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A super gutter is an oversized, heavy extruded aluminum gutter built for screen enclosures, pool cages, and lanais. It carries the big sheet of roof runoff a cage throws off, and it often doubles as the structural beam the cage frame bolts into. Premium Leaf Guards installs super gutters across Ocala and Central Florida, sized for our heavy rain and fastened to code by a licensed inspector on every job. Free estimate: (352) 440-3310.
If you have a pool cage, a screen room, or a lanai, a regular house gutter was never built for that job. The roof over an enclosure dumps a wide, fast sheet of water right at the screen line, and a standard 5 inch trough on thin metal cannot keep up or hold the load. That is what a super gutter is for. It is a much bigger, much heavier gutter that catches that runoff, keeps it off your deck and your screens, and on most cages it carries part of the structure too. We size it for Ocala storms and fasten it the way the Florida Building Code calls for, so it does its job and stays put in a blow.
A super gutter is exactly what the name says: an oversized gutter, far bigger and far stronger than the one on your house. Where a normal home gutter is a thin formed trough about 5 or 6 inches wide, a super gutter is a heavy, extruded aluminum channel, usually 5 or 7 inches across, built with metal several times thicker. The common 7 inch size is engineered to take real load and to meet the Florida Building Code, rated to stand up to high wind.
It does two jobs at once. First, it is a gutter, and a big one, sized to catch the wide sheet of water that comes off the roof above a screen enclosure. Second, on most pool cages and screen rooms it is the structural beam the aluminum cage frame bolts into. The super gutter fastens to your fascia and roof structure, and the enclosure ties into the super gutter. That is why it has to be both oversized and overbuilt: it is carrying water and carrying part of the cage.
This is specialty work, and it sits with the rest of our specialty gutters. If all your home needs is a standard gutter run along the eaves, that is our everyday seamless gutter work instead, and it is a different product for a different job.
Here is the problem a screen enclosure creates. The roof slope above your cage funnels a wide band of water down to one line, right where the cage meets the house. Ocala gets about 52 inches of rain a year, and from June through September our wet season drops 6 to 8 inches a month in hard, fast afternoon storms. In one of those downpours the roof over a lanai can throw off a sheet of water that a thin 5 inch house gutter simply cannot catch. It blows over the front edge in a waterfall onto your pool deck and your screens, washes out the ground at the base of the cage, and over time that constant runoff goes to work on your fascia and your foundation.
There is a second problem most people never think about. On a screen enclosure the gutter is often holding up part of the cage. A regular gutter is not built to carry any load at all, so it is the wrong part in the wrong place. Put a standard gutter where a super gutter belongs and you get sagging, pulling, and overflow, and nobody is happy when the screen room they paid for starts dumping water on the patio every storm.
A super gutter fixes both at once. The wide, heavy trough catches the volume and moves it to downspouts that carry it away from the house, and the extruded beam takes the structural load the cage hands it. You get a dry deck, screens that last, and an enclosure that stays where it belongs.
Super gutters come in two common widths, and picking the right one is most of the job. The 5 inch is the smaller trough and it works for a modest enclosure with a small roof feeding it. The 7 inch is the wider one, and it carries a lot more water per minute. In a hard Ocala storm that extra width is the difference between water leaving cleanly through the downspouts and water spilling over the front edge onto your deck.
For most cages and lanais in this area, especially anything with a good-sized roof draining onto it, we lean toward the 7 inch. The cost difference is small next to the cost of redoing a deck that floods every summer, and the wider trough also clogs far less, which we will get to. The width is only half of it, though. Where the downspouts go and how many you run decides whether the trough ever gets a chance to back up. We plan enough outlets in the right spots so the water has somewhere to leave, then run the drop down and away from the house, ideally about five feet out, with solid pipe instead of the cheap corrugated stuff that breaks underground.
If your enclosure is small and a 5 inch is genuinely all it needs, we will tell you that and save you the money. The point is to fit the gutter to your roof and your rain, not to upsell you a size you will never use.
A super gutter is only as good as what it is fastened to and how it is hung. Because it carries both water and, on most cages, part of the enclosure, it has to be anchored into sound structure, not just tacked to a tired board. The trough fastens to the fascia, the fascia has to be solid and tied to the roof framing, and the cage beam ties into the gutter. If the fascia behind it is soft or rotted, the strongest super gutter in the world will still pull loose. So before we hang anything, we check what we are bolting to.
A licensed home and building inspector is on the job, which is exactly the right set of eyes for a part that is structural. We fasten it the way the Florida Building Code calls for, with the right fasteners at the right spacing, because a super gutter is rated to take high wind and it only earns that rating if it is installed to spec. The metal itself is heavy extruded aluminum, several times thicker than a house gutter, so it holds its shape and does not deform under load.
Then there is the part nobody sees that decides whether it actually works: the fall and the downspouts. We set the right slope toward each outlet so water leaves the trough instead of sitting in it, and we place enough downspouts so a 7 inch gutter keeps up with a hard rain. From there we get the water away from the house with solid PVC, not corrugated pipe that breaks at every bend underground. Everything is built to current codes and modern standards. The system is only as good as the installer, and on a super gutter that is the whole game.
We are not going to talk you into a super gutter if you do not need one. A super gutter earns its keep in one situation: a screen enclosure, a pool cage, or a lanai where the roof sheds a big volume of water at the cage line, or where the gutter has to carry part of the structure. On a job like that, nothing else is the right part, and going cheap there is how people end up with a flooded deck and a sagging cage.
If you do not have an enclosure, you almost certainly do not need a super gutter. For the eaves of a normal house, a properly sized and tightly hung standard gutter does the job for a lot less money, and that is our everyday seamless gutter work. And if your enclosure is small with only a little roof draining onto it, a 5 inch super gutter, or in some cases a heavy standard gutter, may be plenty. We will look at your actual roof and tell you the honest answer, even when the honest answer is the cheaper one.
A wide super gutter clogs less than a narrow house gutter, because small debris that would dam a 5 inch opening passes right through a 7 inch trough. Less is not never, though. Under Ocala’s oaks and pines, leaves and needles still collect, and there is a catch with an enclosure: once the screen cage is built, the gutter sits behind the screen and is hard to reach. That is why the time to think about keeping it clear is before it ever clogs.
We can fit a guard or brush product made to sit in a super gutter trough, so it sheds debris and keeps the channel open without you climbing a ladder behind the cage. And when a super gutter does need clearing, we handle that too rather than leaving you to figure out the access. The goal is simple: keep the trough doing its one job, moving water away, and keep you on the ground.
Call or text (352) 440-3310, or send a photo of your cage, the roofline above it, and where the water is coming off. We will tell you on the phone whether a super gutter is the right call and what size fits.
A licensed inspector confirms the fascia is sound, the right width for your roof and our rain, the fastening plan, and where the downspouts go, then prices the whole job with no surprises.
We fasten the super gutter to code, set it to true fall, run the drainage away from the house, and stand behind the workmanship.
Not ready to decide? We will give you an honest read on what your enclosure actually needs.
This page is for you if you own a pool cage, a screen room, or a lanai and the runoff off that roof is more than a regular gutter can handle, or if your existing super gutter is sagging, leaking, or pulling away and needs to be done right. It is for the retiree who just wants the water off the deck and does not want to climb a ladder behind the cage, and for the homeowner protecting an enclosure they spent good money on.
We will be straight with you on scope. We work on one and two story buildings, and super-gutter work stays inside that. If a job is taller or is really a full cage rebuild, we will tell you and point you the right way instead of taking on something that is not ours to do. We serve Ocala, The Villages, and the surrounding Central Florida counties, roughly an hour out from Ocala, including Marion, Lake, Sumter, Alachua, and Putnam. See our service areas.
The reason a super gutter gets fastened right here is that the owner does it. Premium Leaf Guards is run by a state-licensed home and building inspector and court-recognized construction expert with more than twenty years in the trade. He is on every job and does about half of each install himself, which matters most on a part that is both a gutter and a piece of structure. He checks the fascia before he bolts to it, fastens to current codes and modern standards, answers his own phone, and will tell you honestly when you do not need the bigger gutter. Read the full story.
A super gutter is an oversized, heavy extruded aluminum gutter built for screen enclosures, pool cages, and lanais. It is several times thicker than a standard house gutter and usually 5 or 7 inches wide. On most cages it does double duty, carrying the roof runoff and serving as the structural beam the enclosure frame bolts into.
The roof above a cage funnels a wide sheet of water to the cage line, more than a thin house gutter can catch in a hard Ocala storm. A super gutter has the width and strength to handle that volume and the structural load of the enclosure, so water leaves through the downspouts instead of pouring onto your deck and screens.
It depends on how much roof drains onto it. For most cages and lanais here, especially larger ones, we lean toward the 7 inch because it carries far more water in our heavy summer rain. A small enclosure may do fine on a 5 inch. We size it to your actual roof and plan the downspouts to match.
A regular house gutter is thin formed metal meant only to catch eave runoff and carry no load. A super gutter is heavy extruded aluminum, several times thicker, wider, and rated to take high wind and structural weight. They are different parts for different jobs, and one will not do the other’s work.
Less than a standard gutter, because small debris that would dam a 5 inch opening passes through a wider 7 inch trough. They still collect leaves and pine needles under Ocala’s trees, though, and once the screen cage is up the gutter is hard to reach. We recommend planning a guard or a cleaning schedule before it ever clogs.
Yes. Standard house-gutter guards do not fit a super gutter, but there are guard and brush products sized for the wider trough. We can fit one so the channel sheds debris and stays open, which keeps you off a ladder behind the cage.
A quality 7 inch super gutter installed on sound fascia commonly lasts 25 to 30 years in Florida’s climate. The heavy extruded aluminum resists corrosion and holds its shape, and correct fastening to solid structure is what gets you the long end of that range.
A super gutter costs more than a standard gutter because it uses much heavier metal, a wider trough, and code-rated fastening. We keep exact pricing off the page because it depends on your enclosure size, the width you need, and the run length. Call or text us for a straight, all-in number for your home.
Tell us about your enclosure and we will tell you straight whether you need a super gutter, what size fits your roof, and what it costs all-in. A licensed inspector checks the fascia, sizes it for our rain, and fastens it to code so it holds in a blow. No pressure, and an honest answer either way.
