Ask what new guttering costs and the honest first answer is another question: how many metres? Gutters are a repeating part, a channel on brackets with a joint every few metres, so the price follows the length of your eaves far more closely than it follows the size of the house.
MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) gives a typical UK range of £30 to £70 per metre for guttering replacement. That is a national figure from a third-party price guide, not a Watertight price. It covers the ordinary case of taking down an old run and fitting a new one, and it will not stretch to every material or every roof height.
What follows takes the range apart: what a metre usually includes, how the choice of gutter changes the number, why fall and bracket spacing matter more than people expect, and what scaffold does to a small job. We also say how to tell whether you need a new gutter at all. Our gutters, soffits and fascias service begins with a survey, and the written quote after it is one total price.
Where the £30 to £70 per metre comes from
A per-metre price is an average of many different jobs, so the useful thing is to know what pulls a job towards each end of it. At the lower end sit short, straight runs at a reachable height, fitted in standard plastic with a plain profile. At the upper end sit long runs, awkward corners, many downpipes and a higher grade of material.
Worked through, the range gives a rough scale. Fifteen metres of guttering at £30 to £70 per metre multiplies out to £450 to £1,050, and thirty metres comes to £900 to £2,100. Those are sums on a published range and not quotes, and they leave out scaffold, which is covered later.
What a metre normally includes
Think of a metre as the channel itself plus the brackets that hold it and the joints that link one length to the next. Stop ends close the channel at each end, and corner units turn it round a hip or a bay. Outlets let the water into the downpipe. A guide that quotes per metre may fold some of these in and leave others as extras, so it is worth asking which are in your total.
Why the price is not a simple multiple
Fixed parts add cost that does not grow with length. A short run on a porch or a lean-to still needs two stop ends, an outlet and at least one downpipe, so small jobs often work out dearer per metre than long ones. That is a trade fact, not a figure from the guide, and the survey will show how it applies to your eaves.
Choosing a material
Most replacement guttering in this country is plastic, and for good reason. It is light, it needs no painting and it goes up quickly. Metal gutters cost more, but they can be the right answer on an older or listed house, or where you want a particular look.
Plastic (uPVC)
Plastic is the usual starting point. It comes in white, black, brown, grey and a few woodgrain finishes, in half-round, square and deeper profiles. It can become brittle with age, and the joints rely on rubber seals that eventually harden, which is why an old plastic gutter so often drips at the joint before anything else fails.
Aluminium
Aluminium gutters are stronger and slimmer, take a factory colour finish and do not rot. Some systems are formed on site from a coil into one continuous length, which removes the joints that leak. That is the main appeal of the continuous-length type.
Cast iron and cast aluminium
Cast iron is heavy, long-lived if painted and kept clear, and it is the match for many Victorian and Edwardian houses. Brackets and fixings must be sized for the weight, and the surface needs repainting. Cast aluminium copies the look at a lower weight. Each material has trade-offs between weight, upkeep and appearance.
On a listed building, or inside a conservation area, the choice of material can be a planning matter. Check with the Adur and Worthing planning team before changing the look of a historic frontage.
What each material adds to the price depends on the profile, the length and the fixings, so the written quote after the survey carries the real number for the one you choose.
Profiles, downpipes and how much water they carry
A gutter has to collect whatever drains from the slope and carry it along to the downpipe without spilling. Two things control that: the shape and size of the channel, and the number and position of the outlets.
The profile
Half-round is the traditional shape and the commonest on terraces and semis. Square-section gutters sit neatly against a flat fascia. Deeper, ogee and high-capacity profiles hold more water and suit large roofs or a long run draining to a single point. Each one has its place, and the survey can match the profile to your roof area.
Why capacity shows up in storms
Coastal weather comes in sudden, heavy bursts, and a channel that is slightly too small for its roof will overflow in a downpour even when the gutter is clean and level. Overflow spills over the front edge or, worse, runs down the wall. If your present gutter overflows in heavy rain only, the answer may be a larger channel or another outlet and not a new run of the same size.
Downpipes
Downpipes are the part most often left out of a rough price, and they matter as much as the gutter. They can be round or square, plastic or metal, and each one takes the water from the length of gutter that feeds it. A downpipe that is cracked, blocked or discharging against the wall will undo a new gutter in a single winter. A fresh look at each one is part of any gutter survey.
When you are comparing figures, ask whether the total covers the downpipes and their brackets or only the horizontal runs.
Fall, brackets and a gutter that stays put
Two details decide whether new guttering works for years or sags within a few: how the channel is set to fall, and how often it is held up.
The fall
A gutter should not be level. It needs a gentle slope towards the outlet so water runs off and does not sit. Manufacturer guidance, which is not a British Standard, typically recommends a fall of roughly 1:600 to 1:350 depending on the system. In practice that is about a millimetre or two for every metre of run, too slight to see from the ground. Set too flat, the channel holds standing water that spills at the first joint. Set too steep, it looks wrong and can send water over the far end of the run.
Our page on gutter fall goes into this further.
Bracket spacing
Brett Martin's installation guidance says gutter supports should be spaced no more than 900mm apart. Brackets that have been spread wider than that, or fixed into a rotten board, are a common reason for the dip in an old gutter. New brackets only hold if the timber behind them is sound.
A bracket is only as good as the board it screws into. If the fascia is soft, replace the board first, then hang the gutter on it.
Gutter work and fascia work therefore tend to be planned together. Our guide to signs a fascia needs replacing shows what to look for, and the page on the cost of a full roofline replacement explains what changes in the price when the boards and soffits are renewed too.
Access, scaffold and when small jobs cost more
Access can move the final figure further than the guttering itself, because the people fitting it have to work at the eaves safely and for long enough to do the job properly.
Bungalows and low eaves
Plenty of single-storey eaves can be worked from a ladder with a stand-off, or from a low tower. Costs stay close to the guide figures when no scaffold is needed.
Two storeys and above
Above bungalow height, a full run of new gutter normally goes in from scaffold. MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) puts scaffold for a typical house of two floors at around £850 to £1,200 for that setup. For a small gutter job that is a heavy addition, and for a whole roofline it is spread across more work. That arithmetic is why it is worth checking the fascias and soffits while the poles are already up.
Scaffold that stands on the pavement also needs a licence arranged by the scaffold firm, which takes some days.
Cleaning, repair and replacement
Not every gutter problem needs new guttering. A blocked gutter needs clearing, and our guide to gutter cleaning explains what that involves. A single leaking joint can be resealed or the section swapped. Replacement is the right call when most of the joints weep, the channel is cracked or distorted, or the run has lost its fall and cannot be re-hung.
The right answer is whichever job properly solves the fault. We trace the cause before pricing anything and propose the least work that fixes it, with the reasoning set out in the written quote.
Reading a gutter quote
A gutter quote should be easy to read and should tell you exactly what will be fitted. Ours is written, follows a survey of your eaves and gives one total price. Photographs of your own gutters come with it, so you can see the fault for yourself when you decide.
Before accepting any quote for new guttering, check these points.
- Is VAT included in the total?
- Does it cover scaffold, or only the guttering?
- Which material and which profile are being fitted?
- Are downpipes, stop ends, corners and outlets included?
- Is the old guttering taken away, and the site left clear?
- What happens if the fascia behind the gutter turns out to be rotten?
Those questions turn a single figure into something you can judge. A very low price that leaves out the downpipes or the scaffold is not a low price.
Looking after the new run
New guttering lasts longest when it stays clear of debris and gets a look after autumn leaf fall and after any gale. Our page on looking after gutters, fascias and soffits sets out a simple routine, and the explainer on what fascias and soffits do shows how the whole edge of the roof works together.
The survey records the fall, the bracket condition and the state of the fascia behind the run, because those decide whether a simple swap is enough. Send photographs of the gutters you want replaced, along with a rough length and the number of storeys, and we will tell you what the survey needs to look at first.
