Vinyl to Aluminum Gutter Replacement in Omaha, NE

Cold is the first problem. PVC loses flexibility as it chills, and industry sources warn that ice striking a frozen vinyl trough, or water freezing solid inside it, can crack it through. Once split, it cannot be welded or soldered back together.

Heat is the second. Vinyl moves more with temperature than any other common gutter material. Each length pushes against its couplers in July and pulls away in winter, so gaskets work loose and the trough bellies between brackets. Typical vinyl life is often put at 10 to 15 years, against 20 to 30 or more for aluminum.

Sunlight finishes the job. Ultraviolet exposure chalks and fades the surface, especially on south and west eaves, and the plastic gets more brittle every season.

• Brittle in hard cold, cracks from ice or impact
• Softens and sags in summer heat
• Rubber gaskets at every coupler shrink and leak
• Sun fades color and weakens the plastic

Vinyl systems hang from plastic brackets screwed into the fascia, and leaking couplers drip onto those screw holes for years. When the runs come down, we often find soft fascia at the joints, stained soffit below the corners and brackets fastened into little more than trim coil.

We probe the wood along every eave. Sound fascia gets the new hangers. Soft or punky sections are cut out and replaced with new lumber before any aluminum goes up, because a seamless gutter full of water is heavy and needs solid backing. Our fascia board replacement page covers that part of the work in detail.

The biggest change is the joints, or the lack of them. Instead of a coupler every ten feet, each straight run is formed on site from one coil, so the only seams left are corners and outlets. Those are mitered, riveted and sealed. Fewer joints means fewer places to leak or separate.

Aluminum also stays stiff in the cold and does not soften in the sun. We use .027 or heavier .032 coil, hang it on hidden hangers screwed into the fascia about every two feet, and set a slight pitch toward each downspout so water does not sit and freeze in the trough. For more on how the two systems differ, read seamless vs sectional gutters.

Most vinyl gutters sold for homes are a narrow profile with small round or square downspouts. That was often undersized for the roof to begin with. A replacement is the cheapest moment to move to a 5-inch K-style, or to 6-inch gutters on big roof planes, and to switch to 2x3 or 3x4 downspouts. Check your roof with our gutter size calculator before we visit.

Color is easy to keep. Aluminum coil comes in dozens of factory colors, and white, almond, clay and brown cover most of the vinyl we take down. We hold a sample against your soffit and trim in daylight so the new runs blend in rather than looking like a patch.

Vinyl comes down quickly. We unclip the runs, pull the old brackets, seal the screw holes left in sound trim and load every piece of plastic onto the truck.

On a typical house, removal, any fascia work, the new seamless runs and the downspouts all fit into one visit. Larger homes, steep two-story eaves or a lot of rotted wood can stretch it, and we will tell you that up front. The general approach to a full tear-off is on our gutter replacement page.