East Hampton, CT gutter guards

Which guard for an East Hampton roof, and what it costs

The first question is what falls on your roof. In a town next to a pine forest, the answer is often needles. A needle is thin enough to stand on end and drop through a coarse opening, and once a few hundred of them sit in the trough they knit into a mat that holds water. So the system we raise first here is DoublePro. It pairs a new aluminum gutter with a continuous hanger and two perforated layers, and the lower layer stops what the upper one lets past. It costs $30 per foot on 5-inch gutters and $34 on 6-inch, installed.

DoublePro carries a lifetime clog-free warranty, pine needles included. The full terms sit on the warranty page, with the other systems beside it.

If your lot is mostly maples and oaks, T-Rex may be enough, and it costs less. It is also a new gutter on a continuous hanger, with one perforated top that sheds broad leaves. It runs $25 per foot for 5-inch and $29 for 6-inch.

Some East Hampton houses already have gutters in good shape. If yours hang level, drain to the downspouts and do not leak, Gutter Clean Pro goes on top of them for $18 per foot on 5-inch or $20 on 6-inch. Its manufacturer's performance coverage is lifetime limited, including coniferous areas. We will tell you on the call if we think your gutters are too far gone for a cover.

Downspouts are a separate line at $14 to $16 per foot, and removing old gutters is $1 per foot. We list each one on the quote. Every caller gets the same price list.

Pines, Middle Haddam and the Belltown housing stock

Meshomasic State Forest opened in 1903 as the first state forest in Connecticut and in New England. It now covers more than 9,000 acres spread over East Hampton and four neighboring towns. Its Big Pines plantation holds white pines and Norway spruce more than a century old. If your lot backs onto the forest or shares its trees, plan on needles in the gutters most of the year.

The town takes in Cobalt, Middle Haddam and Lake Pocotopaug across about 36.8 square miles, and its 19th-century bell works gave it the name Belltown. Four in five homes here are single detached houses, and 17.5% of all housing units date from 1939 or earlier. An older house can have a roof edge that needs care, so send us a photo if the fascia or trim looks original.

Middle Haddam deserves its own note. The historic district along Moodus and Long Hill Roads went on the National Register in 1984. It covers about 110 acres and 58 significant buildings, most built before 1835, from the years it served as a Connecticut River port. In that district, any exterior change visible from a street needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, approved before a building permit is applied for, whether or not a permit is needed at all. Replacing materials with identical ones is exempt, and the Commission decides what counts. If you live there, check with them first. We will build the plan around their answer.

Outside the district, the Building Department takes permit applications online through Permit Link.

The weather argument is statewide. Connecticut logged its highest count of extreme precipitation events in 2005 to 2014. Most guards cope fine with a drizzle. Trouble starts in a downpour. The 2011 Halloween nor'easter left more than 700,000 people in the state without power, and wet snow on leafy branches is the load that pulls gutters off their hangers.

What is the best gutter guard for a northern climate like East Hampton's?

Cold country asks two things of a gutter. It has to carry a hard rain in spring and fall, and it has to hold up under snow and ice in winter. A guard that sits on spike-and-ferrule hangers every couple of feet leaves the gutter weakest between them. The Alu-Rex new-gutter systems use a continuous hanger instead, so the whole length of gutter is supported.

For debris, match the guard to the trees. Under pine, DoublePro's second layer is the reason we suggest it. Under hardwoods, T-Rex handles leaves. Ice at the roof edge comes from heat escaping through the roof and the snow melting and refreezing, which no gutter guard causes or cures on its own. Our page on gutter guards and ice dams goes into that in more detail.

Which brand of gutter guard is the best?

We cannot hand you a national ranking, because we have not seen an independent one we trust enough to quote. What we can tell you is why we sell Alu-Rex. It builds the guard and the hanger as one system, it publishes a separate written warranty for each product, and it offers a two-layer option for pine that suits this town's trees.

When you compare any brand, ask three questions. Does the warranty cover pine needles in writing? Is the gutter supported along its length or at points? Can you get a price without a salesperson in your living room? You can read more about the manufacturer on our Alu-Rex page.

What are the worst gutter guards?

We will not name another company's product as the worst. We have not tested them, and a review we have not read is not a source. What we see go wrong is a mismatch: a coarse screen under white pine. The needles drop through, the gutter fills, and the cover now stands between you and the mess.

A guard that does not fit the gutter it sits on is the other common failure. Ask how the guard attaches and who installs it. With us, a certified Alu-Rex installer fits the system the manufacturer designed for that gutter.

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

Around East Hampton

• Every town we cover in Middlesex County: Gutter guards in Middlesex County, CT
• Next door: gutter guards in Portland, gutter guards in Glastonbury, gutter guards in Middletown
• Gutter guards for pine needles in East Hampton, CT