A Gutter Glossary for Reading Your Quote

Hangers, miters, gauge, 3x4s: the words on a gutter quote in plain English, each linked to the page that covers it.

Decatur Spout's pages use these terms the way gutter installers and the makers' spec sheets do. Where a term has a page of its own, the definition links to it.

The gutter and its parts

K-style gutter: The common modern profile: a flat back against the fascia and a front shaped like crown molding. Houses take 5-inch or 6-inch; the size guide shows which a roof needs. Gutter size guide.
Half-round gutter: A gutter shaped like a pipe cut in half lengthwise, the older profile, hung on brackets or on straps with spring clips. It comes in copper, painted aluminum and steel. Copper and half-round gutters.
Seamless (one-piece) gutter: Gutter formed on site from a coil of metal and cut to the length of each wall, so a straight run has no joints. Corners and end caps are still joined and sealed. One-piece gutters.
Sectional gutter: Gutter sold in pre-cut lengths, usually 10 feet, joined with sealant at every seam. Vinyl gutters are sectional.
Coil: The roll of flat, prepainted metal that a forming machine bends into gutter. A 5-inch gutter comes from coil 11-3/4 inches wide, a 6-inch from 15-inch coil.
Gauge: How thick the metal is. Aluminum gutter coil comes in .027 inch and .032 inch, and the heavier one holds up better under a ladder and wet debris. Gutter materials guide.
End cap: The piece that closes the end of a run, sealed along its joint with the gutter.
Outlet (drop): The opening in the bottom of the gutter where the downspout connects.
Miter: A gutter corner. Box miters are formed corner pieces, strip miters join two cut ends with a strip of metal, and bay miters turn the shallower angles of a bay window. Each comes in inside and outside versions. Gutter repair.
Expansion joint: A slip joint that lets a long metal run grow and shrink with heat. On copper, the industry handbook spaces them no more than 48 feet apart. Copper gutters.
Oil canning: A wavy look in the flat face of roll-formed metal. One gutter maker says it is not cause for refusing the product.

How a gutter hangs on the house

Looking along a new white gutter with hangers spaced along its back edge

Rotted fascia board with peeling paint behind an old gutter

Fascia: The board along the roof edge, nailed to the rafter tails. The gutter hangs on it, so it has to be sound. Fascia and soffit repair.
Soffit: The underside of the roof overhang, between the fascia and the wall.
Sub-fascia: A structural board, usually a 2x, behind a decorative fascia. One fiber-cement trim maker says gutters must fasten to structure behind its trim, never to the trim itself.
Rafter tail: The end of a roof rafter at the eave, where the fascia is nailed on.
Hanger: Any bracket that holds the gutter to the house. Gutter makers' specs commonly space them 24 inches apart at most. Gutter repair.
Hidden hanger: A hanger that clips under the front lip and screws through the back of the gutter into the fascia, out of sight from the ground.
Spike and ferrule: An older way to hang gutters: a long spike driven through the gutter face and a sleeve, the ferrule, into the fascia.
Strap hanger: A strap fastened to the roof deck under the shingles that holds the gutter from above, for spots where the fascia can't carry it.
Slope (fall): The tilt of the gutter toward its outlet. Makers call for at least 1/4 inch of drop for every 10 feet of run.
Drip edge: Bent metal flashing at the roof edge that steers water off the shingles and away from the fascia. Georgia's residential code requires it on shingle roofs. Fascia and soffit repair.

Downspouts and where the water goes

Downspout water spilling off a splash block and cutting into red clay

Pop-up drain emitter releasing water in a lawn

Downspout (leader): The pipe from the gutter outlet to the ground. The plumbing code's tables call it a leader. House sizes are 2x3 and 3x4 inches. Downspouts and drainage.
A and B elbows: Downspout elbows. An A elbow turns the water forward or back; a B elbow turns it left or right.
Extension: A length of downspout or flexible pipe off the bottom elbow that carries the water away from the foundation.
Splash block: A shallow trough under the downspout that spreads the water as it lands.
Buried drain line: Pipe run underground from the bottom of a downspout to a point away from the house.
Pop-up emitter: A cap at the far end of a buried line that lifts when water pushes up and drops shut when the flow stops.
Valley: The inside corner where two roof slopes meet. It gathers water from both, so the gutter below it can overflow in heavy rain. Downspouts and drainage.
Grading: The slope of the ground at the foundation. The residential code asks for at least 6 inches of fall in the first 10 feet.

Gutter guard types

Pine needles lying on a fine stainless mesh gutter guard

Rain curling around the rounded nose of a solid gutter hood

Micro-mesh guard: A fine stainless or aluminum mesh over the gutter, often in a frame. No standard opening size exists, so ask for the number. Gutter guard comparison.
Screen: A metal or plastic guard with larger openings than micro-mesh, clipped over the gutter.
Reverse-curve hood: A solid cover with a rounded nose. Water follows the curve into a slot while leaves slide off; Consumer Reports calls the design surface tension.
Brush and foam inserts: Guards that sit inside the gutter itself. None was good at keeping debris out in Consumer Reports' 2010 test.
Beehive strainer: A removable dome over the outlet that stops leaves from going down the downspout, used in open copper gutters.

Metals, finishes and warranties

Galvanized steel: Steel with a zinc coating. It rusts once the coating wears through.
Galvanic corrosion: Corrosion where two different metals meet in the wet. Copper eats the aluminum or zinc it touches, and water off copper corrodes aluminum below it. Gutter materials guide.
Patina: The film copper grows as it weathers, from salmon red through reddish brown to gray-green. Copper gutters.
Line corrosion: Wear along a line in a copper gutter where acidic runoff off asphalt shingles lands before the patina forms.
Finish warranty: The coil maker's warranty on the paint. The installer's workmanship warranty is a separate agreement. Gutter questions.

Sizing words

Design roof area: The roof area a gutter or downspout is sized for: the flat area under the roof times a factor for its pitch. Gutter size guide.
Pitch: Roof steepness, given as inches of rise for every 12 inches across. Sizing tables count a steeper roof as more area.
Rainfall intensity: How hard rain falls, in inches per hour over a short span. Gutter sizing uses the hardest 5 minutes of a storm expected about once in 10 years.
gpm: Gallons per minute, the unit the plumbing code uses for gutter and downspout capacity.

If a term on your quote isn't here, start the call with it, and we'll explain what it means for your house before anything else.

Call {{TODO: phone}} Calls answered {{TODO: call hours}}