· By Nora Larkin · 1 min read
Five-inch or six-inch gutters?
What the extra inch buys you, when a house needs it, and why the downspouts matter just as much.
Five-inch K-style is the standard size on most houses in the valley, and for most one-storey houses it’s enough. The question is how much water reaches one stretch of gutter in the hardest rain of the year.
What the extra inch does
A six-inch gutter carries about forty per cent more water than a five-inch one. It costs a dollar or two more a foot, and it looks a little heavier on a small house.
When we recommend six
- A big roof draining to few downspouts, or a long run with one outlet.
- A steep roof: the water arrives faster and shoots further.
- A valley where two roof planes pour onto one short stretch.
- Tall trees nearby, because a gutter half full of needles is a smaller gutter.
Don’t forget the downspouts
A six-inch gutter with the old two-by-three downspouts is a bottleneck. We pair six-inch gutters with three-by-four downspouts, which carry nearly twice as much water and hardly ever clog.