Should you replace gutters with a new roof?

Replace your gutters with your roof when they are near the end of their life, sagging, leaking at the seams, or hung on a fascia board that needs replacing. Gutters are mounted on the fascia, the board along the eaves, and a new roof puts new drip edge right above them, so doing both at once lets one crew fit the edge and the gutter together. If your gutters are sound, the right size and not very old, you can keep them. New gutters cost about $3 to $45 per linear foot installed, depending on the material and on whose survey you read, and gutter guards add roughly $6 to $45 per linear foot.

Why gutters are often replaced with the roof

Three parts meet at the eaves, and a roof replacement touches all of them.

Drip edge. The metal edge at the eaves carries water off the roof and into the gutter instead of letting it run down the fascia, as IKO, a shingle maker, explains. Drip edge is part of a new roof, and Owens Corning's shingle instructions have the underlayment lap over it at the eaves.
Fascia. IKO notes that the fascia is the mount for the gutters, and that there is no way to replace a fascia board without taking the gutters down first. A roofer who finds rot along the eaves during tear-off has to remove the gutters to fix it.
One crew, one visit. When the gutters come off anyway, putting new ones up while the ladders and dumpster are already there avoids a second setup.

IKO also says gutters in good condition can usually go back up on a new fascia board. Replacing them is a choice, not a requirement.

What new gutters cost, by material

Two national cost guides give quite different ranges for the same materials. Both are prices per linear foot, installed.

Material	HomeAdvisor	HomeGuide	Typical lifespan (HomeGuide)
Vinyl	$3 – $7	$8 – $12	10 – 20 years
Aluminum	$3 – $15	$10 – $20	20 – 30 years
Galvanized steel	$5 – $20	$10 – $35	20 – 50 years
Copper	$15 – $40	$25 – $40	50 – 100 years
Zinc	$15 – $30	$35 – $45	30 – 80+ years
Wood	$20 – $32	$25 – $45	15 – 50 years

For a whole house, HomeAdvisor reports an average of $1,182, with most of its customers paying $629 to $1,736. HomeGuide puts a typical home at $2,200 to $5,000. The gap is large, so treat both as a starting point and compare your own estimates per linear foot. HomeGuide says most homes have 100 to 200 linear feet of gutter, roughly a tenth of the home's square footage.

What else moves the price, from the same two sources:

Removing the old gutters. HomeAdvisor puts removal at $1 to $2 per linear foot; HomeGuide at $50 to $200 for the job.
Seamless or sectional. HomeGuide says seamless gutters, custom-made with no joints along a run, cost $3 to $5 or more per linear foot above sectional ones. HomeAdvisor notes that sectional joints are more likely to leak as they age, and that vinyl comes only in sections.
Size. HomeGuide says 6-inch gutters add $1 to $2 per linear foot over 5-inch.
Height. HomeGuide says a two-story home adds $1 to $3 or more per linear foot.
Downspouts. HomeGuide puts downspouts at $30 to $75 each, installed.

For seamless and sectional gutters compared on cost, leaks and materials, see seamless vs sectional gutters. For the metal flashing between the roof and the gutter, see drip edge vs gutter apron.

What gutter guards cost

Guards sit over or inside the gutter to keep leaves out. Estimates for them vary even more than for gutters, because the category runs from a strip of foam to a branded, fully covered system.

Angi reports an average of $1,521, with most of its customers paying $653 to $2,459, or $6 to $13 per linear foot installed.
HomeGuide puts professional installation at $15 to $45 per linear foot, or $3,000 to $9,000 for 200 feet, and says professional installation typically comes with better materials and a lengthy warranty.
HomeAdvisor lists gutter guards at about $1,500 on average as an add-on to a gutter replacement.

Angi's installed prices by type:

Guard type	Installed, per linear foot (Angi)
Plastic screen	$0.40 – $1 (material)
Metal mesh screen	$1 – $4
Vinyl grid	$1 – $4
Foam insert	about $2
Gutter brush	about $3
Reverse curve	$3.50 – $6.50
Solid surface-tension cover	$4 – $8
Micro-mesh screen	about $9

Angi's figure for plastic screens is for the material; it gives $80 to $200 for 150 feet with installation. Fine micro-mesh keeps out pine needles and grit that coarser screens let through. Reverse-curve covers fasten to the fascia, which makes them harder to fit. Brushes have to be taken out and cleaned from time to time, and foam may need to come out for the winter, Angi notes.

If you are replacing the gutters anyway, ask for the guards to be priced as a separate line, so you can decide on them on their own.

Sizing gutters and downspouts

This Old House's guide to sizing gives these rules of thumb:

Most homes use 5-inch K-style gutters (the flat-backed shape that mounts flush to the fascia) or 6-inch half-round ones. Larger or steeper roofs, and runs where valleys pour water into one spot, may need 6-inch K-style or more downspouts.
Downspouts: about 1 square inch of opening for every 100 square feet of roof that drains into them. A 2-by-3-inch downspout handles about 600 square feet of roof, and a 3-by-4-inch one about 1,200.
Slope: about 1/4 inch of fall for every 10 feet of gutter toward the outlet.
A run of 60 feet or longer should have at least two outlets, with the gutter pitched toward both.

The right size also depends on how hard it rains where you live. A roofer or gutter installer should size the system from your roof's drainage area and local rainfall figures, and your local code may set requirements of its own.

Check the fascia and soffit while the gutters are down

With the gutters off, the fascia can be seen and repaired. IKO lists moisture rot, cracks, bowing, holes and animal damage as reasons to replace a fascia board, and warns that a badly fitted new board can throw off the slope of the gutter. HomeGuide puts fascia replacement at $5 to $12 per linear foot, or $9 to $34 for fascia and soffit together, and notes that rotten fascia has to be repaired before new gutters go up.

Ask for a price per foot of fascia in the roofing contract, just as you would for decking, so rot found along the eaves has a known cost.

When to keep your existing gutters

Keeping your gutters is reasonable when all of these are true:

They are well inside the lifespan of their material in the table above.
They are not sagging, pulling away from the fascia, rusted through or cracked.
They don't overflow in heavy rain when they are clean.
They will fit the new drip edge, so roof water lands in the gutter and not behind it.

HomeAdvisor lists sagging, rust, persistent clogs, cracks and splits, pooling water and water damage as signs that repair is no longer enough. HomeGuide adds water stains on the siding below the gutters, peeling paint below the roofline and cracks in the foundation. If only a section is damaged, a repair may do; HomeGuide puts gutter repairs at $100 to $450.

If you keep them, ask the roofer to take them down and rehang them with care, to check the hangers, and to confirm the slope toward each downspout when they go back up.

What to put in the estimate

The gutter material, size and style (K-style or half-round, seamless or sectional), and the number and size of downspouts.
Removal and disposal of the old gutters.
Any fascia or soffit repair, as a price per foot.
Guards, if you want them, as a separate line.
Both warranties. HomeAdvisor notes that most new gutter systems come with a manufacturer's warranty on the material and a contractor's warranty on the installation, and that the terms vary.

Our guide to what a roof replacement costs covers the rest of a roofing estimate, and what happens during a roof replacement explains where the drip edge goes in the order of work.

Frequently asked questions

Do the gutters have to come off for a new roof?

Not always. They must come off if the fascia behind them is replaced, because the gutters are mounted on it. If they stay up, ask how the roofer will make sure the new drip edge still sends water into them.

Should the roofer or a gutter company install new gutters?

Either can, if they are licensed where your local rules require it and insured. A roofer installing both can fit the drip edge and the gutter together under one contract. If you hire a gutter company instead, schedule it after the roof is finished and ask both to agree on how the gutter meets the drip edge. Ask each for a written estimate with the same specification.

How long does it take to install new gutters?

HomeGuide says most installations take one to two days on an average home, and a simple single-story home can be done in four to six hours.

Are gutter guards worth it?

They reduce cleaning but don't end it. Angi notes that guards don't eliminate gutter maintenance, and suggests fitting them only where clogs are worst, such as under trees, if budget is tight. HomeAdvisor calls them a sensible add-on where gutters collect leaves or pine needles.

How long do gutters last?

It depends on the material. HomeAdvisor puts gutters in general at 20 to 50 years with good installation and upkeep, copper at 50 to 100 years and zinc at 80 years or more. HomeGuide's ranges by material are in the table above. Cleaning them regularly helps them reach the top of the range.

How we got these numbers

HomeAnvil does not yet publish price data of its own. Every figure on this page comes from a published source, read on September 26, 2026. The cost figures come from companies that connect homeowners with contractors; each surveys its own customers or editors, and their ranges differ, so we show them side by side: