When sliding snow and ice would crush aluminum: Park City, Alpine, Heber, Ogden Valley and commercial roofs.
Galvanized and Galvalume steel gutters are roughly twice as strong as aluminum of the same gauge, which is why mountain builders specify them under metal roofs and on eaves that take sliding snow. A slab of wet snow coming off a standing-seam roof in Park City or a January ice load along a shaded Alpine eave will flatten a light aluminum gutter; steel holds its shape.
SwiftHand Gutters installs seamless steel in K-style, half-round and box profiles for homes in Summit and Wasatch counties, the Alpine and Highland bench, Ogden Valley and the Cottonwood canyons, and for commercial buildings across the valley. We pair it with snow guards above the gutter line on metal roofs and with heat tape where ice is the problem.
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Galvanized steel is coated with zinc; Galvalume with a zinc-aluminum alloy that resists rust longer, especially at cut edges. Both come in a painted finish in bronze, black, white and grays, or in a bare metallic look for farmhouse and industrial styles. We recommend Galvalume or a painted finish for Utah and seal every cut edge.
Steel is heavier, so it hangs on heavy-duty hangers on close centers into solid framing. The cut edges at outlets and miters are where rust starts, so we coat and seal them, and a painted steel gutter kept clear of standing debris lasts twenty to thirty years or more.
Seamless steel runs $14 to $22 per linear foot installed depending on profile and finish, roughly fifty percent more than aluminum. Snow guards and heat tape are quoted separately. See the pricing page.
Compare the rest of the family: K-style, half-round, box and fascia gutters, five-inch vs six-inch, aluminum, steel and copper, and gutter colors. Or start at the gutter types overview.
In the mountains, we strongly recommend steel or heavy-gauge six-inch aluminum with snow guards. On a valley home with a metal roof and snow guards, aluminum can be fine.
Painted Galvalume resists rust for decades. The risk is at cut edges, which we seal, and under standing debris, which cleaning prevents.
Yes. We form steel K-style on site the same way as aluminum, in longer runs with fewer seams.
Yes, with the right fasteners to prevent galvanic corrosion. Steel on the heavy-slide eaves and aluminum elsewhere is a common mountain spec.
