Gutter guards in Wellesley, MA

Which guard suits a Wellesley lot, and what it costs

Under a mix of old shade trees and young plantings, the debris is not all big leaves. Maples and oaks drop leaves, but they also drop seed pods, flowers and twig ends. Fine material is what gets through a single coarse screen and settles in the trough. That is why the system to price first here is DoublePro.

DoublePro has two layers. The top is the T-Rex rail, which holds a new seamless gutter along its whole length. Under it sits a finer perforated layer that stops seed pods, needles and grit. DoublePro carries a lifetime clog-free warranty, pine needles included. It costs $30 a foot in 5-inch and $34 a foot in 6-inch.

Where the trees overhead drop mostly whole leaves, T-Rex alone is often enough, at $25 a foot in 5-inch and $29 in 6-inch. You still get the continuous hanger, with no spikes through the gutter every couple of feet. And if your gutters are newer and in good shape, straight and dry at the seams, Gutter Clean Pro fits over them for $18 a foot on 5-inch and $20 on 6-inch.

Downspouts are $14 to $16 a foot by size, and old gutter comes down for $1 a foot. Each is its own line on the quote. Every rate is on the pricing page, so you can check the number you are given on the phone.

Wellesley's trees, its storms and its houses

In June 2019 Wellesley received its 36th straight Tree City USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation, the longest run for any town in the Northeast. That spring the Department of Public Works planted 105 trees, and 75 of them went on private property. A town that plants trees in front yards on purpose is a town where gutters fill every autumn.

The same canopy is what comes down in a bad storm. On December 18, 2023, The Swellesley Report wrote that a rain and wind storm hit Wellesley hard, taking down trees and wires, damaging buildings and property, and flooding streets and basements. A flooded basement is a reminder of where roof water should end up: carried by an open gutter and downspout away from the foundation, not spilled over a clogged edge beside it.

Most Wellesley housing is detached houses. Census estimates put about 82% of the town's 9,400 housing units as single-family detached, with a median year built of 1955. About a third, 3,170 units, date from 1939 or earlier, more than any decade since, and the 1950s and 1940s come next. The town has also named Cottage Street and the alleys near it as a historic district in its zoning plan, and most houses there date from around the 1860s.

The town's neighborhoods include Wellesley Hills, Wellesley Farms, Wellesley Square, Wellesley Lower Falls, Babson Park, The Fells and Poets' Corner. Wellesley borders Newton to the east, Weston to the north, Needham and Dover to the south and Natick to the west.

For weather, the closest long-record NOAA station is the Blue Hill summit in Milton, about 11 miles southeast and about 625 feet up. Its 1991-2020 normals show 53.27 inches of precipitation a year, 69.3 inches of snow, 14 days with an inch or more of rain and about 117 nights at or below freezing. Blue Hill is a summit station, so treat those as its numbers and not a Wellesley measurement. They still show what a gutter in this part of the state is built for.

What do gutter guards cost in Wellesley?

Installed, per foot: DoublePro on a new gutter is $30 in 5-inch and $34 in 6-inch. T-Rex is $25 and $29. Gutter Clean Pro over gutters you keep is $18 and $20. Downspouts and removal are listed separately so nothing is hidden in the gutter rate.

To give you a total we need the length of the eaves, the number of stories and a sense of what grows over the roof. We measure remotely, so you hear the number on the first call, and nobody comes out to sell.

Is DoublePro worth the extra over T-Rex?

The difference is $5 a foot on 5-inch. It is worth it when what lands on your roof is small enough to slip through a single layer: needles, seed pods, maple keys, shingle grit. It is less worth it under trees that drop whole leaves and little else.

If you are not sure what your trees drop, look in the gutter in late fall. A mat of fine brown material packed in the bottom points to DoublePro. Loose whole leaves on top point to T-Rex. The T-Rex vs DoublePro page sets the two side by side.

Do gutter guards stand up to heavy rain?

In a downpour the guard has to let water in as fast as the roof sheds it, and the gutter and downspouts behind it have to carry it away. Where a valley dumps a whole slope of roof into a few feet of gutter, that spot is the test. We ask where your gutters overflow now, because that is where the capacity runs out.

A larger gutter or an extra downspout often fixes an overflow that a guard alone will not. Both are priced on the call. The heavy rain question page explains what we look at.

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 Wellesley

• Every town we cover in Norfolk County: Gutter guards in Norfolk County, MA
• Next door: gutter guards in Newton, gutter guards in Needham