Some companies may suggest that you should choose them because their aluminum is .032 inches thick instead of the standard .027 inches. Do you need it? The short answer is no in most instances.
When gutters are installed carefully, with tightly-spaced hangers for thorough support (every 24″ is ideal), and have a tall, flat fascia board to support them, the extra expense of increasing the thickness of the gutter aluminum is completely unnecessary.
All major gutter supply companies, such as Lansing Supply, Town & Country/ABC Supply, 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.
That being said, here are a few scenarios in which the extra thickness can be helpful:
– when the fascia board is inverted
– there is a 1×2 behind the drip edge
– the fascia board is shorter than average
Each of these configurations leaves the gutter less supported than when there is a full, flat fascia board present to support the gutter, and the extra thickness of the metal can offer additional rigidity.
When the fascia board is inverted, and/or there is a 1×2 behind the drip edge, wedges must be used between the gutter and fascia board to support the back of the gutter.
As you can see in the above image, the fascia board slopes inward, and is not directly supporting the gutter. This requires T wedges to be attached to the back of the gutter to close the space. In instances such as this, the additional rigidity of the .032″ metal can help keep the gutter from warping or twisting.
In these circumstances, or if it simply gives you peace of mind, upgrading does not add that much to the cost. You can expect the extra aluminum (and a small amount of additional labor) to add approximately $100-$200 to your total installation cost for an average sized home. We are here to serve you. If that is what you would like, just let us know and we will order it for you.
Fun Fact: Aluminum thickness, 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 a metal’s 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.