Chop and drop gutter.

Does anyone use a service that cuts the lengths of gutter on the jobsite and supplies all of the accesories for each job so that you don't have to own any machines or stock any materials? We are thinking starting one and I wondered if there is a market for it?

I am talking about seamless half round gutters and round downspout; plus all of the accesories you can imagine. Very expensive to get going and the machines are very finicky. Should be interesting, but a niche market that is waiting to be developed. I'll post pictures when we get it going.

I have a 6 inch machine,i bought at an auction for $2500.00 a few years ago.We install on roof jobs were doing,gutter guys are out doing it for nothing.Most are just working out of thier trucks and i cant compete against them and dont want to.

I have been looking for the right truck to haul my machines in and trying to get all of the other details figured out, projections, and such. I don't know if this is the right time to start another business, but on the other hand, when times are tight, it could be the best time. Still figuring!

It is a nice thing to get your gutters on the way they should be hung, however you achieve that end. Sheet metal men make more and sweat far less than roofers. Usually they also have a decidedly bad attitude. Not knocking their skill, but they usually grossly overvalue their skills when comparing them to other people's. No point giving it all away when you can easily do much of it yourself and make it work better and last longer while you're at it. Just for the record, guys like Copperman do not fall into this category of lazy, arrogant tradesmen. Just sayin'. He is a craftsman and also able and willing to pay with sweat what a good system inevitably costs us.

It sounds like exceptional service and high quality products is the key. I can certainly do that! Much easier than climbing a ladder all day, and once we get it going, I am sure the customers will let us know what works best for them. Since in my younger days, i put up miles of gutter I have a very good concept of what makes it harder and what makes the life of the installer a brease. Easy and perfect is good!

In the past few years we have had more and more customers requesting seamless gutters. We do have a supplier who does nothing but custom sized gutters made on site. His prices are quite competetive with pre-fab gutters and it saves a whole lot of waste on smaller runs. He can usually get to the job within 2 days for 5" K-style but only goes out once or twice a week with the 6". His colors are pretty much standard, white, brown, sandtone but will accomodate other colors. Normally we just buy the gutters along with the shingle order.

We still buy the copper K's and half rounds from our main supplier. We also buy the downspout from our main supplier because the dpouts that the on-call guy supplies are 0.019 ga. and we prefer to use the 0.024 ga.

I'd say go for it.

I just looked up what I last paid for this service.

$1.18/ lineal ft.

Installing gutter certainley isn't among my favorite things to do-but the older I get the more I appreciate some of it's qualities and come to terms with it

It's light-no heavy lifting,-it's comparatively clean-and many people dislike the work for all the reasons others have named in this thread.

generally, I find if other people dislike a particular project- there is an opportunity there for me to generate $$$$

couple of things I have started doing to make it easier/faster.- I use round drops since i can drill the outlet hole for those- faster and easier-and I bring an old cheap chop saw to cut downspouts with- very fast.

most of out projects are 2 story, 10/12 or 12/12 roofs-we often set a pic up along the roof edge to icegaurd the first course, do fascia repair etc.---- since the pic is already up-it makes it pretty easy to hang a gutter.

also- it makes a nice,convienent service for your customers. Here,at least, most of the spouting guys have a 100 ft. minimum.- often we will have customers who we are doing a roof for that need a 42 ft, piece of gutter replaced. doing it ourselves, on OUR schedule means netting an EASY extra $250-$300 bucks for a few minutes additional work.

If we were able to sub that out we might be waiting days-or a week or more for the sub to show up and do the work-and holding up our payment. doing it ourselves means we are done an paid long before the sub would show up.

what makes this convenient for me- is that I can get this service from my regular roofing supplier-with VERY dependable scheduling-so I can order and schedule the spouting at the same time I am ordering other jobs, picking up other supplies etc. what old school is thinking about would lack that level of convenience.

Best wishes all, stephen

We got rid of all our gutter equip/truck years ago.....We're much happier w/the chop'n drop arrangement....

That sounds like a great service for someone who is interested in installing gutters. Personally I can't stand gutters. lol They are too easy to dent or scratch and being right in front of the h/o's face it would seem to me that its a complaint ridden type of work. Roofing is bad enough in that regard. lol Then theres the problem of roofers installing gutters. Most roofers around here don't have that skill. I just refer the gutter jobs to the gutter guys and keep on moving with the roofs. I also have a few gutter guys that refer me the roofs. ;)

Gutter installing; it's almost like roofing except everything you do is at the PIA, scary edges. Either nothing below you hanging off the edge, or up-and-down ladders. No thanks.

But the general level of obstinance of the installers here would incline me to try such a service.

Yes, we have a shingle supplier that does the chop and drop. They run about $.89 cents per ft and will leave the accessories for us. Course, I use a professional gutter guy that charges less than our roofers could do it for. He makes a great living as he works for plenty of roofing companies. Lucky for me, he does our work first as that's our contract with each other. I am a roofer/salesman/owner/snowplower and want nothing to do with hanging gutters on homes... Leave it to the professional gutter guy. However, there is plenty of market for the chop and drop!!

Interesting. I was wondering if the service I am thinking of would be more geared towards the high end builder or the gutter installer or roofers. some of each I suppose. I will keep you guys informed as it progresses.

old school, Here I would say-maybe 90% of the market is white K style, 5% brown-and ALL the other colors make up the remaining 5%. I don't get involved in new construction- but if I did the colors would be skewed a little more towards all the "other" colors.

From what I recall- 20-30 years ago-not that many guys here had a machine- but the machines became more affordable -oh the last 15 years or so-and now a LOT of guys have the machines-and it unfavorably impacts the rates.- PLENTY of guys here will do a job for under $2.50/ft.- so I would not be remotely interested in going into the "gutter business" to have fist fights over working at that rate.

If somebody calls wanting a price for new gutters on their home- I decline, because THAT is the rate they are looking for.

On the other hand- if the gutter project is PART of a bigger project- replacing a roof-or soffit/fascia work- then we really don't have a problem arranging the project so that we are getting $7-$10/ft. and it makes a nice additional profit center on a project-and we know the gutters are pitched properly and hung securely( rather than hung by subs with the hangers spaced 3 ft. or 4 ft. or 5 ft. apart).

doing it ourselves really doesn't add much time to a larger project- and it often turns a so/so project into a nice little money maker.

stephen

My father and myself and then my younger brothers for decades installed residential gutters. I never thought of that aspect of the business, because I assumed that only gutter guys would want to put up gutter. The machines don't cost that much. However, when you have to orgainize all of the different colors and accesories available now it can get to be expensive to run a gutter company. If you want to put up seamless gutter, you need long and short pieces dropped at the jobsite. I suppose you can do it with your own machine or sub that out too. Any builder or roofer could then become a "gutter guy" if they wanted too.

Back when my dad started to install, most everything was white and some brown. That was about 43 years ago. How time flies!

your relatives down here have offered that service for at least 20 years that I know of.

I am not sure of how they handle it currently- but originally they would only deliver them 2 days a week-something like Tuesdays/Thursdays.

It pains me to say this because your extended family has been so good to me over the years----- but currently here, there is a competitor who offers that service with MUCH better over all service/dependability/scheduling.

I use the service fairly often. stephen