Copper Gutter Installation and Replacement
Making the decision to install or replace the gutters on your home is not an easy decision. Most houses require several feet of gutters and downspouts to properly and effectively carry the water away from your property. As with all big decisions, it’s important to take your time and choose the best company for the job.
In our experience, homeowners who decide to have copper gutters installed on their home rarely second guess their decision. Although the cost of a copper system can be higher, the durability, beauty, and value it brings to your home outweigh the added expense.
Why Coppers Better
For a number of reasons, homeowners choose copper gutters over traditional aluminum.
- Color: The beautiful, natural color of shiny copper gutters is incomparable to traditional aluminum gutters. Most houses try to hide the gutters by blending them in with other colors of their siding, paint, trim and windows. With copper gutters, the complete opposite is true. The shine of copper gutters in the sunlight makes your house stand apart as true beauty on your street or in your neighborhood.
- Style: Few other materials used in home construction projects are as versatile and artistic as copper. Copper can be bent, cut, stamped, and shaded different colors based on the material composition.
- Options: With copper gutters, many options exist to ensure you get exactly the look and feel you’re going for. Half-round copper gutters are some of the most common, but many other options exist as well.
- Lifespan: When properly maintained, copper gutters can last many, many years. Oftentimes your gutters will outlast the lifespan of the homeowners and their children. No other material has this same promise.
Installation Rules and Best Practices
There are many steps necessary to properly install copper gutters:
- Measurements: The first and most important step when installing new gutters is measure, measure, measure. An old construction industry proverb says “measure twice, cut once“.
When taking measurements it’s not just important to measure how long each piece should be, but it’s also necessary to perform more complicated measurements to determine the amount of surface area on your roof.
Your roofs surface area has a direct impact on how much water flows through your gutter during heavy rain. Installing too small of gutters and too few downspouts could lead to water running over your gutters and down your house, leading to significant damage and expensive repairs. - Cutting and Molding: Most of our copper gutters are crafted and designed on site. After final measurements, we begin the arduous job of bending and molding your gutters to the exact dimensions. We also start building the copper leader heads and downspouts which eventually attach to the gutter system.
- Pitch: The pitch or angle of your gutter determines how quickly water flows through. Water that flowing quickly could spill over, water flowing too slowly can also pool up and spill over. Getting the pitch right is critical to proper functioning gutters
- Attach Brackets, Cut Holes For Downspouts and Hang the Gutters: This step is actually many, many steps but it all kind of happens together. With copper gutters, it’s critical that all nails, brackets, connecting pieces and any other materials used are copper. Any other material will cause corrosion and damage to your gutter system. After mounting the brackets on your house at the proper pitch, we hang the gutters and attach the downspouts. When attaching copper to copper, soldering must be performed to ensure a perfect, unbreakable seam.
- Install Downspouts and Leader Heads: The finishing touch on your gutter installation is when we attach and install the downspouts and craft and install the leader heads.
- 100% Customer Satisfaction: After we complete your project, we ALWAYS review the finished work with the property owner to ensure complete satisfaction.
Replacement
Though it is uncommon, gutters may have to be replaced from time to time depending on the conditions they are in and the way that you maintain them. Should your gutters have to be replaced there are a few steps that you should follow first.
As soon as you notice an issue you should contact our team so that we can come and evaluate the issue along with its potential source(s). During our free evaluation, we will determine if a partial or whole replacement is necessary. Additionally, if we think your copper gutters can be repaired, we will recommend more minor repair services instead, saving you money.
If a partial replacement is need we will be able to detach your damaged gutter from the closest and most accessible seam. From there we will be able to attach your new gutter to the existing one. If a whole replacement is required it will be lengthier since all gutters will have to be removed and reinstalled.
Call Today!
With years experience in the copper gutter industry, you can’t go wrong choose the experts at Copper Gutters Chicago. We live to please and we look forward to pleasing you with a brand new copper gutter system. Give us a call today to get started!
