Gutter profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Gutter falls under Specialty trade contractors. For tax year 2023, 2,521,516 returns reported $257.8 billion in receipts, $80.4 billion in cost of sales and $40.5 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 68.8% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 15.7% |
| Average receipts per return | $102,220 |
| Average net income per return | $16,054 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in gutter
Gutter installs are coil, hangers and labor; cleanings are labor and ladder time.
For a worked example, our gutter installation cost calculator puts seamless aluminum gutter, installed at $8.23 to $13.80 a foot, typical $11.01, and treats about 50% of that as labor. On the typical price, that is about $5.51 of labor and $5.51 of materials, equipment and everything else, before your overhead and profit.
Where gutter margin leaks, and how to win it back
- No job minimum on cleanings
- Downspouts and repairs left off
- Steep roofs priced like flat ones
- Coil waste
- Drive time
Ways gutter companies raise margin: set a job minimum for cleanings; sell guards and downspout extensions; price steep and tall roofs higher; book yearly cleaning plans.
Check your gutter prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Seamless aluminum gutter, installed | $11.01 | $8.23 to $13.80 a foot |
| Vinyl gutter, installed | $6.83 | $5.16 to $8.50 a foot |
| Gutter guards, installed | $11.50 | $7.00 to $16.00 a foot |
| Remove and haul away old gutters | $0.70 | $0.65 to $0.75 a foot |
| Gutter cleaning, one story | $1.10 | $0.83 to $1.38 a foot |
| Gutter cleaning, two stories | $1.71 | $1.25 to $2.18 a foot |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual gutter menu: seamless aluminum gutter, installed; vinyl gutter, installed; gutter guards, installed; remove and haul away old gutters; gutter cleaning, one story; gutter cleaning, two stories; clogged downspouts; cleaning job minimum; minor gutter repairs; re-hang sagging gutters; downspout extensions.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In gutter it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are contractors as a group pay an average of $83 a month for; commercial auto at $270 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent gutter job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for contractors as a group, checked October 9, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, gutter installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- This Old House, gutter installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, seamless gutters installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Modernize, gutter installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, gutter installation cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Gutter Helmet, downspout spacing, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, cost to clean gutters, checked October 8, 2026
- HomeAdvisor, gutter cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- This Old House, gutter cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, gutter cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Bob Vila, gutter cleaning cost, checked October 8, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.