Data checked August 6, 2026 · source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

How much does gutter installation cost?

Gutters are priced by the linear foot, which makes this one of the few home jobs you can estimate yourself before anyone shows up. Here is the arithmetic.

Where the money actually goes

This is the same quote, taken apart. Every line is a real price from a real listing or a published fee schedule, not a number we made up.

The low column assumes a straightforward job with the cheapest listed equipment; the high column assumes the full parts list, the top of the labour range and the most expensive permit jurisdiction we measured. Most real quotes land in the middle.

What the equipment costs

Source: Angi and HomeGuide per-foot ranges, checked August 6, 2026.

Specific products, with the price we saw

Not a recommendation and not an affiliate link. These are the listings we checked on August 6, 2026, so you can see whether the equipment line on your quote is close to retail.

Retail prices move. If one of these is wrong now, tell us and we will fix it with the date.

Parts list

What this job costs in 48 US metro areas

Materials cost roughly the same everywhere. Labour does not. The wage column is US government data; the labour column is that wage run through our published multiplier; the total applies it to the job above. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin comes out 88% higher than Oklahoma City on the same work.

Wages: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 47-2181 — public domain. Metros where BLS suppressed the figure are left out rather than estimated. Totals are FieldPricing calculations from the parts and hours on this page — they are not quotes and no contractor has agreed to them.

What did you actually pay?

Everything above this line is arithmetic on public data. It is honest, and it is not the same thing as a real invoice. If you have had this work done, the number on your invoice is worth more to the next reader than anything we can calculate.

What did you pay in total? Just the number is fine. $1,850, or "about 2 grand". Where? City and state. We publish this; it is the whole point.

When? Month and year is enough. What did it cover? Equipment included? Permit? Old unit hauled away? Anything unusual? This is the part that makes your number useful to somebody else. Email — optional Only used if we need to ask you one question before publishing. Never shown, never sold, never mailed to.

Website

Send it in

No account, no login, no newsletter. A person reads every submission before it appears, so it will not show up instantly. If we cannot make sense of one, we leave it out rather than guess — and if you would rather just email it, that works too.

What actually moves the price

Linear feet — measure it yourself

This is the one job where you can check the quote before it arrives. Walk the perimeter of the roofline with a tape. A 2,000 sq ft house is typically around 200 linear feet. Multiply by the per-foot rate for your material and you have a number the contractor has to explain any deviation from.

Material — an 8x spread on the same house

For 200 feet, vinyl material is about $571 and copper is about $5,749. That is the same roof, the same labour, and a five-thousand-dollar decision.

Two storeys

Adds $1–$7 per foot and 10–30% more time. Labour alone jumps from $4–$10 per foot to $5–$17.

Fascia condition

The single most common surprise. Rotten fascia is $6–$15 per foot and it has to be fixed before anything hangs on it. Ask the estimator to look at the fascia specifically.

Guards

Sources disagree wildly — $3–$25 per foot in one, $15–$45 in another. Reverse-curve branded systems are quoted as whole-house packages at $1,150–$4,300. Get the per-foot number in writing.

Snow country

In climate zones 5 through 8, hanger spacing tightens from 24 inches to 18 inches on centre, and heavier gauge is normal. More hangers, more metal, more money — and it is not the contractor padding.

Code requirements that cost money

These are the things an inspector will look for, and each one is a line on the invoice that a homeowner often reads as padding. Mostly it is not.

• Roof drainage discharge — Must discharge to an approved location; discharge that creates a hazard or a public nuisance is prohibited (IRC R903.4). Source.
• Hanger spacing — 24 inches on centre maximum, tightened to 18 inches in heavy snow-load areas (climate zones 5–8). Source.

Code citations are to the California Plumbing and Mechanical Codes unless noted, because California publishes its handouts openly. Your jurisdiction adopts its own version of the model code — check locally before relying on any of this.

What we could not verify

We publish this list because a cost page that never admits a gap is not telling you the truth.

• Any actual dollar permit fee for gutter work — no source publishes one.
• Minimum downspout discharge distance from the foundation — sources defer to local stormwater ordinances without giving a number.
• Gutter guard pricing is not reconcilable between sources: $3–$25 per foot versus $15–$45 per foot. We show both rather than average two numbers that disagree by 3x.

How we got these numbers

• Wages — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 47-2181 (Roofers), pulled through the BLS public API. US federal data, public domain.
• Billed rate — wage × 1.3 labour burden × 1.70–2.45 overhead and profit, so 2.21×–3.19× the wage. Our assumption, published in full on the methodology page so you can disagree with it.
• Equipment and parts — retailer and supply-house listings, each linked above, checked 2026-08-06.
• Labour hours — American Gutter Service — how long installation takes · HomeGuide — seamless gutters cost.
• Permit fees — National Gutter Authority — gutter code and building standards.
• Disposal — HomeGuide — seamless gutters cost.

We do not use RSMeans or Craftsman cost data. Their licences forbid building a database from them, so every number here traces to a public source or a public listing you can open yourself.

Related