Gutter guards in Barnstable County, MA

Towns we cover in Barnstable County

• Gutter guards in Barnstable
• Gutter guards in Mashpee
• Gutter guards in Sandwich

One county, fifteen towns, the same price per foot

Barnstable County has fifteen towns: Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Wellfleet and Yarmouth. The county seat is Barnstable, the same name as the largest town, which is why searches for the two get mixed up. About 229,000 people lived here at the 2020 census, and the county still runs one of the last working county governments in Massachusetts.

For a homeowner, none of that changes the price. Gutter Clean Pro is $18 a foot over 5-inch gutter in Sandwich and in Provincetown. A new gutter with T-Rex is $25 a foot in 5-inch wherever you are on the Cape, and with DoublePro it is $30. The pricing page lists every rate, including downspouts and removal, so the number you hear on the phone is one you can check.

• Gutter Clean Pro over a sound gutter: $18/ft (5-inch), $20/ft (6-inch)
• T-Rex with a new seamless gutter: $25/ft (5-inch), $29/ft (6-inch)
• DoublePro with a new seamless gutter: $30/ft (5-inch), $34/ft (6-inch)
• Downspouts: $14 to $16/ft, on their own line

Pine and oak over most Cape roofs

The Cape's woods are pine and oak. Mashpee is typical: like every town on the Cape, it is sandy soil, small ponds and inlets surrounded by native pines and oaks. Mashpee's Quashnet Conservation Area is the largest stretch of undeveloped forest on Cape Cod. Houses built into that landscape have trees close to the eaves.

Oak leaves are the autumn load. Pine needles fall all year and are the harder problem, because a needle slides through a coarse screen and lies flat in the trough. Where pines lean over the roof, DoublePro's second, finer layer is the part that keeps them out. DoublePro carries a lifetime clog-free warranty, pine needles included. Where the trees are mostly oaks, T-Rex or Gutter Clean Pro is usually enough.

Houses from the 1970s and 1980s, and the gutters on them

In the three Cape towns we have looked at closely, a large share of the housing went up in the 1970s and 1980s, and the 1980s is the biggest building decade in all three. Barnstable's median home dates from 1978, Sandwich's from 1982 and Mashpee's from 1988. Most of it is detached single-family housing.

A gutter from that era is now more than 35 years old. Some are still straight and tight and only need a guard on top. Others sag, drip at the corners or have spikes backing out of the fascia, and those should come down and be replaced with a new gutter carried on T-Rex or DoublePro. On the call, we ask which kind you have before we price anything.

Rain, wind and the October 2021 nor'easter

For a normal year, the long-record NOAA station on the Cape is at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis. Its 1991-2020 normals show 44.70 inches of precipitation a year, about 11 days with an inch of rain or more, about 30 days with half an inch or more, and about 108 nights at or below freezing. Those are the airport's numbers, not a reading from your town.

Most guards cope fine with a drizzle. Trouble starts in a downpour, when one roof valley sends a whole slope of water into a few feet of gutter at once. The guard has to let that water in, and the gutter and downspouts behind it have to carry it away. The overflow page explains what we look at.

Wind is the other test. After the nor'easter of October 27, 2021, Patch reported nearly 640 fallen trees in the town of Barnstable alone, more than 120 blocked roads and 140 broken utility poles. A gutter hung from spikes every couple of feet can fold when a limb lands on it. A gutter on a continuous hanger is held along its whole length.

North of Route 6: the historic district

The land north of Route 6, from Sandwich to Orleans, sits inside the Old King's Highway Regional Historic District. It dates from 1973 and is described as the largest historic district in the nation. Brewster says its own district committee reviews any change to the outside of a building.

We have not read every town committee's rules, so we will not guess at what yours requires for gutters. If your house is north of Route 6, ask your town before work starts, and we will plan around what they tell you.

Call to install: every step

Three ways to start

• Call (617) 401-9301. It is answered any hour, and a missed call gets called back.
• Send the short form on the home page with your street address, and your number lands in your inbox.
• Text or chat through the chat window on this site.

1. 01

   Understand what you actually need

   About fifteen minutes on the phone: the length of the roofline, the number of stories and the trees around the house. The roofline is measured remotely, so nobody comes to the house to sell. You get your price the same day, from the published per-foot rates.

   • Gutters still in good shape: Gutter Clean Pro goes over the gutters you already have, from $18/ft.
   • Gutters that need replacing: new gutters with the guard built in. T-Rex (continuous hanger) from $25/ft, or DoublePro (two filtration layers) from $30/ft.
   • Fascia that cannot be drilled: Hover Pro, quoted for your house.
   • Complex rooflines, third stories and copper are quoted separately, and we say so on the call, never after arrival.
2. 02

   Your plan, in writing

   You get a written quote and your StormRail plan: photos of your house, the system, the gutter size and your color choices. The certified installer works from that same plan, so you and the installer are never on different pages.

3. 03

   A deposit capped at one third

   Massachusetts law caps a home-improvement deposit at one third of the contract. We hold to that in every state we work in. Your quote names the exact figure before you pay anything.

4. 04

   Material ordered and confirmed

   Your Alu-Rex system is ordered through the Alu-Rex distributor and confirmed before an install date is set, so the date you get is one the material can meet.

5. 05

   Scheduled with a certified installer in your county

   A certified Alu-Rex installer working in your area takes the job, and you get the date without chasing anyone. In season we're typically booking four to six weeks out. We'd rather tell you that now than promise you Tuesday and send whoever happened to be free. Emergency work — a collapsed run, active water in the basement — gets triaged ahead of the queue.

6. 06

   Installed

   The installer fits the system on the plan you already approved. Any balance is due as your quote states.

7. 07

   After the install

   We check in after the job is done. Each system carries its own written Alu-Rex warranty:

   • Gutter Clean Pro: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance lifetime limited, including coniferous areas
   • T-Rex: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance 25-year prorated limited
   • DoublePro: manufacturing lifetime limited, clog performance lifetime limited, including coniferous areas

Questions homeowners ask

Compare the systems before you call: all gutter guards, Gutter Clean Pro, T-Rex, DoublePro, and the full price list.