Fascia gutters have a problem managing rain water efficiently, even when cleaned regularly, why is this?

Fascia gutters have a narrow bottom which makes it difficult for debris to flow freely through the bottom of the gutter. This causes the gutters to jam up and quit functioning. It is true that the gutter holds more water, but frankly this is only a detriment to the life of the gutter as water is extremely heavy and can cause huge overflows not to mention permanent damage to gutters, wood surfaces, landscaping, foundations, basements etc.

The vast majority of fascia gutters installed are painted steel, instead of aluminum. Primary reason is cost. You see it takes more materials to make fascia gutters, more materials equates into much higher costs to the end user. Steel material is much cheaper so it evens the costs out. Problem is that steel rusts with normal useage.

Many fascia gutter installations are installed with a Self-Flashed lip on the back of the gutter which is designed to act as your roof flashing. There is no other way to install fascia gutters other than just straight with the roof lines. In the majority of the fascia gutter replacements we have done, we find standing water in them, even with clean gutters. We have replaced fascia gutters after only 5 years of being on the house and have found rapid acceleration of corrosion that has eaten through the steel materials in record time. Primary cause is improper sloping of gutters to evacuate the water, proper slope is almost impossible to attain with self flashed fascia gutters. Of course we can’t begin to tell you how peeved the homeowner is after just 5 years, after they are prematurely forced to purchase new gutters. Depending on the size of the home, that can get expensive. It’s a good bet that they will be doing serious research when they do buy again. Can you blame them?

Hey I’m not saying that builders are the bad guys, they have strict budgets to adhere to, and every dollar they can save one place, can be used someplace else in the overall budget. Gutters quality is not important to them as those gutters are going to last for about 10 years, and by that time the builder and the installer out of the picture. The gutter contractor  that offering steel fascia gutters is just trying to please his primary customer, and source of income, which is the builder. If he does not offer a competitively priced product then someone else will be glad to take the business away.  Unfortunately the home buyer gets the short end of this deal.

The Oregon Construction Contractors Board only requires a one year warranty on any construction work, so in many cases this is a short enough time for most contractors to avoid any warranty issues. Works ok for them but what about the homeowner.

A 5K gutter will handle just as much water flow with the same outlet. It has a wider bottom which handles debris better. We think that the 5K gutter looks better on the home too. We can use high grade aluminum materials that do not rust and our cost remains the same. Add to it a proper set of gutter covers, and your gutter maintenance issues are a thing of the past.

As you can se we are not big fans of fascia gutters. We could sell them but why would we?

As if the evidence provided above were not enough, the forming machine to produce the fascia gutter is twice as long 12-14ft long making it difficult to maneuver, the cost of purchase a new machine is 2.5 times that of its 5k counterpart.

In short, if we did want to offer facia gutters in our line up, we would need to invest 12-16K in a machine that produces this style of gutter, and forces us to use gutter material that is destined to corrode and fail in 10-15 years or less.The gutter will basically handle the same water volume (flow), and is not nearly as efficient in handling debris which leads to frequent gutter clogs, in order to service a market we don’t sell to. Not a wise choice if you are a company who is committed to offering high quality long life products to their customers.

Our primary market is replacement gutters on existing homes, we have no interest in serving the home builder, and frankly with the materials and methods we use to install gutters the cost would be prohibitive for the home builder anyway. 5K gutter offer excellent value and performance when compared to its counterpart. We will continue to do what is right for the customer.

The choice is yours, but we hope we have shed some light on this subject. Feel free to call us with any questions you may have.