The number a homeowner wants is a published “$8/foot leaf filter special.” That number is not a takeoff. A one-story ranch with 140 feet of empty 5" K-style is not the same job as a two-story colonial with 220 feet of micromesh, twelve miters, packed leaves, and rotten fascia. The word “gutter guard” is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorGutter-cleaning calculators price a seasonal debris flush and a downspout snake. Roofing calculators price squares, pitch, and a reroof. A gutter-guard install is a lineal-foot takeoff: the included ranch run, the extra story the coupon never mentions, the extra feet of coil, and the system. Quoting all of that from a published special is how the first extra story eats the field margin.
Each extra story is a taller ladder, a second-floor run, and time that never appears on the coupon. Extra feet over the included 120-foot ranch are billed as their own hours and extra coil. Packed gutters, extra miters, extra downspouts, fascia repair, steep-roof access, and occupied landscaping are adders that get forgotten on a screen special. On the sample rates a 2-story 220 ft micromesh colonial with a clean-first pass, two extra downspouts, 16 ft of fascia, and occupied access prices about $4,602 ($20.92 per foot, 15.3 crew-hours). The same shop’s 140 ft one-story screen ranch prices about $787 ($5.62 per foot, 2.7 hours, walk-away $566). Matching an $8/ft Facebook special on the colonial ($1,760) is how that job becomes a loss of about $1,553.
A 2-story 180 ft reverse-curve / helmet job with steep-roof access and occupied landscaping is not the micromesh colonial plus 20%. On the sample rates that reverse-curve job prices about $2,526 ($14.03 per foot, 7.7 crew-hours) — more as a total than the ranch, less than the packed micromesh, because the steep-roof hours do not live in a published per-foot adder. A typical 1-story 160 ft foam insert with two extra miters and occupied access prices about $1,296 (4.2 hours, $8.10 per foot). Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine on the ranch turns into a loss after the first extra story.
A $36/h installer loaded at 32% payroll burden is $47.52. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. On the sample rates the brochure ranch walk-away is $566, so an $8/ft coupon ($1,120) still covers that house. The same coupon on the colonial does not. Replace every rate with your coil and mesh invoices before you send either number.
This is not a roofing inspection, a building-code determination, a leak warranty, a guarantee that any gutter will stay clear, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. System type, lineal feet, stories, miter count, and whether the gutters must be cleaned first are yours to confirm.
Charge from the included one-story ranch, extra stories over that include, extra lineal feet over the included run, extra miters, extra downspouts, a clean-first pass on packed gutters, fascia repair, steep-roof access, occupied-home landscaping, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 1-story 140 ft screen ranch at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $787 — about $5.62 per foot.
Homeowners count 'a gutter is a gutter.' Extra stories, extra feet, extra miters, packed debris, rotten fascia, and a micromesh coil do not live in an $8/ft coupon. The special can look fine on a ranch and still lose more than $1,500 on a two-story colonial.
Not in proportion. On the sample rates a 2-story 220 ft micromesh colonial with a clean-first pass and fascia repair prices around $4,602 ($20.92 per foot), while a 140 ft one-story screen ranch prices around $787 ($5.62 per foot).