Seamless gutters in Franklin Lakes, NJ
Big roofs, long runs and a great deal of tree cover: Franklin Lakes asks more of a gutter than most of the county. We install seamless aluminum and copper, repair what is worth repairing, and plan where every downspout sends its water on a lake or hillside lot.
Long runs on big, complicated roofs.
Franklin Lakes filled in twice: once after Route 208 reached Oakland in 1959, with colonials, split-levels and ranches, and again after I-287 was finished in the early 1990s, with large custom colonials and estate houses. The second wave is what sets the gutter work here — roofs with several gables and dormers, steep pitches, and eaves that run a long way between corners.
That combination gathers a lot of water into a few places, fast. A five-inch gutter with one downspout at each end, the default on a tract house, overflows at the inside corners and at the foot of every valley. What works is measured rather than assumed: the roof area draining to each run, a larger profile where it is needed, extra downspouts on the longest eaves, and long runs pitched toward more than one outlet instead of carried the whole length to a single corner.
The sizing arithmetic itself is on gutters. What follows is what is particular to this borough.
Trees above the roof, water below the lot.
Canopy over most roofs
The borough is heavily wooded, with a large Nature Preserve and big lots left in trees. An open gutter under that canopy can fill in one autumn, and what fills it also packs the valleys above. A guard is often worth it here — one chosen for the debris that actually falls on this roof.
Lakes and creek lots
Franklin Lake, Shadow Lake, Hopper Lake, the Blauvelt and Crystal Lakes and the old mill creeks put many houses on low ground by the water. Roof water has to reach the ground somewhere it will soak away or drain off, not pond against a foundation on a lot that is already wet.
Hillside lots on the Ramapo foothills
At over five hundred feet, many lots slope. A downspout emptying onto a slope cuts a channel and sends the water toward the house below; the discharge is routed and piped where the grade asks for it, and the plan goes on the estimate.
Shade and ice on north faces
Shaded north slopes hold snow longer, and a gutter that stays full of wet leaves freezes solid. Clean, correctly pitched gutters with outlets big enough to drain are the gutter’s share of keeping ice off the eaves; the attic has the rest. Under woods like these, book the fall gutter cleaning after the trees are bare.
Copper where the house was built for it.
Under the post-war and custom-home layers sits a thin base of much older houses: the Dutch stone-and-frame farmhouses on Franklin Lake Road, Ewing Avenue and Franklin Avenue, several of them on the National Register, and the estate houses built around 1900. A K-style aluminum profile looks wrong on any of them. Half-round copper, hung on proper brackets, suits the architecture and lasts far longer than aluminum.
What copper costs installed, and how long it lasts, is in copper gutters: cost and lifespan.
Repair what is sound; replace what is too small.
A run that has sagged out of pitch, a hanger that has let go, a leaking corner or outlet, a downspout knocked off at the elbow — those are repairs, and we will tell you so. Gutters that were undersized for the roof from the start, sectional runs leaking at joint after joint, or gutters hung on rotten fascia are a replacement, and the fascia is repaired before anything goes back up.
The roof and the gutters work as one system. When we re-roofed a Franklin Lakes split-level, new gutters were next on the list for exactly that reason — the job is on the Franklin Lakes project page. Choosing a guard for a wooded lot is covered in gutter guards under a heavy canopy.
The rest of the outside.
Franklin Lakes
The borough, its houses and everything we do there.
Town →A re-roof in town
A full shingle replacement in GAF Charcoal.
Project →Gutters
Sizing, aluminum or copper, guards and discharge.
Details →Roofing
Slate, cedar, standing seam and shingle on the same houses.
Details →Siding in Franklin Lakes → · Next door: gutters in Wyckoff →
Do you install seamless gutters in Franklin Lakes?
Yes. Seamless aluminum is formed on site to the length of each roof edge, so there are no joints along a run to open up, and copper is available where the house calls for it. Most houses in the borough are large, with long runs and a lot of tree cover, so the sizing, the number of downspouts and the choice of guard are set for that rather than for a standard tract house.
What size gutters does a large Franklin Lakes house need?
Usually bigger than the builder fitted. A roof with several gables and dormers collects a great deal of water into a few eaves, and a steep pitch sends it there fast. Six-inch gutters with larger downspouts are often the right answer on the custom houses, but the answer comes from measuring the roof areas that drain to each run, not from a rule of thumb.
Are gutter guards worth it on a wooded Franklin Lakes lot?
Often, yes, but only a guard that suits what actually falls on the roof. Under a heavy canopy an open gutter can fill in a single autumn, and a guard that sheds leaves but clogs with fine debris just moves the problem. We look at the trees over the house before recommending one, and we will say so if cleaning twice a year is the better answer.
Can my gutters be repaired rather than replaced?
Many can. A sagging run that has lost its pitch, a hanger pulled out of the fascia, a leaking end cap or an outlet, or a downspout knocked loose is a repair. Gutters too small for the roof, runs leaking at many joints, or fascia rotted behind them are a replacement, and the fascia is fixed first either way.
Should an older Franklin Lakes house get copper half-round gutters?
On the surviving Dutch stone farmhouses and the turn-of-the-century estates, half-round copper usually suits the house far better than a K-style aluminum profile, and it lasts for generations. On the post-war and 1990s custom houses, seamless aluminum in a color matched to the trim is the usual and sensible choice.
Gutters sized for a Franklin Lakes roof.
Measured, not guessed: the roof areas, the downspouts, the guard and where the water goes, written on the estimate.