Everybody wants to save money on home maintenance costs. We get it. Even if you realize the full extent of everything your gutters do to protect your home from water damage, you probably don’t want to spend an arm and a leg making it happen.

So if you’re considering DIY gutter installation, hey, we can hardly blame you. After all, we know, and you know, that you could go grab a 6″ x 10″ aluminum K-style gutter in 10″ lengths for about $15 at your local Home Depot.

So how do you know whether you should do that, or whether you should go ahead and get seamless aluminum gutters professionally installed instead?

Ask yourself how often you’re willing to replace your gutters.
Professionally installed seamless aluminum gutters last up to 20 years or more. While DIY-installed seamed aluminum gutters can also last that long, they tend to fail faster because debris builds up around the seams, putting pressure on them and causing them to leak (unless you’re very vigilant about cleaning them).

If you’re going with vinyl, you’ll save even more money, but you can expect to do this job again every 7 years at best and every 3 years if you’re extremely unlucky.

Make sure you’ve factored in all the “hidden costs.”
When you start comparing costs make sure you remember that your gutter installation professional’s quote includes everything, including hanging brackets, screws, and endcaps. Once you start adding those to your cart at Home Depot your price is going to go up, and suddenly you’re not just looking at installing gutters at $1.50 a foot anymore.

Of course, there’s a far more dangerous hidden cost that you need to think long and hard about.

Your regular gutters will have seams! You’re not custom-cutting your gutters to match the length of each side of your house like the pros do when they install seamless gutters.

Every seam is a potential leak point. Every leak point is a place where your gutters are not doing their job.

All that water is running down the walls of your house. It’s working its way under your roof shingles. It’s rotting your soffit and fascia. It’s working its way under your siding, where it will happily rot your walls. It’s pounding at your slab, which means you could be looking at some serious, expensive foundation repair problems sooner rather than later.

Remember, we live in the Tampa metro area where rainfall can be heavy and persistent in the rainy season. You either need to be prepared to stay 100% on top of leaks or you need to be prepared for some potential expensive repairs due to water damage.

Be honest, are you handy?
If you have real handyman skills, then you might be able to install your gutters so well that they perform adequately. If you’re an organized homeowner with the time to really take care of those gutters, then absolutely, you can save a lot of money this way. You still won’t get all the advantages of seamless gutters, but it might be good enough.

Just be honest. Are you handy enough to hang gutters? Sure, that YouTube clip makes everything look easy as pie, but you might find yourself floundering when it’s time to get the job done.

How much time do you have to devote to installing your gutters?
It takes longer than you think, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Your time is worth money too.

Is this really what you want to spend your weekend doing? What are you going to do if the entire project takes longer than you think it will? Or worse yet, what are you going to do if you get half way through and realize things aren’t going well and you’re going to have to hire someone to finish the project?

How much gutter can you afford?
If you absolutely can’t afford a professional installation and have enough skill to do the job competently then putting up your own gutters is certainly better than nothing. If you don’t have the skills then you may be better off saving up until you can pay for a professional installation.

The truth is, a professional installation costs a lot less than you think. Plus, you’re probably only going to have to do it once during the entire time you own your home.

Why not get a free estimate before committing yourself to the DIY option? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to walk you through what your professional gutter installation will really cost. I promise it won’t be nearly as bad as you think!

We install seamless gutters in cities throughout Central Florida including St. Petersburg, Largo, Clearwater, Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes, Lutz, New Port Richey, Odessa, Trinity, Spring Hill , Brooksville  Floral City, Homosassa, Inverness, Crystal River, Beverly Hills, Dunnellon, Ocala.