DMR's Kistler's Copper Gutter Work Photopage #1: The Before & After Pics

Here is a copper gutter job I did that has the most detailed set of photos on our web site. This Historical Landmark house is owned by a nice couple named Kistler. Mr. Kistler said he has been working for Intel since 1978.

They had found our web site on-line after years of searching for a gutter contractor to do this custom work. They were amazed to find we have already done this type of custom work, and had not been able to get a bid on from any other contractors over the last couple years. So they gave us a call in the middle of August 2004 to write up a bid for them.

Since they decided to go with the heavy gauge 20oz copper sheet metal I had to special order it and wait for it to come in. This was only the second house I had done with the ticker copper metal, since I just found out this was an option. It is so rare that contractors will offer 20oz copper that the local suppliers do not stock that type of sheet metal to run-out gutters with.

Below are the 'before & after' pictures that show the full month of work to carefully design and the construction it took to get this all done for them.

Left side
Before	After

The aluminum gutters they had were hung from thin aluminum straps nailed on the roof, and some had fallen off after a few years, so they had the painters tear off the rest of the gutters and downspouts. They had just paid $23k just to have their house paint removed. And another $13k to have it primed and a 4 tone paint job done. Their house is on the Historical registry, so they were perplexed about how to solve their gutter problems.

A couple years later after the gutters tarnished

Right side

The original bid we wrote up was to add the drip edge that the roofers neglected to install, to build out the eaves of the roof in which to mount aluminum gutters on, all new aluminum gutters and downspouts, and the No-clog options came to $4,600 total.

After seeing the bid, the Kistlers then asked us for a price on 16oz copper gutters with the mitered endcapping. This ran $7,800. They put down $3,900 to have us schedule it in, even though we were booked 3 months out. Then they added the heavy gauge 20oz copper gutters to that bid. The final cost was a little over $8,000 for everything.

A couple years later after the gutters tarnished

Back side

If this 20oz copper were any thicker, it would not have made it through our gutter machine. It just barely pushed through as it was. Normally you can see the buckled and wavy bottom side of the 16oz copper gutters, but these gutters came out perfectly flat on the bottom.

It was amazing! They were noticeably heavier too. They weigh over three times as much as an aluminum gutters per foot. The longest gutter was only a little about 21' long, but it weighed over 30lb. What was most interesting was the fact that it did not bow much at all under all that weight. An aluminum gutter would have been about 78' long and bowed so much that if I were to hold the center up with arms stretched up as high as I can reach, the ends would not have left the ground. That is if it would not have tweaked in the center and bent beyond repair first, which it probably would have. Anyway, it was impressive to say the least. Now, the standard 16oz copper gutters seem very flimsy to us.

A couple years later after the gutters tarnished