7 steps to adding gutters to your services

By Emma Peterson. 

Considerations when expanding your offerings to include gutters. 

In an industry where competition is steep, standing out from the crowd can be difficult. But one of the ways roofers can successfully stand apart from the rest and bring in additional streams of income at the same time is by expanding their service offerings. Tim MacVeigh of SRS Building Products sat down for an episode of MetalTalk™ where he discussed the benefits of expanding your service offerings to include gutters. There are seven core steps he shared to take on the prospect of venturing into gutters.  

1 – Sort out the legal side 

Before any new venture, you want to make sure you have all your legal ducks in a row. The great news about adding gutters to your existing roofing operations is that there isn’t much difference in licensing and permitting requirements. Tim spoke about this briefly, sharing, “In my experience, the licensing, permits and insurance that you're using now for your roofing are the same that you need for gutters. So, if those gutters are a part of your proposal, your contract, it's going to be covered under the same permits, licensing and insurance that you're going to have to carry to do either of the other.” 

2 - Consider your crew 

From there, you must think about who will be doing the gutter work. Tim explained, “You have to decide whether you're going to do it, whether you're going to use your existing crews or whether you're going to sub that out, which is still you doing the job, you’re still one-stop shopping it.” 

And you don’t have to pick one of these methods and do it forever. Maybe you start by subbing it out to a crew with prior experience, get your crew trained up and then eventually transition to them doing that work. 

3 – Choose the right products 

The next thing you need to do is find the right distributor to work with. Tim recommends asking any distributor you talk to about how much of their business is focused on gutters, their practices for handling their rolls of gutter coil and their mini roll offerings. If you’re just starting out, these mini rolls are an important factor of gutter work. Tim explained, “Gutter coil typically is sold in 350-pound rolls, which is roughly 1,000 feet. But a lot of distributors also do mini rolls, which are about 200-pound rolls. You want to find someone that does these in several colors, maybe 10, and work with them when you’re just starting.”  

And beyond the materials to make the gutter itself, you need to make sure you have the rest of the tools needed to install gutters; this includes things like hangers and sealants. Tim emphasized the importance of investing in high performance versions of these, sharing, “Your sealants are so important. An example of a great sealant is Geocel. And your hangers, those are key to keeping the gutters attached to the house...Really, you want to buy the quality sealants, buy the quality products, buy the quality hangers because if you put the quality on, you're not going to have to go back and repair it later because it just didn't hold up.” 

4 – Find a way to make gutters 

Once you have a source for gutter coil, you need to find a way to turn that material into an actual product that can be installed. There are a couple of options at this point – Do it all in-house or find a partner.  

The first option is a bigger investment up front, both in terms of time and money. Tim shared, “You need to buy a gutter machine, you're going to get a trailer and you're going to have to get some experience to have to figure out how it all works.” This is an investment that will pay for itself over time but might pose as a challenge at first. 

If you want to ease your way into things a bit more, you can partner with a distributor. Tim explained, “There's a lot of distributors out there that will do what's called a chop-and-drop program. So that if you're out doing a siding or soffit job, the distributor will come out with a gutter machine on a truck and they'll run off the lengths you need. Then it’ll be dropped on the jobsite and your crew can then take it and install it without necessarily needing to have your own machine on site.”  

5 – Set yourself up for design success 

Another piece of the puzzle you need to be sorting out while you find the right distributor partner is how to design a gutter system that not only performs, but looks good. Tim explained, “The most common type of gutter is the K-style aluminum continuous gutter. You can go to any big box store and find them. But they’re not necessarily always the best choice. When installing a gutter, you need to think about matching the roof area, the architecture of the building, the homeowner’s budget and more.”  

All of this can be overwhelming if you are getting involved in gutters for the first time, which is why Tim recommends taking some time to explore different manufacturer websites. For example, consider visiting SRS Distribution’s TopShield site to get a feel for the options out there related to gutters.  

6 – Gather resources 

Once you have that general feel for what can be done with gutters and where you’re going to get your product from, it’s time to make sure your crew is ready to start installing them in the field! And, even if you’re not initially training your crew to install gutters and instead are hiring a sub crew, it is important that you, as a leader, have a basic understanding of the field work necessary. 

So, where can you find resources that give you the technical training you need to understand how gutters are installed? Tim recommends exploring the internet and your roofing network for tips. He shared, “Maybe that's you know a crew or a sub that does gutters successfully and you go out and you see what they do and how they do it. In addition to that, there are a lot of great resources on the internet, like YouTube, that can help you see what works and what doesn’t work.”  

7 – Think about the big picture 

And finally, when you think about adding gutters to your offerings, you want to make sure you are not limiting your growth opportunities. You want to think about the big picture and what you want to do with this part of your business. A great example of how you can grow even more with minimal effort is by adding gutter accessories, like covers and leaf protection, to your offerings down the line. Tim explained, “Over the last 10 years or so, gutter cover/leaf protection has become a large business that can add another 30% on top of your gutter job.”  

At the end of the day, gutters are a great way to add diversity to your roofing company’s offerings. Not only do they work well with the permits you already have and the fact that your crews are already on the roof, but gutters also have huge potential for growth.  

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about adding gutters to your offerings.