Gutters and downspouts are the principal means by which water is conveyed off a roof and away from a building. Rain gutters are not a recent invention, although the construction, function and even the common name for gutters have changed over the years. Troughs and collectors for rainwater have been integrated into roof structures and eaves for thousands of years. Ancient dwellings have been unearthed with elaborate collection systems designed to channel rainwater into storage cisterns used for drinking and bathing. Built-in eaves and troughs (commonly called box gutters) were integrated into the design of the roof structure and are still common today in most of Europe. Built-ins were (and still are) expensive to construct, difficult to maintain, and often the source of extensive damage because of their inboard location over walls and ceilings.

The common solution to maintain or repair built-in gutters was to insert a U-shaped metal lining, usually constructed of lead. In the 1800's, the use of gutters became more affordable and more common as the internal metal trough liners moved as a stand-alone attachment to the outside eave.

Today, gutters are manufactured in hundreds of shapes and sizes. The SMACNA (Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association) Architectural Manual sets the industry standard for gutter lengths, widths, gauge and number of downspouts per square-foot of drainage. In the manual, eleven lip beads are illustrated as being available on each of the twelve most common rectangular gutter styles (which are themselves available in widths from 3 to 8 inches and in different materials, such as aluminum, galvanized steel and plastic). This means that there are thousands of variations of the rectangular gutter alone…without consideration for half-round and box gutters!

Ever hear people in the gutter industry refer to gutters as 'K-style' or 'ogee' gutters and wondered what that meant? Well, ogee is simply a term that refers to any architectural design that incorporates a double curve with the shape of an elongated 'S'. Viewed from the side, 'ogee' gutters have an elongated 'S' incorporated into the front face design. K-style gutters are simply ogee gutters. In the U.S., the most common gutters are five-inch or six-inch (measured front to back at the widest point) K-style gutters. Over the past twenty years, galvanized steel has been replaced by coated aluminum, and ten foot pieces with welded or soldered seams has given way to seamless gutters manufactured right on the construction site.