Gutter Contractor Software in Arkansas

Ice is the reason a lot of gutter work exists in Arkansas. The storm of January 26 to 28, 2009 put an inch or two of ice on the northwest corner of the state, and the trees and limbs it brought down took gutters with them across Washington, Benton, Madison, and Carroll counties. More than 100,000 people there lost power, and 300,000 homes statewide. Hail does the same job most springs, and after a storm the dents along the front face are among the first things an adjuster photographs.

Rain does the everyday damage. Arkansas spring storms drop inches in an hour, and a five-inch gutter with one downspout on a big brick house overflows at the corners every time. Six-inch gutters and oversized downspouts are a normal spec here. Where the water goes matters too, because the clay in the Delta and around Little Rock swells when it is wet and shrinks when it is dry, and a downspout that dumps beside the foundation moves the house.

The trees keep a gutter company busy. The oaks and hickories in the Ozarks and the pecans in the river bottoms fill gutters in a few weeks each fall, and the pines drop needles all year that slide through the guards made for leaves. Seamless aluminum in five and six inch K-style is nearly all of the residential work, run out of a machine on the truck, and the work runs all year.

Licensing is by the dollar. Any home job over $2,000, labor and materials together, takes a Residential Home Improvement license and a bond from the Contractors Licensing Board, and a full house of six-inch gutters with guards clears that line. A company that also does roofing registers as a roofer as well, with the $15,000 bond that comes with it. When the work is on an insurance claim, Arkansas's repair-contract law applies, and the homeowner gets a notice before signing that they can cancel within three business days after the insurer says in writing that any part of the claim is not covered.