Gutter Shutter system--opinions--reputation?

17 years ago

I know this is sort of "off-season" about gutter systems but we are presently considering

the gutter system-- "Gutter Shutter"!

They have the ususal "sales tactics", which I hate but understand it's just part of

"the game" you have to play to come to an agreement on what you are able or willing to

pay, but--bottom line---any experience with them, please?

Featured Answer

brewstertownhomw_aol_com

13 years ago

Nice gutter product but the warranty is worthless if the contractor goes out of business. The manufacturer warranty only covers the actual product (metal and plastic parts). The no-clog warranty and the high back mounting no pull away will not be covered as that is labor. The name you are paying the extra money for is only for the materials and the training to install. The manufacturer's website is very mis-leading and has one thinking they are covered. My contractor went out of business and now I am stuck with gutter that collects water and debris.

Here is a link that might be useful: GutterShutter Company

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Comments (6)

pew1
17 years ago
Can't give you advice on the Gutter Shutter, but I have used a few of the other systems. Gutter Helmet, Leaf Guard, Gutter Guard.

I have found they all do a reasonable good job, but each has it's quirks.

Gutter Helmet did a very good job, however, it has to be installed under a row of shingles and nailed down. On the plus side, it uses existing gutters.

Leaf guard requires the entire gutter to be replaced. The cross section is not very large and has a problem handling a heavy volume of water. It requires additional downspouts. Have them on the front of our house.

Gutter Guard, line Leaf Guard requires an entire replacement, and is the most expensive of the bunch, but I like it the most. The cover is replaceable in sections should it become damaged. Has a very large cross section so can handle large amounts of water with the fewest downspouts, which was important to us. Found them nice people to deal with. Don't be afraid to push pricing. They can come on a bit strong at first. We walked away from the first visit, or I should say they walked away. I was told we would never get a better price, wrong!

From what I saw of Gutter Shutter it looks similar in profile to the others, but there did seem to be a large chunk of support hardware in the gutter which could impede flow.

Whoever you go with, do't take their first pricing as written in concrete. Be sure they are aware you are looking at other options.

Hope this helps.

Paul
pghfunguy28_yahoo_com
15 years ago
I don't know if you are in the DC area, but I had good luck with the gutter shutter system offered by Thompson Creek. They have quotes that are good for 1 year so there is no high pressure and when I finally did decide to buy, they performed as advertised. One thing I liked that nobody else offered was a guarantee that the gutters would never pull away from the house. Since this is the reason I was looking for gutters, it was a big factor in my decision. Hope that helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Maryland Gutter Shutter By Thompson Creek
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Mr John Armstrong is an Englishman who promises to back up this product. He claimed to have a license for this system. First, of all, he is NOT a licensed agent. The parent company allows him to buy product from them. He makes all sorts of promises and once he has your money, NEVER see of hear from him. He gave us his cell # 516-554-4392, which we called many times without reply and surprise it is disconnected. His new cell number as supplied by the parent company (877-677-4888)in Cincinnati,Ohio is 516-567-6596. This number does not get answered by John Armstrong and allows calls to go to his mailbox without reply. His charge of just under $5,000 was collected at the end of the day. He promised to FIX 2 areas of Complaint. This was in May of 2011. His crew arrived at our 10 year old home in Huntington, NY, to remove existing gutters and reinstall his Gutter Shutter system. The workers left debris that came off from the old system all over the property, plus left tons of dropped nails ( particularly in front of the 3 car garage, which we cleaned to prevent getting tire damage.) and empty water bottles and garbage strewn about that WE CLEANED up ourselves. First area left unaddressed was a down spout adaption. John promised to fix a connection that his workers could not adapt to the existing drain pipe in our asphalt driveway. They TEMPORARILY rerouted this pipe into my front garden. This has caused water to now empty into this area that formally had none, due to this connection, large amount of water drain into the soil and has now caused leaking into my basement walls. We never had a problem before since we did not have water there. Second area was a leader in the front house not replaced. This man has never replied to our complaints. All number associated with him disconnected. The Main Parent Company still supplies him with product knowing he is unlicensed and operation WITH complaint. If you are looking for a SCAMMER and unsupported service, then hire him. He is here in the United SCAM of America.
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Thanks live_wire_oak - I find myself agreeing with nearly all of your style points. I don't think we realized how prominent the roof was until we really spent some time looking at it from the street. I don't think changing the roof is in the budget now (it's pretty new), but we'll definitely keep that in mind. We're both really intrigued by the suggestion of a slab door - what is that? We picked up some paint samples yesterday. Old gutters are down and the house is already looking cleaner, even without the new ones up. We picked a gutter color that is called 'wicker', and had SW mix paint to match. Here's a pic of the samples we put up. It's dim - by the time the paint had dried, this area (east facing, under covered patio) is shaded - but you see the colors we're talking about, over the green and next to the brick. Trim/gutters - light tan (color matched wicker metal gutters) Front Door - BM Currant Red (1323) Shutters (if we do -- causing marital strife) - SW Umber Brick (more marital strife - not painting though!) - 6140 Moderate White. I like the green but we compromised and are currently planning on going with the tan color -- which we color matched from the gutter color we're putting up. That will be all the trim. The dark brown we were thinking for shutters, but if we don't do shutters... Clearly we won't use it :) Would you consider using that brown to paint the aluminum visible in the picture of the front? We'll replace the windows -- they're 1966 single pane glass -- but not sure when, and we don't like the aluminum lines.(could be usable) I like your suggestion on the planters and I'll consider today a success if I can get them dug up before the Rangers game :) Melanie, I believe, on the landscape forum, suggested creeping thyme -- I think we'll do something like that to try and break the planter box line. I also like the idea of semi-circle as landscape bed. My kids aren't playing out there - too close to the busy street - and having something to break up the monotony and add curves would be great. Melanie -- thank you for explaining! I'm looking at his books on ebay now. Thank you SO much for your help here and on the other forum! You've made us like our house a lot more. Summary on what we're going to do this week: Gutters (wicker above unless someone can talk me out of it in the next day) installed, trim/fascia/sofits painted to match. Paint front door Remove boxwood in planter boxes up front Pause and evaluate.... To sum up questions: If we don't do the shutters in Umber -- which my wife wants to do, and my painter assured her it was easy to shave the raised brick to install them, what else can we do in the brown to pop? The window frames? We had a decorator come to help with color selection, and she was a strong advocate of both shutters and painted brick. My wife is still on board with leaving the brick unpainted for now, but the shutters idea has come back with a vengeance. For what it's worth, most house in the neighborhood do ... But, this decorator also suggested we call a Realtor and ask for advice, which is exactly what I DON'T want to do. I want it to look good and not offend those that know what they're looking at! We were going to paint the windows in the white color, but would the brown pop? Give us some color without having to throw up fake shutters? VERY interested in learning more about doing a copper door. We're going to paint the door and frame in that red color above - more of a magenta. Finally, what are you guys thinking about the below picture? Dim again - my photo skills aren't the best - but this is an angle shot of my back patio. Same brick, which you can see. To the left is another bay window just like the ones out front, this one into the breakfast room/kitchen. The ceiling you'll see the drywall portion is white -- and then the wood portion turns to the trim color. The decorator we had suggested we paint the same color, the moderate white, so there's not a line -- opening the space up. But the problem is, if I paint that white, I think I have to carry the white all the way around the house under the roof, meaning the wood on the underside of the roof would be white, the rest of the trim tan. (We're thinking the white above) Or -- can I just tape off a logical line somewhere and transition from white to the trim color? Or .. I can just paint the ceiling the trim color, but then it all kinda blends in. THANK YOU!
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I like it with the shutters off. I see a lack of any color for interest now though. You mentioned a wicker chair, or two. Please put colorful cushions on them, and in your before picture, you had some colorful plants in front of all the green. They are missing in your after picture, and you really need to add something similar back there. The only color, I am seeing now, is the two yellow pots.
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dfrenia_hotmail_com
15 years ago
The Gutter Shutter Co. uses a 10 step sales system to overcome all objections except price and terms this can take 2 to 3 hours. The bottom line is of course price and you can buy this system for 30% to 50% off the salesperson's TODAY price. Forget the one year price as it is only used to condition you for the Today price which will still be available tomorrow or even next month.
Be smart don't overpay!
kaminokids
15 years ago
Can't help you with Gutter Shutter. I had new gutters done back in August '07 and had Rain Flow installed. Cost was only about 6$ per foot, as it was installed in conventional gutters by a trusted roofer, not any overpriced "specialist". I couldn't be happier. Gutter cleaning for me was a monthly operation in the spring, bi-weekly in the fall as I have a mansard roof, a real leaf-trapper. No maintenance, no overflows, no problems, period. I have numerous tall deciduous trees so I can't give you any help with pines.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: Rain Flow USA
ring14u_hotmail_com
12 years ago
I worked for Gutter Shutter in Cincinnati. The sales manager there named John is a frickin goof ball. Its a scripted pitch.................that leads the salesman to ultimately "Phone his warehouse manager" in an effort to see if they have "your color gutter" and length (roll) in the warehouse. The saleman ALWAYS puts the manager on speaker phone so the customer can hear the conversation. The key here is: Its really the sales manager and the salesman initially says " I am with the Smucketelli family and we need a little help here with their gutters. (a little help means the initial price quoted to the homeowner is just a little too high)...................If the salesman says...............man, this family could use a LOT of help out here with their gutters, this simply clues the sales manager off that he needs to discount HUGE to get the business.
Ultimately, and lucky for you the homeowner, (the sales manager doesnt even go out in the warehouse and check) the sales manager usually will call the saleman back.........and say something like............."did you say WHITE............185 foot..............with 3 downspouts? Of course the salesman says yes. The manager then says " I have a 195 foot roll of white still banded out here in the 3rd row of the warehouse...........you can discount THAT roll by 900.00 (or something like that)

Its all driven to make the customer SEEM like its their lucky day......but of course....the product is still overpriced. I WOULD HIGHLY SUGGEST NEVER NEVER dealing with Cincinnati Gutter Shutter. They have a horrible BBB rating..........utilize several company names because they cant keep a clean BBB rating and switch names FREQUENTLY.

Its all driven to get the homeowner to buy TODAY..............without getting other quotes.

Good luck...........................lol

Gutter Shutter system--opinions--reputation?

brewstertownhomw_aol_com

Comments (6)

pew1

pghfunguy28_yahoo_com

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