Some companies try to shortcut the details of how they’re going to do your gutters by telling you a “per foot” price. This misleads customers into thinking that a linear foot counts as a gutter foot. Be wary of companies that offer the “by the foot” pricing.
Here’s why:
Marketing hype sometimes sucks people into spending too much or getting really low quality gutters if they buy from the “by the foot” guy. The salesman starts out by telling you how much they charge by the foot and if you’re a shopper, it may seem like you’re getting a great deal. What they don’t tell you is just as important as what they do tell you.
What they’re not telling you is how they’re measuring their gutters. Sometimes a corner is counted as 2, 4, or even 10 feet. I’ve heard of companies measuring each elbow on a downspout as 4 feet and each part of the pipe itself counts as 10 feet.
What you or I may measure as 10 feet could be as much as 50 feet to the “by the foot” guy.
What you should be doing is looking at the overall gutter system. What are the details of how they will do the installation and what kind of products are they using should be your question — not, how much do you charge by the foot. Of course you deserve to know what it’s going to cost you, but a professional company will ask you many questions in order to find out what you’re looking for since most homes are different.
Now is there a time when this is appropriate? Yes, but only if you are doing a DIY project and only if you are using a roll off service where you tell the salesman how many feet of gutters you want and they will drive to your home, roll off gutters to a length you tell them, and then cut them at the length you have paid for.