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Our installation
warranty:
We offer a minimum 25 year installation
labor warranty on all the materials we install. The manufacturer of the painted aluminum we use offers a 20
year paint finish warranty. We have seen aluminum gutters last over 50
years if installed well. Copper gutters have been used for well over 100 years
and the sheet metal has held up, but the seams have commonly pulled apart, since
they did not have continuous gutter machines back then. We have seen the water
wear holes through the copper sheet metal when they used a thin 12oz copper.
That is why we only use 16oz or more thickness copper, and highly recommend 20oz
copper or more.
Aluminum gutters are nearly twice as
thick as steel gutters to compensate for it being a softer metal. No sheet metal
gutter will hold up to serious impact, so the idea that aluminum will not hold
up as well as steel is an erroneous argument. Aluminum will not rust, so other
than some strange chemical reaction it will out last you. We hear that aluminum
has not held up as well on the Coast with the salt air reaction when there is
dissimilar metal objects that had fallen into the gutter. It seems there is not
a specific warranty on how long the aluminum sheet-metal will last. Aluminum has
been used for gutters for well over 40 year now and we have yet to see it
deteriorate through the bottom, since it is not a metal that will rust.
Copper has shown to last the best, but
the simple erosion of running water will break down most any surface given
enough time. It should be good for at least 80 years though, so it is good for
the resale value of most any house beyond the extra cost off the copper gutters. Copper also will not
deteriorate from rust and is a little
stronger than aluminum, resisting dents. Copper gutters also can be made with a
20oz sheet-metal instead of the standard 16oz copper for even more dent
resistance. We have seen evidence of copper gutters in service for well over 100
years. The soft lead solder joints may pull apart over time, which is why we do
not solder our joints together, but the copper it's self has
held up in most cases.
Details:
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Realistic Warranty Claims? As best we know,
we offer the highest warranty in the
business here locally. Note:
this is 25 times more than the
Construction Contractors Board (CCB) in Salem Oregon requires of
all Oregon construction contractors. We pride
ourselves on giving only honest and realistic claims. We have seen a
web site (not local to us) that claimed a 100 year warranty on their copper
gutters. This is suspect in of it's self. How many years in the
ground will that contractor
be in 100 years from now? There are few small businesses that can survive
more than a couple years, let alone more than 25 years. We have already specialized in
gutter installation for over a dozen years now; since 1993 under the same
contractors license number. But how
many more decades are we likely to be in business? Well, I am 42 years old,
as of 1-30-05. We will not make
outrageous claims; like a roofing contractor I worked for, who knew he was
dieing of cancer and was offering a 50 year warranty (he died a year later).
We also saw a recent bid from a competitor (7-05) who boldly stated they
have a 25 year warranty, but in the fine print it clearly stated this was
only a manufacturer's warranty, and their installation warranty is only 1
year. Which is the minimum required warranty for all types of
construction. This shows their intent was to deceive the client, and had no
intention of standing by their installations.
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Detached or Damaged? Since we use
only stainless steel wood screws for installation, we can tell each time if
the screws had some good solid wood to grip to. This installation
warranty does cover the gutters and downspouts from pulling loose from the
house under normal conditions (see exceptions below)
Note:
We would not know for sure if your existing fascia boards were installed
well enough to
hold the weight of the gutter. We would discuss
the need for replacement with you if we saw a problem, but we do not normally perform special test
to see if the
fascia boards are securely attached to the roof rafters.
- Leaks? Our installation warranty does covers
leaking corners and end-caps.
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Standing Water? Our installation warranty also covers standing water in
clean gutters of more than 1/2".
Note: we work especially hard to
give all the gutters a slight grade toward the outlet drain, so they will
even rinse themselves out in a heavy downpour. There should be no
standing water at all, but we cannot guaranty that your house will not settle
to upset this balance in
those 25 years.
- Transferable Warranty? Our installation warranty is transferable to the
next home owner, so it can help the sale of the house far more than you could
save getting cheaper gutters.
Click
here to read more on our thoughts on our personal ethical
responsibility,
not only to our clients, but to all those we deal with. We do our best
to maintain customer satisfaction in all situation. |
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Rust free
materials
More importantly than warranties, we
feel it matters what type of material and type of parts we use to install
gutters. Rust and poor installation account for over 90% of gutter
replacement, so that is where we place most of our focus. We only work
with rust free parts and over 4 times the strength installation on each
gutter job we do.
 
Here is a clear photo of the only gutter
profile we offer and how the heavy-duty hidden hanger supports the gutter and is
attached to the house. Since mid 2004 we upgraded our standards to a pair of
stainless steel screws in the outer holes of these hidden hanger pictured,
due to the bad snow storm we had in early 2004 (see our
Snow Damage web page for more
details on this issue). You will not find another contractor to
install them nearly as well at any pice.
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Issues Not Covered by
Our Installation Warranty: The fine print: (although we try to make it legible
here). Customer satisfaction is very important to us, but we would be
fools to accommodate every possible situation, so here is some of the common sense
limitation that
we cannot be responsible for (sorry if this seems condescending).
(a) We cannot be responsible if
the cause of the gutters
coming loose was from the fascia board it's self becoming dislocated from
the house because of too much dry-rot
behind the fascia board and or the nails holding the fascia board on pull
loose or are rusted away. This is not common, but this cannot be our
responsibility unless we had installed those fascia boards of course.
Fascia boards coming down with the gutters rarely happens, but it could. Note:
It is rare to see other contractors who use screws for installation of fascia
boards. When we install
fascia boards, we use long Deckmate screws with a life time coating. Screws give a good indication if it has a solid grasp in the wood and are
very unlikely to ever pull loose.
(b)
You will not find a better installation, but we cannot be responsible for damage, scratches,
or dents. Things like tree branches
falling,
excessive snow and ice loads
sliding off the roof (a terrible issue with metal
roofs. See our Sheet Metal Roofs &
Snow Page for photos and details about this issue and what we try to do
to avoid this from happening),
abuse like: vehicles smashing into the
gutters, and ladders banged against them. Note: we do
not lean our ladders against gutters, and we go out of our way
with each gutter job to install gutters with the best products on the market
and twice the building code standards for a sturdy installation, but there
is only so much that any gutters will resist. You would do well to buy
a $25 ladder stabilizer to loan workers who do not have them on their
ladders, so they will rest the ladder on the shingles above the gutters.
(c) Personal dangers from accessing your gutters for cleaning or
such.
(d) Injury and damage from falling off the roof, or grabbing the
gutter as a last ditch effort to keep from falling to the ground.
(e) These screens are the sturdiest and the most user friendly product we have
found. The screens we use for aluminum gutters are made of an expanded
steel sheet metal that has a black powder-baked on finish, so we are not
responsible for these screens if they begin to rust over time. That would be the
manufacturer who would be responsible, but we have not seen a written warranty
for those
screens. If they were to make them out of aluminum sheet metal, they
would be too light weight, prone to being blown open in the wind.
Also, they would be too fragile and would break off the hinge/clips that
hold them in place. We have not found a source for stainless steel screens,
but we do have copper screens for twice the cost.
(f) The manufacturer is solely responsible for any
deterioration of the sheet metal and paint finishes.
They claim to provide a 40 year warranty on the sheet metals we use, and a
20 year paint finish warranty for the pre-painted aluminum sheet metal.
We
do not know of a warranty for the touch-up spray paints the
wholesale suppliers sell us for use in preparation of gutter parts. Note:
we are happy to provide you with contact information of the two wholesale
suppliers, Gutterman's
Supply phone #(503) 285-2500, and Custom-bilt
Metals' phone #(503) 256-3328. |
Our
15 year no-clog
warranty:Details:
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Length of our warranty: We
will only offer realistic claims. We could present fishy claims for lifetime
warranties, but we will not play that game. If our system does in fact
provide 15 years of trouble free service, you will know it is a very good
system. We are not likely to be around too much more than 15 years, so there
is no point to offer such an unrealistic warranty, and in so doing insult
your intelligence.
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Maintenance? Our No-clog
warranty does not require you to have someone even
go up to the roof edge to even check your gutters for blockage. If the
gutters were clog and begin to over flow,
it is our responsibility to clear them out. In the last 8 years we have had such little warranty issues, it clearly shows this
system works very well. Note: we will not be making
periodic inspections. You would need to contact us to inform us
if there is an issue that needs our attention.
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Nests under the screens? It is a very rare occurrence, but
we cannot be
responsible for critters, insects, or birds building nests in your gutters,
or these
critters pulling the screens open. Note: if
this happens, it is usually easy to push the screens back in place with a broom stick.
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Debris over the screens? we cannot warranty normal debris build-up on the
roof or over the top of the screens Note:
wind typically clears this build-up over the screens after it has a chance to dry.
- Storm sewer clogs? We are not able to cover
this, but the Leaf-catchers are very helpful.
Note: Leaf-catchers are
not part of our No-clog gutter warranty.
- Transferable? Our No-clog warranty is transferable to the
next home owner, so it can help the sale of the house far more than the cost of
these options.
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Your
only responsibilities with our No-clog warranty:With our No-clog warranty; you have no responsibility to have someone get up there and check the gutters at all. If the gutters were to
become clogged, it would over flow above the downspouts, since that is the low
spot. Once notified, it is our responsibility to come out to clear the obstruction.
As stated above, we will not be doing regular system checks of
your house, so you would need to contact us if there were to become a problem. This is a small concern, since we
have had less than a 5% call back issue.
Leaf-catchers (as shown to the right)
These are not required for Or No-clog warranty, but they are our most
popular option, since these are very helpful to keep your rain sewer pipes
clear. They are also a lot cheaper than a single Roto-Rooter service call. With
our Leaf-catchers,
maintenance is simple from the ground level. All you need to do is clear
out the debris in the Leaf-catcher every so often. Note:
It does not usually need serviced more than about 4
times a year, depending on the debris issue near your house.
The Leaf-catcher is
placed at hip height, so you don't have to bend over to access it. With this
technology there is much less need to get up to the roof's edge and clear the
gutters out.
If you decide that you want to clean out the gutters, you can simply place a piece of plastic
or even cardboard over the screen in the Leaf-catcher. Then rinse out the gutters with
the garden hose, spraying right through the screens. This way even the tiny roof
sand will flush out onto the ground. Then sweep it up if you choose, and you
are done.
Roof Debris Accumulation:
None of this will keep debris from accumulating on
your roof. That of course would be not be our responsibility. Although, if you
do not keep your roof clean, it does not affect our No-clog warranty.
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Why are
strainers in the gutter bad for gutters?
The type of strainers that goes up inside the gutters are death to gutters (no
joke). You want the gutters to continually drain as they
should. Yes, it is very important to keep your underground drains clear of
this debris, but placing the Leaf-catcher strainer in the downspout is much
wiser.
The debris simply decomposes,
turning to mud. and damn up the water. This causes severe damage
to the foundation through ground erosion, which is the whole reason
gutters are now a mandatory building code. It also will pull the
gutters loose of the house from the heavy weight of the water and debris.
If your gutters are steel, it causes them to rust through that much sooner. You
want the gutters to continue to function and drain! |
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Best
value for your $:
Some people here in the Northwest simply do not have a serious debris
problem and may not need these No-clog options with their new gutters. Even
though most of our clients go with the full package, we
happily provide our double strength rust-free gutters without our No-clog options. Our
basic installation is better than you will find elsewhere, and at a reasonable
price. With the stainless steel screws we use to hang our gutters with
offers over twice the support building code requires,
better caulk, and other parts. So even without the No-clog options you have confidence
that this will be a job well done and money well spent. This we can easily prove, and
guarantee.
With the No-clog options it is a product that
works better than any other we have seen. And also cost less that
all the other options with a similar claims. You can read more specific
details about the different No-clog options on our
Comparison web page. And even link
to their official web sites to hear their side of the story. We are that
confident.
Read
more on our
Ethical Responsibility web page. |