A Visit To Vancouver Gutter Companies

Recently we went from our offices and show room in Scarborough and headed west to visit a few gutter companies in the Vancouver area. We spent a couple of days travelling to see some companies as there are some differences to how they operate on the West Coast and we wanted to see them firsthand.

We will refer to eavestroughs as gutter in this blog post out of respect for our friends in BC. No one calls it eavestrough on the West Coast. As you may or may not know gutter is very common in the US as well. I like gutter as I think its easier for people to spell and say. :)

The big difference in BC is that everyone cuts their gutter as it comes out of the machine with a chop saw. This is how they cut their angles for corners and straight cuts for end caps. Here in Toronto this is done by hand.

Most companies cut outlets with a drill with a hole saw attachment. This works well in BC as most of the pipe used seems to be 2 inch by 3 inch size. Standard pipe size here in Toronto is 3 inch by 3 inch so this would not create a large enough outlet.

It might be hard to tell but these gutters are actually taller than the ones we use here as well. Its called a fascia gutter as it serves 2 purposes: to act as a fascia board on a roof line and also as a eavestrough. This saves builders money as they only have to install a smaller 2 inch by 4 inch board for a fascia. This board gets covered by the tall eavestrough which also means the builder does not have to pay to clad it with aluminum either. Not sure why we do not see this being done here on new homes in the GTA. However we do like our way better. I think it's all in what you are used to seeing.

This new house in a typical new subdivision with small fascias is ready for eavestroughs. Sorry the picture is from afar.

Thanks to Leif Carlson from Gaultier Ent. Ltd. He was working hard in the rain! That's another big difference from other parts of the country. Most gutter companies would have gone home until drier weather but as they say in BC, if you don't work in the rain you will not be working much! Centre in picture is Max an area representative from Alu-Rex leaf guards. Alu-Rex was generous enough to take us to a few companies while in the Vancouver area. Gaultier Enterprises from Chilliwack can be found at: http://www.gaultier.ca/gutters

After seeing how popular fascia gutters are out there, we travelled to Nasser Multi-Profile machines. Located in Chilliwack, they specialize in making multi-profile fascia/gutter machines. A great set up geared towards those in BC who need fascia gutters. It can make 11 different profiles and one is shown below.

It was a pleasure meeting Nabeil Nasser at Nasser Multi-Profiles. He definitely has many excellent products for the professional. They can be found at: http://www.nassermachines.com/

Our next stop was to Above All Gutter Systems in Surrey. A company who strives to be great at what they do. Thanks for showing us your terrific set up! They can be found at: http://www.aboveallgutters.ca/

Last stop was North Shore Home Services in Burnaby. A well established professional company.

Owner Troy Thompson and Max from Alu-Rex were checking out the fancy new wrap on one of North Shores gutter trucks. Cant miss them now.

Thanks to Carlos and Adam (in safety vests) who were very generous in explaining the way BC gutters are done. Thanks Troy for the tour of the office and meeting us at one of the job sites.
North Shore Home Services is the only company I know of that travels with 2 gutter machines in their truck. One fascia/gutter machine and another K Style machine like we use in Toronto. They can be found at: http://www.northshorehomeservices.com/

In summary we had a great trip and got to see some different ways of doing gutters. Some we will most likely implement as we are always looking for new improved ways of doing things. BC was great and we finally saw the sun on the last day there!

Visit our website www.eavestrough.ca