Cost data reviewed September 2026 · 4 sources
How Much Do New Gutters Cost? (2026)
New gutters on a typical 140-foot run come to a cost build-up of roughly $1,161 to $1,728 — aluminum material at trade prices, published installation labour, downspouts and corner mitres. That is our arithmetic on sourced unit rates, not a quoted price, and a first installation has one advantage over a replacement: there is nothing to take down. No removal, no disposal, and no soft fascia hiding behind an old gutter. What a first installation does have is a set of decisions a replacement never asks you to make, because a replacement simply copies what was there.
The build-up, itemised
Worked example · our arithmetic
| Item | Basis | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gutter material | 140 ft x $2.90–$4.52/ft | $406–$633 |
| Installation labour | 140 ft x $5/ft | $700–$700 |
| Downspouts | 6–7 needed x $4–$21 each | $24–$147 |
| Corners and mitres | 4 x $7.79–$62.15 each | $31–$249 |
| Build-up total | material + labour + parts, national | $1,161–$1,728 |
A build-up is materials at trade rates plus published labour. A contractor's quote also carries overhead, insurance, vehicles and profit, and usually marks the materials up, so expect a real quote to sit higher than this. Always get at least three written quotes. See how we calculate costs.
Each unit rate, with its source and date:
Aluminum K-style, material only (trade)
$2.90–$4.52USD/linear foot (material only, trade)
Aluminum K-style, .027-.032 gauge. $3.60/ft is the confirmed mid-point for .027. This is trade-channel pricing: a homeowner buying pre-cut sections at a home centre pays more, and a contractor's quoted material line may differ again.
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Gutter Supply — aluminum K-style gutter, per footTrade supplier list pricing, fetched and read directly 2026-09-16 with gauge .027 and Length 'Per foot' selected. The page confirms per-foot is a purchasable option: 'Enter your total footage needed and our system will prompt you for individual lengths.' Material only, trade channel. | $2.90–$4.52 | September 2026 |
Installation labour, per linear foot
$5USD/linear foot (installed labour)
An average rather than a range, for seamless installation. One caveat, found on 16 September 2026: this figure cannot be reconciled with the vinyl row of the same publisher's per-material table, which puts vinyl installed at less than this labour rate alone. It reconciles with that table's aluminum, steel and copper rows, so the vinyl row looks like the broken one rather than this figure.
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House — seamless gutter costsNationwide homeowner surveys (a 2026 survey of 1,000 homeowners and a 2025 survey of 1,484 respondents) for satisfaction data. PRICING PROVENANCE, confirmed by re-fetch 2026-09-16: the page states 'The cost data featured in this guide was sourced using Homewyse and Angi, unless otherwise stated.' So its prices are NOT independent of Homewyse. | $5 | August 2026 |
Corners and mitres, each
$7.79–$62.15USD each (material)
The $7.79 floor is the aluminum K-style strip miter, which is the relevant piece for most jobs; the $62.15 ceiling covers larger sizes and other materials. For an aluminum 5in calculator the floor is the realistic figure. A typical job needs several: one per external and internal corner.
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| Gutter Supply — K-style aluminum strip mitersTrade supplier list pricing, fetched and read directly 2026-09-16. Trade-channel pricing, not a national retail average — a different channel from the retail parts figures in partsEach. | $7.79–$62.15 | September 2026 |
To run the same arithmetic on your own measurements, the gutter installation cost calculator takes a footprint and a corner count. If you are taking an existing system off first, how much to replace gutters is the page for the demolition half.
The decisions a first installation has to make
1. Which elevations actually need gutters
A replacement inherits its scope. A first installation has to choose it, and choosing well is where the money is. Gutters earn their cost where water would otherwise land next to the foundation, above a door, or on something that matters. A short run over a shed wall on free-draining ground may earn nothing.
This is the single biggest lever on the total, because every line in the table above scales with linear feet. Halve the run and you halve the job. Are gutters necessary covers the cases where the honest answer is no.
2. Where the water goes once it is in there
This is the decision that first installations get wrong most often, and it is the one nobody quotes for. A downspout that discharges against the wall has moved the problem three feet, not solved it. Extensions, splash blocks, or a buried run to daylight are part of the job, not an afterthought.
Splash blocks, each
$6–$66USD each (material)
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House — gutter installation costsPRICING PROVENANCE, confirmed by re-fetch 2026-09-16: the page states 'The cost information featured in this guide was calculated using estimates from the Homewyse contractor pricing guide, unless otherwise noted.' Its headline installed range disagrees sharply with the same publisher's seamless page — but BOTH pages cite Homewyse, so neither is the independent one. See installedPerFoot.allMaterials. | $6–$66 | June 2026 |
Elbows, each
$4–$8USD each (material)
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House — gutter installation costsPRICING PROVENANCE, confirmed by re-fetch 2026-09-16: the page states 'The cost information featured in this guide was calculated using estimates from the Homewyse contractor pricing guide, unless otherwise noted.' Its headline installed range disagrees sharply with the same publisher's seamless page — but BOTH pages cite Homewyse, so neither is the independent one. See installedPerFoot.allMaterials. | $4–$8 | June 2026 |
Gutter downspouts covers sizing and discharge properly.
3. How many downspouts, and where
Downspout spacing
One downspout per 20-25 feet of gutteringfeet of gutter per downspout
This is what lets you turn a length of gutter into a number of downspouts. Multiply by the per-unit downspout cost for the material line.
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House — seamless gutter costsNationwide homeowner surveys (a 2026 survey of 1,000 homeowners and a 2025 survey of 1,484 respondents) for satisfaction data. PRICING PROVENANCE, confirmed by re-fetch 2026-09-16: the page states 'The cost data featured in this guide was sourced using Homewyse and Angi, unless otherwise stated.' So its prices are NOT independent of Homewyse. | — | August 2026 |
On 140 feet that is six or seven outlets. It is more than most people expect, and under-providing is the classic first-installation fault: the gutter fills faster than the outlets can drain it and overflows in heavy rain with nothing blocked. Outlet positions also have to work with where you can actually run water away at ground level, which is why this decision and the previous one are really one decision.
4. Whether the roof edge is ready
A replacement usually finds a drip edge already fitted. A first installation often does not, and water will run behind a gutter and onto the fascia without one. Fitting it means lifting the first course of roofing, so it is much cheaper done at the same time as the gutters than a year later. Gutter apron vs drip edge explains which piece goes where.
5. Five-inch or six-inch
Five-inch K-style is the US default. Six-inch carries substantially more water and costs more per foot in both gutter and brackets. The decision is driven by roof area and rainfall intensity rather than by budget — an undersized gutter overflows no matter how well it is hung.
6. Material
Aluminum is the default and the cheapest metal worth having. We hold verified trade pricing for aluminum and, since September 2026, for copper — which starts at roughly three to five times the aluminum figure, our arithmetic on one supplier’s own two prices. Zinc, galvanised steel and vinyl are still not sourced at trade per-foot pricing, and we are not scaling the aluminum figure by a ratio we invented. What holds across every source is the ordering: vinyl cheapest, aluminum the default, galvanised steel somewhat more, zinc the most expensive of all. Gutter cost per foot has the detail, and aluminum vs copper gutters has the comparison.
DIY or professional
This is the one place where a first installation can genuinely halve the cost, and the honest version of the comparison needs the channel effect stated first: you cannot buy at the trade price in the table above.
Cost data needed
Aluminum K-style 5in, retail sectional
We have not yet checked this figure against its source, so we are not publishing it.
What to do instead
- Ask each installer to itemise this line in a written quote, so you are comparing the same work rather than two totals. It is the figure we would want in front of us before agreeing to anything.
- See how we check a figure, and what has to be true before one appears here.
We would rather leave a gap here than publish a number we cannot stand behind.
That figure is shown as a gap because the retailer blocks automated re-checking, which is worth knowing before anyone builds a plan on shelf prices: retail pricing moves weekly and varies by store, so price it yourself on the day rather than trusting any published figure, ours included.
What DIY actually saves is the labour line, which is the largest single item in the build-up above. On 140 feet that is the difference between a day of your time and the biggest number in the table.
What DIY costs you is seamless. A seamless gutter is roll-formed on site from coil by a machine on a truck, so it has no joints along the run. A homeowner buys sectional gutter in ten-foot lengths and gets a joint every ten feet — and joints are where gutters leak. That is a durability difference, not just a cosmetic one. Seamless gutter cost sets out the trade-off.
Where DIY makes most sense: a single-storey run, straightforward access, a simple rectangle with few corners, and a willingness to redo a section if the fall is wrong.
Where it does not: two storeys, steep or broken ground under the run, more than a handful of corners, or any roofline where the gutter has to tie into existing work. The fall has to be right along the whole run or the gutter holds standing water, and getting that wrong is the most common DIY outcome.
What is not in the build-up
Stated plainly, because a total that quietly omits things reads lower than the job really is:
- Hangers, end caps and brackets. Sourced per unit, but converting them to a per-foot figure needs a hanger spacing we have not been able to source — the published spacings run from twelve inches to thirty-six, which is a three-fold spread rather than a figure. Budget for them separately.
- Drip edge or gutter apron, if the roof does not have it.
- Downspout discharge beyond the elbow — extensions, buried runs, soakaways.
- Regional variation. Every figure here is national. State-level labour data sits in a US Bureau of Labor Statistics file that refuses automated download, so a regional multiplier would be invented rather than sourced.
- A storey or access adjustment. Two-storey work genuinely costs more. No sourced multiplier exists, so we do not apply one.
Hangers, each
$2–$17USD each (material)
Checked against 1 source
| Source | Figure | Published |
|---|---|---|
| This Old House — gutter installation costsPRICING PROVENANCE, confirmed by re-fetch 2026-09-16: the page states 'The cost information featured in this guide was calculated using estimates from the Homewyse contractor pricing guide, unless otherwise noted.' Its headline installed range disagrees sharply with the same publisher's seamless page — but BOTH pages cite Homewyse, so neither is the independent one. See installedPerFoot.allMaterials. | $2–$17 | June 2026 |
What moves the price most
Linear feet, by a wide margin, and on a first installation you partly choose it.
Corner count. Each mitre is a part, a joint and a labour step. A rectangle with four corners is meaningfully cheaper than an L-shaped roofline with eight, at identical footage.
Storeys and access, which is labour and which we cannot quantify.
Material, where aluminum to copper is a multiple rather than a percentage.
Gutter width, where six-inch costs more per foot in gutter and brackets both.
Whether the roof edge needs work first. A missing drip edge turns a gutter job into a gutter-and-roof-edge job.
Common questions
How much does it cost to install gutters on a 1,500 sq ft house?
Footprint area does not determine it — the perimeter of the roofline does, and two houses of the same area can differ substantially depending on shape. As an approximation, take 2 x (length + width) of the footprint. Most homes land between 125 and 200 linear feet, and the table above prices 140.
How much does it cost to add gutters to just one side of a house?
Roughly proportionally, with two caveats. Labour has a setup component that does not halve when the run does, so a short job costs more per foot than a long one. And a single elevation still needs at least one downspout and a way to get the water away from the house.
Are new gutters cheaper than replacing old ones?
Usually yes, for the same footage, because there is no removal, no disposal, and no soft fascia discovered when the old gutter comes off. The removal line is the one we cannot price, which is covered on how much to replace gutters.
Can I install gutters myself and save money?
You can save the labour line, which is the largest single item in the build-up. What you give up is seamless construction, because seamless gutter is formed on site by a machine. On a simple single-storey rectangle this is a reasonable trade. On two storeys it is not worth it.
Do new gutters need new fascia?
Not if there is sound fascia there already. Unlike a replacement, a first installation can usually see the board before committing, which removes the biggest unknown in a gutter quote.
How long do new gutters take to install?
A straightforward single-storey job is typically a day. We have no sourced figure for installation time per foot — published sources disagree by roughly five times — so treat that as trade convention rather than something we have verified.
How we check our figures
Every unit rate on this page traces to a named, dated source shown beside it. The totals are our arithmetic on those rates, with the working shown in the table so you can redo it — derived figures, not published statistics.
Where a figure is missing, the page shows a gap and says what is wrong with the source rather than filling it in. Our full method, and the verification status of every value in the cost model, is on how we calculate costs.
Related reading
For unit pricing and the material ordering, see gutter cost per foot. To price your own footage, the gutter installation cost calculator. If there is an existing system to take down, how much to replace gutters. For whether a given elevation needs gutters at all, are gutters necessary, and for the joints question, seamless gutter cost.