Anyone asking what new gutters cost usually wants a single number, and a single number is the one thing a gutter job cannot honestly have. Two houses of the same size can differ by a wide margin because one has low eaves and sound boards and the other has a three-storey side wall, a rotten fascia and cast iron to match. What can be said truthfully is which factors set the price, in what order they matter, and what the published UK ranges cover. This page goes through them, so the figure on your quote makes sense when you see it.
Why there is no honest price per metre
Cost guides love a price per metre, and it is tempting to multiply it by the length of your house. The trouble is that a per-metre figure folds in things that vary from one roof to the next: how many corners the run has, how many downpipes, how high the eaves sit, and whether the fascia can take new brackets. A bungalow with one straight gutter on each side is a very different job from a chalet house with a dormer, a bay and a flat-roofed garage. We have not found a per-metre range for gutters alone from a source we trust, so we do not quote one. What is published in UK cost guides is a range for a full roofline, covering gutters, fascias and soffits together. Your quote lists the gutter work as its own item so you can see what it costs.
The figures that do exist
One UK cost guide reports a typical range of £1,800 to £3,500 for a full uPVC roofline on a three-bedroom semi, and £3,000 to £6,000 for a detached house. A full roofline there means new fascias, soffits and guttering. A job that replaces only the gutters will sit below that range, and the further it falls below depends on how much of the roofline is left alone. The same sources put the hire of scaffold for roofline work anywhere from £200 up to £2,600, the low end being a single elevation of a bungalow and the high end a two-storey detached house wrapped on every side. Read these as a typical UK range for orientation, not as Beacon prices. Your fixed quote follows the survey.
Material is the first big variable
The material sets the price of the goods and also how they are fitted. uPVC is the usual choice because it is light, easy to cut on site and the cheapest to buy. Aluminium costs more, lasts longer and holds its colour, and it can be formed on site in long runs with few joints. Cast iron costs the most and weighs the most, which means stronger brackets and a sound board to carry it. A cast aluminium lookalike gives the cast iron profile at a lower weight. Our comparison of uPVC, aluminium and cast iron guttering goes through the differences, and our page on jointless aluminium guttering looks at the long-run option.
Profile matters as well. Half-round is the plainest and cheapest. Square and deep-flow profiles hold more water and cost more, and ogee, the shape with a moulded front, is the dearest of the common plastic shapes. Size follows the roof, not the house: a large roof area or a steep slope sends more water to the gutter at once, and may call for a wider channel or more downpipes. Our answer on what size guttering you need explains how that choice is made.
Access: the cost that surprises people
The height of the eaves decides how the job is reached. On a single-storey roof, a ladder or a low tower will do, and access costs very little. On a two-storey house, the safe way to work is from scaffold or a tower moved along the elevation, which is paid for whether it stays up a day or a week. On a house with a side extension, a conservatory or an awkward drive, a tower may not fit and a full scaffold goes up instead. That is why the range for scaffold alone is so wide.
If you are likely to want fascias, soffits or roof repairs done in the next few years, doing them in a single visit makes economic sense. The scaffold is the same whether it carries one trade or two. Putting up scaffold twice, for gutters this year and boards in two, is the most avoidable cost in roofline work. It is the reason our comparison of fascia capping and replacement raises the question of timing.
What is found behind the old gutter
The gutter is the first thing off and the last thing in the way of the real problem. Once the old run is down, the fascia behind it is visible, along with the rafter ends and the edge of the felt. Brackets that have pulled out of soft timber, a stain down the back of the board, or a felt that stops short of the trough are all signs that the cheapest quote and the right job might not be the same thing. A gutter fixed to a rotten board will not stay up.
This is why a quote based only on gutters from the ground is a guess. A proper survey tests the boards first. When the fascia is sound, the gutter work stays as quoted. When it is not, we show you the photograph, explain what replacement involves, and quote it as a separate line. Our page on rotten fascia boards explains how we tell.
Downpipes, outlets and the drains
Downpipes, shoes and hoppers are priced as part of the job and can swing the total. A move of a downpipe to a better position, a new hopper where two roofs meet, or a longer run to reach a drain adds both material and labour. Where a downpipe ends in a gully or soakaway, we check that the drain takes the water. Sometimes an overflowing gutter turns out to be a blocked gully at ground level, not a gutter fault at all, and a drain clearance saves a larger bill. Our answer on why gutters overflow lists the usual suspects.
Repair or replace: the cost question underneath
The cheapest way to spend money on gutters is not to replace them. A single leaking joint, a lost bracket or a cracked union can usually be repaired for a small sum, and a run that is otherwise sound should be left alone. The tests are how many faults there are, whether the material is failing or the fixings are, and whether the board behind is good. If the answer is one or two faults on a sound run, repair is the sensible spend. If the plastic is chalky and brittle, the joints weep in several places and the brackets keep loosening, replacement costs less than a string of call-outs. Our guide to the signs your gutters need replacing helps you decide.
Cost of the job beyond the invoice
Cheap gutters can cost a good deal more once they fail. A gutter that overflows soaks the wall, stains the render and feeds damp inside, and a gutter that sags drags the fascia down with it. A run that was fitted with a poor fall holds water, which grows algae and silt and makes the whole run heavier. A fixing that is poorly made loosens in the first winter. Paying a little more for a proper fall, enough brackets and sealed joints is the usual economy, and it is the part of the job you cannot judge from the price alone.
Building Regulations and permissions
Swapping old gutters for new ones of the same kind is ordinary maintenance, and a different plastic profile seldom raises a question with anyone. A listed house or one inside a conservation area is the exception: trading cast iron for plastic alters how the building looks, and the council's conservation team is the body to ask before you order a single length. Shared gutters between semi-detached or terraced houses raise a different question, which is who pays. Our answer on who is responsible for shared guttering deals with it.
Gutter styles that change the bill on period houses
Older houses bring their own costs. A Victorian terrace or a Georgian-style house in the older parts of Basingstoke may have cast iron on an ornate profile, with decorative brackets and a moulded stop end that no plastic range matches. Here the choice is between repairing the iron, which is slow but keeps the look, and replacing it with cast aluminium in a matching shape, which costs more than plastic but far less in weight and upkeep than new iron. Our page on cast iron guttering on period homes covers that decision, and it is worth reading before you ask for quotes.
Brackets deserve a word as well. Cast iron needs fixings into sound timber or masonry at close spacing, sometimes on rise-and-fall brackets that let the gutter be set to a precise fall on an uneven board. These are sold at a premium and take longer to set. When a quote for iron looks high, the brackets and the labour are usually why.
Getting a quote you can compare
When you collect quotes, make sure they cover the same things. Ask whether each includes scaffold or a tower, new brackets or reused ones, new downpipes and fittings, taking the old gutters away, and what the guarantee says. A price that leaves out the scaffold is not cheaper, only incomplete. A price with no mention of the fascia has not yet looked at it.
Ours begins with a free survey and a photographed report on your own roofline. The written quote that follows is fixed, with gutters, boards and access shown as separate lines so you can see where the money goes and take any item out. The work is guaranteed for ten years in writing. If you would like the figure for your own house, our guttering, soffits and fascias page explains how to book the survey, and the line is 01256 213956.
