Gutters look like the simplest part of a roof, and they are responsible for some of the most expensive problems a home can develop. Water that does not leave the roof in a controlled path ends up in fascia boards, behind siding, in window wells, and against the foundation. In Colorado and Wyoming, ice dams add a second layer of difficulty every winter.
At home shows across the Front Range, Excel Roofing founder and CEO J Bretz walks homeowners through a full working display of roofing material, attic ventilation, gutters, heat cable, and gutter protection. Three questions come up almost every time: what size gutter is right, whether heat cable is worth installing, and which gutter protection actually is really worth it. Here is how Excel Roofing answers all three.
There are roughly a dozen gutter profiles on the market, but two cover the vast majority of residential work: 5-inch and 6-inch. That number refers to the width of the gutter measured from the back of the gutter to the front, not the depth or the length.
5-inch gutter is the standard on most homes and handles typical roof runoff without trouble. 6-inch gutter is simply bigger, moves more water, and usually pairs with larger downspouts, which means fewer clogs and better performance during the short, violent downpours that show up during Colorado monsoon season.
6-inch gutter is worth considering when a home has any of the following:
Heat cable is the practical answer for homes where ice dams form year after year. It is a plug-in cable routed along the roof edge and through the gutter system so that a melt path stays open and ice has somewhere to drain instead of backing up under the shingles.
There are two basic types on the market.
This is the heavy-duty version, noticeably thicker and the more expensive of the two. It is the right choice on commercial projects, apartment buildings, and multifamily properties where the run is long, the load is constant, and replacement labor is costly.
The consumer grade cable sold at home improvement stores is roughly half the diameter of the industrial type and costs considerably less. For a typical single-family home, it works well and is usually the sensible investment.
Installation follows the same logic either way. The cable is routed on the roof where it is needed, run through the gutter if the gutter needs it, and then dropped down through one of the downspouts so it can reach an exterior outlet and be plugged in. Routing the cable through the downspout matters, because a downspout full of ice is a blocked system no matter how clear the gutter above it looks.
One point worth understanding: heat cable manages the symptom. Ice dams are usually driven by heat escaping into the attic and melting snow from underneath. Proper attic insulation and ventilation address the cause, and heat cable protects the roof edge while that work is planned or where the roof design makes ice dams unavoidable.
There are about as many gutter protection designs as there are gutter profiles, and they are not created equal. Fine mesh gutter protection is an option pressed on homeowners the most. It seems like it would be a great choice until you understand just how easily the mesh becomes clogged, effectively rendering the gutter useless.
The screen keeps debris out of the gutter, which sounds like the goal, but the debris does not disappear. Dirt, shingle granules, seed pods, and broken-down leaf matter collect on top of the mesh and pack into a mat. Once that happens, water sheets straight over the front of the gutter and onto the ground below, and the homeowner now has a clog that sits on top of the system where cleaning it means removing the cover.
This is the design that several national gutter guard brands push hardest, often at a premium price, and Excel Roofing does not recommend it. In J Bretz’s words: "I prefer no gutter protection to bad gutter protection."
Expanded metal gutter protection is the design that holds up best in real Colorado conditions. It is a rigid metal panel with large open diamond-shaped openings that tucks into the gutter and rests under the first course of shingles.
The advantages are straightforward:
That last point is the trade-off worth understanding. Expanded metal is not trying to seal the gutter. It is trying to keep out the material that actually causes clogs while letting water in at full volume.
Expanded metal has one clear limitation. Pine needles do not dry up and blow off the way leaves do. They wedge into the openings and stay there, and on a property ringed by pines the panel will slowly load up.
Homes surrounded by pine trees should use a solid capped gutter cover instead. That design carries water around a curved solid surface and into the gutter through a narrow slot at the front, giving needles no opening to lodge in.
Plenty of Colorado homes route downspouts into underground drain lines that carry water away from the foundation. Those lines are the single worst place in the system for a clog, because clearing one means digging, snaking, or in bad cases replacing buried pipe.
The fix costs a few dollars. A strainer installed inside the downspout opening catches debris at the top of the drop, where a homeowner or a technician can reach in and pull it out. Excel Roofing would far rather see a gutter plug up at the strainer than inside a buried drain line.
For any home with underground drains and no gutter protection at all, a strainer is the minimum.
Here is the detail most gutter companies will confirm and few volunteer: most gutter protection promotes ice damming on top of the gutter. Once a cover is in place, snow melt refreezes on that surface, builds up over the gutter line, and creates exactly the ice ridge the homeowner was trying to avoid.
There is a simple solution. Heat cable can be zip-tied directly to the top of the expanded metal panel. The cable sits on the surface where the ice actually forms, the homeowner plugs it in when winter conditions call for it, and the melt path stays open across the gutter line.
Expanded metal plus heat cable zip-tied to the top of it is the configuration Excel Roofing recommends most often for homes that deal with both debris and ice.
It refers to the width of the gutter measured from the back of the gutter to the front. A six-inch gutter is wider than a five-inch gutter, carries more water, and typically pairs with a larger downspout.
No. Heat cable is for homes in areas where ice dams are a recurring problem, or where a roof design creates a cold edge that ices up every winter. Homes that have never formed ice dams generally do not need it.
Industrial heat cable is about twice the diameter and costs considerably more. It is intended for commercial buildings and apartment projects. Big box heat cable is the less expensive consumer product and performs well on single-family homes.
Because dirt and debris clog on top of the tight mesh rather than washing through it. Once that mat forms, water runs over the front of the gutter, and the clog sits on top of the system where it is harder to clean than an open gutter would be.
Yes, granules and fine dirt do pass through the openings, and that is by design. Gutters are rarely clogged by fine dirt alone. They are clogged by packed wet leaves, which expanded metal keeps out while still letting heavy rainfall into the gutter.
A solid capped cover. Pine needles lodge in the openings of expanded metal and will not blow off the way dried leaves do, so a solid surface design is the better fit on heavily pined properties.
Most gutter protection does promote ice damming on top of the gutter line. Zip-tying heat cable to the top of an expanded metal panel addresses it by putting the heat source exactly where the ice forms.
A strainer is a simple insert placed inside the downspout opening to catch debris before it enters the drop. Any home with underground drain lines should have one, since a clog at the strainer is easy to clear and a clog in a buried line is not.
Gutter sizing, heat cable, and gutter protection are decisions that depend on the specific roof, the trees around it, and how the property drains. Homeowners with questions can browse the Excel Roofing Learning Center, call the office, or use the online scheduler to pick a day and time that works for an in-person look at the home.
Excel Roofing has served Colorado and Wyoming homeowners since 1993, and every estimate comes with the same promise: You Don’t Pay A Cent Until You’re Content.
Excel Roofing. We’re On Top Of It.