Most homeowners don’t think about eavestroughs until they notice water pooling against the foundation, ice dams forming on the roof, or staining running down the siding below the gutter line. By the time it’s that obvious, the damage is already happening. The eavestroughs have been pulling away from the fascia for years, or seams have opened up and water has been running behind the eaves instead of through them. In a city like Winnipeg, where the freeze-thaw cycle widens any small failure into a major one, undersized or poorly installed eavestroughs cause more foundation problems than almost any other exterior issue.
We install seamless aluminum eavestroughs, custom-fabricated on site for your home. Trudel Roofing has been doing exterior work in Winnipeg since 2011, and the eavestrough side of the business goes hand-in-hand with the roofing side. The two systems work together in unison.
We fabricate seamless aluminum on site, install with heavy-duty internal hangers, and tie the system into the rest of your roof and fascia work. The whole approach is built around the way Winnipeg’s freeze-thaw cycle and snow load punish anything that’s been installed with shortcuts.
The seamless part matters more than people realize. We fabricate the eavestroughs from continuous aluminum coil, so the runs along the front and back of your house have no seams. Every seam is a leak waiting to happen, especially after a few winters of expansion and contraction, and seamless installation is the single biggest factor in how long the system lasts. The only joints are at the corners, where we use sealant rated for cold weather.
We install 5-inch continuous aluminum eavestroughs on all residential homes, which handles the volume of water that comes off a standard Winnipeg roof. For the downspouts, the standard is 2 5/8 inch, with an optional upgrade to 3-inch downspouts and bigger outlets for properties that benefit from higher drainage capacity. We’ll walk through which is right for your home during the quote.
Almost every residential eavestrough we install is seamless pre-finished aluminum, in your choice of standard colours. We offer the T-Rex aluminum gutter guard as an optional add-on, and we size downspouts and extensions to direct water well away from the foundation, which is where most water-damage problems actually start.
Aluminum holds up well to Winnipeg’s temperature swings, doesn’t rust, and is light enough that proper hangers will hold it through any reasonable snow load. It’s also pre-finished, so the colour holds for years without repainting.
We offer the T-Rex aluminum gutter guard as an optional add-on. It doubles as a hanger system and stops most debris from collecting in the trough, which matters more in older neighbourhoods like Wolseley where mature trees drop heavy leaf and seed loads through the fall. Gutter guards aren’t strictly necessary if you’re willing to clean your eavestroughs once or twice a year, but they save the climb on a two-storey house.
Downspouts get sized to match the eavestrough and the roof volume. We install corner outlets that direct water away from the foundation, and we’ll add extensions or splash blocks where the natural grade pushes water back toward the house. The eavestroughs themselves don’t matter if the downspouts dump water against the basement wall.
Eavestroughs and roofing aren’t separate trades to us. They’re the same system, and the way they tie together at the fascia is where most problems start. When the company that installed your roof also installs your eavestroughs, the transitions get done properly the first time.
The questions we hear most on eavestrough work are about lifespan in a Winnipeg climate, whether gutter guards are worth it, and whether eavestroughs need to be replaced at the same time as the roof. Plain answers below.
Properly installed seamless aluminum eavestroughs typically last 20 to 30 years in Winnipeg, though the hardware (hangers, downspout fasteners, sealant at corners) may need attention sooner. The aluminum itself doesn’t rust. The most common failure is poor installation, not material wear.
There isn’t one. They’re the same thing. Eavestrough is the term used in Canada (and especially in older parts of the country). Gutter is the term used more often in the US. When you hear either word, it’s the trough at the edge of your roof that collects rainwater and snow melt.
In Winnipeg, they’re worth it on two-storey homes and on houses with mature trees. On a single-storey bungalow with no large trees nearby, the cost may not be worth it. You can clean the eavestroughs from a ladder in an hour or two each fall. The T-Rex system we install reduces cleaning to once every few years rather than twice a year.
Sometimes. If a single run is damaged (usually from ice falling off a roof or from a tree branch) and the rest of the system is in good shape, we can replace that section and match the colour. If the existing eavestroughs are older than 20 to 25 years or showing wear at the hangers, full replacement is usually the better call.
If both are due, replace the roof first and then the eavestroughs. That order saves you from re-roofing around brand-new eavestroughs later. If only one system is at end of life, you can do that one on its own. We’ll give you an honest assessment of where each system stands during the quote.
If your eavestroughs are sagging, leaking at the seams, or overflowing every time it rains, get in touch. We’ll come measure, give you a quote within 72 hours, and pair the work with any roof or fascia repair you need at the same time.
Monday – Friday: 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed
