Seamless gutters for a Southern California winter

Twelve inches of rain a year does not sound like it needs a gutter, and many Orange County tracts were built without one. The problem is that the twelve inches arrive in a handful of storms, and an atmospheric river can put three of them on a roof in a day. A tile roof sheds that water in a sheet, straight onto the slab, the footings, the front step and the garage apron.

It undermines the slab at the drip line, stains the stucco, floods the entry, and on a hillside lot in Yorba Linda or Newport it takes the soil with it. A gutter with a downspout placed properly takes the same water to a splash block or a drain and away from the house.

A seamless gutter is rolled from a coil at your home in one continuous run, so the only joins are at the corners. A sectional gutter is joined every few feet with a sealed slip connector, and a few winters open every one of those seals. Start there; the profile and the metal come second.

Five-inch OG carries most homes. A large or steep tile roof sheds water faster than a shingle roof, and six-inch is the right call there, with a 3-by-4 downspout rather than a 2-by-3. We size it at the estimate from the roof, not from a rule of thumb.

Aluminum comes in a baked-on color to match the fascia or the trim, does not rust even at the beach, and is the right answer for nearly every home. Copper is chosen for how it looks on a craftsman or a Spanish revival: bright when new, then brown, then green, and the sea air brings the green on sooner. Both carry our lifetime warranty against leaks.