What to measure for gutters, and what each number is for

Gutters have the shortest measurement list of any trade here, which is why a gutter job can be quoted from the driveway while the homeowner is standing next to you.

Hangers are a rate, not a count

You don't count hangers, you derive them: one every 24 to 36 inches of run. That is exactly the kind of thing a multiplier handles — a hanger every 30 inches is run_ft × 0.4. Set it once and stop counting.

Downspouts are two numbers

A count alone underprices a two-storey house. Each downspout needs its drop height, because the material is per foot and a 22-foot drop costs three times a 7-foot one. Record the count for elbows and straps, and the total footage for the pipe itself.

Corners are what turns a simple house into a complicated one

Two houses with 160 feet of gutter can be very different jobs. A straight ranch has four corners; a cut-up roofline can have fourteen. Every miter is a cut, a seal, and a leak that gets called back in three years. Count them and price them.

Why this trade rewards quoting on the spot

Six numbers, all takeable from the ground in a few minutes. If you can quote before you leave the driveway, you're usually the only one who has, and the first contractor to put a number in front of a homeowner tends to win the job.

A package is what makes that possible — the arithmetic happens as you type the measurements.