How to Measure Gutters?
Most property owners who phone us don’t actually know how many metres of gutter they have, in this article we provide some tips on how professionals measure gutters for gutter guard and a few ideas on how to DIY measure your gutters when you don’t have any measuring tools.
In theory, how to measure gutters for gutter guards should be quite a straightforward process, but with gutters up high and out of reach, it’s not always that simple. So in this article we will also be discussing some commonly asked questions and useful information regarding the lengths of gutters on different types of roofs and buildings.
Commonly asked questions:-
How much is the gutter guard per metre?
- Triple-G is from $35 for low pitch roofs
- ScrewTight Ember Guards and Full-Metal is from $65 per metre
How many metres of gutter do houses have?
Original house building = 50-80 metres (roughly)
Original house building with add-on roofs like carports, pergolas & sheds = 65-100 metres
Larger house = 100-150 metres
Extra large houses = 150 metres >
Tools used to Measure Gutters
Professional gutter guard installers commonly use the following tools:-
- Laser measure pointer tool
- 30 metre tape measure (always handy because 99.9% of gutters are less than 30m< but much longer than shorter tape measures.
- 8 metre tape measure (this is also the simple DIY length tape measure)
- Architectural plans of the building to measure the gutters for gutter guard
What if I don’t have a tape measure?
Count the Roof Ribs on your Corro Roof
Count the ribs on your Corro roof, there should be about 13 ribs per metre. The ribs on your Corro roofs are the high points of the wave profile. You will need to have a visual of your whole roof edge for this method. Note* for Trimdek and Cliplock roofs, there’s about 6 ribs per metre.
Count your roof tiles.
For tiled roofs, try standing back away from the roof so you can see the whole roof section and count how many tiles there are along the gutter edge. This method works best if you have a loose tile on the ground that you can measure first so you can calculate the overall length based on this.
Use Your Original House Plans
Whip out your house plans and a pen, paper and calculator. House plans can be complex to read and understand, but with persistence and some basic maths, you should be able to measure your gutters quite accurately.
DIY Long Rope idea.
If you have a long piece of rope that you know the length of, you can lay this along the ground and estimate required gutter guard lengths using the rope ends, then doing the multiplications.
Rough estimates based on your block size.
This method will require some reverse maths and a bit of head scratching, if you know how many square metres your property is, you can estimate the quantity of gutters with this data. Back in the 1990s, a standard family home with a big backyard was around 800 sqm.
But as an example let’s say your block is 600sqm and your house fills about half of that area, this means that your house is 300sqm in land size. At a guess, if a house is 300sqm it might be 20 metres long and 15 metres wide (20 x 15 = 300). If you had gutters on all four sides, then this 300sqm house could have approximately 70 metres of gutter in total. (20 + 20 + 15 + 15 = 70 metres)
How does Grayson’s Gutter Guard measure gutters?
On-site Measuring
At Grayson’s we’re a big believer in doing things the most practical way possible. For this reason, 30 metre tape measures are our tool of choice for measuring gutters for gutter guard. This is a low cost tool that is also quite sturdy and resistant to breakage from rough handling. A 30 metre tape measure is the type of tool you can toss into the glove box, or boot of your car.
Online Google Maps Measuring of gutters
Sometimes we will use the house plan method mentioned above, but if your property is a finished build, chances are it will be pictured on Google maps Satellite view. From Satellite view, we are able to make a fairly accurate measurement of most gutters that require a gutter guard installed. The Sat view will have a small scale indicator of 5-10 metres, that can be used to measure the roofline.
With all this said, if you’re still having difficulty measuring up your gutters, call our professional team today to be connected with your local Grayson’s Gutter Guard Installer on 1800 GUTTER
