Copper is a wonderful material for roofing and guttering needs. If you are replacing existing gutters, you need to be sure that you don’t mix existing downspouts with a non-compatible gutter material. For example, you would not want to pair new copper gutters with existing steel or aluminum downspouts. Copper will cause both to rust prematurely – even if you put a barrier in between. The runoff from the copper gutter into the downspouts will corrode the steel or aluminum prematurely.
As you can see in the chart, pairing aluminum and steel would be fine. Pairing copper and stainless steel also works, and is a very common practice. If you’re having gutters made out of gold, skip the nickel downspouts – you’re stuck with gold. Also, we’d love to make those gutters and downspouts for you.
