026, puts the difference in gallons: a 5 inch K-style gutter holds 1.2 gallons per foot, a 6 inch 2 gallons. It says 6 inch may be better for roofs of 1,400 square feet and above, steep pitches and heavy-rain cities, and costs between 50 cents and a dollar more per foot.

GutterAll, a gutter supply house in Oregon, sizes by the roof area draining to one downspout: 5 inch for sections under 1,000 sq ft at a normal pitch, 6 inch once a section passes 1,400 to 1,800 sq ft, and a roof at 8/12 or steeper sends 30 to 40 percent more water to the gutter than a 4/12. Put both sizes on the quote as two prices. Half-round is a separate product with its own coil and hangers; price it from your supplier's list, never as K-style plus a little.

Tear-off, fascia repair and ladder time

Old gutter comes down before new goes up, and the fascia behind it is unknown until it does. Quote "Old gutter removal and disposal" as a flat line from your dump cost and the hour it takes, and fascia repair per foot, billed only as found. Rot with no line for it is the fastest way to lose the margin.

The ladder is where the time goes. Under the federal construction ladder rule, 29 CFR 1926.1053, a portable ladder used to reach an upper landing has its side rails at least 3 feet above the landing, or is secured at the top with a grab point; a leaning ladder is set with its foot out about one quarter of its working length; the top step of a stepladder is not a step; and an employee may not carry a load that could cause a loss of balance and a fall.

So a second-story run is set, climbed and moved more times per foot, with a 20 foot section handed up rather than carried. Time one two-story job and one single-story job, divide each by its footage, and you have two labor rates per foot.

Aluminum vs copper gutters, and steel, at list price

Aluminum is the default. GutterAll lists painted 0.032 inch aluminum gutter coil, the stock for 5 inch seamless K-style, at $3.99 per foot with a 10 foot minimum, local pickup or local delivery only, on October 18, 2026. Your own coil invoice is the number to use; the list price is the check.

Copper and steel are different jobs. This Old House's copper gutter guide, a homeowner survey of prices updated May 22, 2026, puts aluminum material at $2 to $3 per linear foot, steel material at $4 to $8, and copper at $20 to $40 per linear foot installed, lasting up to 50 years or more with maintenance. GutterAll's 5 inch copper is 16 ounce stock by local pickup only; quote copper from a supplier's written price and take a deposit that covers the order.

Two Amerimax warnings belong on the quote: mixing metals is not recommended, because the galvanic reaction corrodes the parts, so copper gutter gets copper or brass hangers; and every aluminum seam gets about half an ounce of sealant, one reason seamless sells as the better product.

Hangers, parts and the seamless gutter machine cost

Hidden hangers go every 24 inches on center, every 18 inches in heavy-snow country, by GutterAll's spacing note, so a run takes half as many hangers as it has feet. Its 5K hidden hanger with screw lists at $109.99 for a box of 100, $1.10 each, against $9.99 bought singly.

A 2 by 3 inch professional aluminum downspout lists at $29.99 on the same site, 10 foot lengths by local pickup. Elbows, outlets, end caps, miters and sealant come from your supplier's list; count them per run and per drop, because a house with eight corners eats miters a plain rectangle never needs.

Seamless gutter is formed on the truck from coil, so the machine is a cost on every foot. GutterAll lists a KWM Ironman G5 5 inch K-style machine at $12,308.99, running 0.027 to 0.032 inch aluminum, 16 to 20 ounce copper and 24 to 28 gauge steel. Englert's 5 inch machine page gives the forming speed, about 45 feet per minute, which is why the forming is never the labor; the hanging is. Spread the machine like a truck: price divided by the jobs it will run.

Labor at the published wage

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics files gutter installation under sheet metal workers, who "install other sheet metal products, such as metal roofs, siding, and gutters," at a median of $29.71 an hour in May 2025; roofers, the other trade that hangs gutter, had a median of $26.65. Either is a floor, before payroll taxes, insurance and the drive; your burdened rate goes into the price.

Gutter installation cost per linear foot: a worked ranch

Here is the arithmetic for a one-story house with 160 feet of eave, 5 inch seamless aluminum, no tear-off, at list prices and the federal median wage. The counts marked as yours only your own jobs can set.

Show the customer the foot price and the downspout count; the rest is your worksheet. In MakeHay, line items take your own units, per linear foot, per item or flat (create and send a quote), so "Seamless aluminum gutter, installed" goes on per foot, "Downspout, installed" each and "Old gutter removal and disposal" flat; the gutter software page covers the trade. Put 5 inch, 6 inch and copper on one quote as good, better, best packages, ask for a deposit on the quote that covers the coil or copper order, and the customer approves and signs online.

The quote carries the gutter by the foot and the downspouts by the count, as the eave was measured.

Guards as the upsell, priced per foot on the same quote

A new gutter is the easiest moment to sell a guard: the customer is already paying for the ladder time and the run is clean. GutterAll lists a step-in diamond mesh guard in 4 foot sections from $9.99; whichever style you install, price it per linear foot from the section price divided by its length, plus the minutes to fit it.

Offer it as a line the customer can accept or strike, with the cleaning alternative beside it, which pricing gutter cleaning per linear foot covers; a guard declined today is a cleaning customer tomorrow. When the gutter rides on a roof job, pricing a roof replacement per square measures from the same footprint, and how much deposit to ask for covers the state caps on a copper order.

Good to know: This is general information, not legal advice. Ladder rules, deposit caps and licensing differ by state and change; read the current text and ask your state licensing board or a lawyer before you rely on it.