Should my aluminum gutters be .027” or .032” thick?

Some companies may try to tell you that you should go with them because their aluminum is .032 inches thick instead of the standard .027 inches. Do you need it? The short answer is no. All major gutter supply companies, such as Lansing Supply, Town & Country, Senox, and Spectra Metals sell .027 inch aluminum as their standard. Unless we tell them differently, they give us the .027 that is overwhelmingly lining their shelves and hanging successfully on residential homes throughout the U.S.

When gutters are installed carefully, with tightly-spaced hangers (we space them a conservative 24” apart) for thorough support, and wedges are utilized on rooflines that need them (most don’t), the extra expense of increasing the thickness of your aluminum is unnecessary.

That being said, upgrading does not add that much to the cost, approximately $100-$200 for an average sized home, and we are here to serve you. If that is what you want, just let us know and we will order it for you.

Fun Fact: Aluminum, particularly in the gutter industry, is measured in inches. The term gauge is often used incorrectly in place of inches to refer to gutter aluminum, but there is no such thing as .027 or .032 gauge gutter aluminum.

Gauge is a complex measurement unit pertaining to steel, copper, and a few other metals. Gauges are measured as whole numbers from 0000000 to 38, that roughly correspond to millimeters and fractions of an inch.

Metal gauge numbers represent the relationship between weight and thickness. Different metals with the same gauge can be different thicknesses. The higher the gauge, the thinner the metal. 10 gauge steel would be thicker than 20 gauge steel. If gutter aluminum were to be measured using the galvanized steel gauge scale, .027 inches would equate to around 24 gauge. On the stainless steel scale, it would be closer to 23, etc.