The problem: the eave tells you gutter, not water
- Downspout count comes from roof drainage area, not eave length. A 40 foot eave under a porch roof and a 40 foot eave under half a two-storey hip carry wildly different volumes. Every drop you miss is an overflow the homeowner calls about.
- Downspout length is on the elevation, not the plan. The plan shows where a downspout lands, not how far it falls. Two houses with identical footprints and identical eave runs can differ by half the downspout material.
- Every corner is a counted part. A wheel run around a roofline gives one continuous number and loses the miters entirely — and a house with a bay, two dormers and an L-shaped rear can carry eight or ten of them.
- The right gutter size is regional. Capacity depends on roof area, pitch and local rainfall intensity together, so the same five inch gutter that is comfortable in one region is undersized in another on an identical roof. There is no published K-style capacity chart at all — a K-style has to be sized by its equivalent semicircular area.
Gutter work looks like the simplest linear takeoff there is, right up to the point where the parts list has to be right: miters by hand, outlets one per drop, two elbows minimum per downspout and three where an overhang forces an offset. Expansion joints are their own line, and aluminium moves more than any other gutter metal.
How the tool handles it
Each roof plane is assigned to the eave it drains into, so downspout count and size come from the area actually arriving at that run rather than from its length. Corners are classified inside or outside from the traced geometry and emitted as miters. Storey height is captured with the drop, so downspout feet, stick count, straps and offset elbow pairs fall out of the same measurement.
One trace, the whole material list
A condition is a named, colored layer you trace on the drawing. An assembly turns that one condition into every part it drives, each with its own formula, coverage rate, waste percentage and rounding rule. A Seamless 5in K-style condition looks like this:
| Part | Unit | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Gutter coil | LF / LB | eave LF × waste; .027 × 11⅞in coil is 0.377 lb per foot |
| Hidden hangers | EA | eave LF ÷ spacing — 24in typical, tighter where ice is long-lasting |
| End caps | EA | one per open terminus, left and right are separate parts |
| Miters | EA | one per corner, split inside and outside, strip or box |
| Downspout | STICK | (wall height + elbow offsets) × drop count ÷ 10ft |
| Outlets / drops | EA | equals downspout count, one to one |
| Elbows | EA | 2 minimum per downspout, 3 or more where an offset is needed |
| Downspout straps | EA | downspout LF ÷ spacing |
| Sealant and rivets | TUBE / EA | per miter and end cap joint |
| Expansion / slip joint | EA | run LF ÷ 32ft for aluminium (50ft other metals) |
| Gutter apron / drip edge | LF | eave LF |
| Downspout shoe or kick-out | EA | one per downspout |
| Splash block | EA | one per ground-level discharge |
Change a coverage rate, a waste percentage or a unit cost and every job using that assembly re-prices. You are not editing numbers in twelve places.
Drainage routing, not just length
Each roof plane is assigned to the run it drains into. Drop count and downspout size come from that area, adjusted for pitch — a 6-in-12 roof drains as though it were about ten percent larger than its footprint.
Corners counted as parts
Every direction change in the traced line is classified inside or outside and emitted as a miter with its own sealant and labor, so the corner count is an output rather than something remembered on site.
Two published design maximums, not folklore
SMACNA's practical limit is about 50 feet of gutter served by one downspout, and it caps a run at 50 feet between ends or joints — with the federal spec tightening aluminium to 32 feet because it moves the most of any gutter metal. Both are about thermal movement, and both are easy to miss on a long run.
Every number traces back to a mark
When a callback comes in about an overflow, the marked-up plan shows which roof planes were routed to that run and the drainage area that set the drop count.
Every number on the report links back to a specific mark, on a specific sheet, at a specific place on the page. The marked-up PDF export draws every mark in its condition color with the quantity labeled — that is the file you attach to the bid.
Accuracy is held to a stated tolerance: linear measurements within 0.10% of true, straight-sided areas within 0.25%, and calibration repeatable within 0.20% across five separate calibrations of the same page. Geometry is stored in PDF units, never screen pixels, and rounding happens exactly once — at report time.
What it costs
A missed downspout is a callback, and a callback on a finished gutter run costs more than the drop would have.
$2,500, paid once. Nothing in year two. Nothing in year three. No per-seat bill and no renewal date.
| Estimators using it | A per-seat subscription, five years | Ours, one-time licence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,745 – $10,000 | $2,500 |
| 2 | $17,490 – $20,000 | $2,500 |
| 3 | $26,235 – $30,000 | $2,500 |
| 5 | $43,725 – $50,000 | $2,500 |
Their column multiplies by headcount and then repeats every year. Ours does neither. Put a fourth estimator on it and the number is still $2,500, because you are not licensing seats — you are buying the software.
And it does not repeat
| Whole company | Per-seat subscription, billed that year | Ours, billed that year |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $2,500 |
| Year 2 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 3 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 4 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
| Year 5 | $1,749 – $2,000 × seats | $0 |
What you actually receive
- The source code. Not access to it — a copy of it, running on your infrastructure.
- A one-time perpetual licence. It does not expire, it cannot be revoked, and there is no renewal date in your calendar.
- No seat count. Put every estimator in the company on it. There is no user tier to outgrow and nothing that counts logins.
- No dependence on us. Sixty days of support are included. After that you can hire any developer to change it, because you have the code. Most vendors cannot make that offer, because with them you are renting.
Subscription figures are publicly reported PlanSwift prices from software review sites, shown as a representative example of per-seat takeoff pricing. Check any vendor's current pricing directly before you compare. See the full PlanSwift comparison.
What is being built next
- DXF and DWG import is in active development. Today the tool reads PDF. If your drawings arrive as CAD files, ask on the call and we will give you honest timing rather than a guess on a web page.
- Auto-count symbol recognition — box a symbol once and find every match on the sheet — is a later release.
- Multi-estimator assignment, so a supervisor can hand work to specific people, is still being built out.