How many metres of gutter guard does your Mackay house need? Work it out in 20 minutes.
A low-set three-bedroom Mackay home is usually 45 to 55 lineal metres. A four-bedroom with a double garage and an alfresco is 60 to 90. A two-storey or high-set Queenslander is 80 to 110, because you are covering two roof levels. Measure the gutter line, which is the roof perimeter at the eaves, not the floor area, then add 5 percent for cuts and corners.
Size the job first, then see the range
Slide the gutter line to your number. The quantity shows next to the label, and the range underneath uses current Mackay rates. This tool answers how much you need. The per-service price menu lives on the pricing page.
What this sizing estimate assumes
- Assumes standard eaves gutter on a domestic roof, cleared and flushed before the mesh goes on, which is included in every quote we write.
- The metre rate covers mesh supply, cutting, fixing at the manufacturer centres with aluminium or stainless screws, and site clean-up.
- Excludes gutter replacement, fascia repair and any electrical work. It also excludes tree work, which is an arborist job.
- Two-storey, steep tile and high-set access carry a loading of 15 to 30 percent, which is what the access selector applies.
- This is a 2026 guide for Mackay and the Pioneer Valley. A fixed price needs someone on site with a tape and a look at the roof.
How to measure it properly, from the ground
Twenty minutes with a tape, a phone and a sheet of paper gets you within a couple of metres, which is close enough to sanity-check any quote you receive. Do all of this at ground level. Nobody should be climbing a roof or standing on a ladder to measure a house.
- Sketch the roof outline first. Walk around the house and draw the shape, including the garage, the porch, the alfresco and any skillion off the back. A satellite view of your block on a mapping app is a good cross-check, and it shows the valleys clearly.
- Measure each wall at ground level. Run the tape along the base of the wall, corner to corner, and write the number on your sketch. If you are alone, step it out first: an adult stride is roughly 0.75 metres, so count strides then check one run with the tape to calibrate yourself.
- Add for the eave overhang. The gutter sits out past the wall. Mackay eaves are commonly 450mm to 600mm, so add roughly 1 metre to each wall length, half a metre at each end. This is the step most people miss, and on a four-sided house it is 4 metres.
- Include everything that has a gutter. The attached garage, the porch return, the alfresco, the carport if it is guttered. Exclude gable ends with no gutter and any wall where the roof runs away from you.
- Count the downpipes and mark the slow ones. Note which ones dribble instead of gushing after rain. That is a blockage or an undersized outlet, and it changes the recommendation.
- Mark the valleys. Every internal roof junction where two planes meet is a valley. Valleys are separate work and are the number one source of on-the-day variations, so count them now.
- Photograph every corner and each downpipe from the ground. Corners, downpipe outlets and valley mouths are the slow metres. A dozen photos attached to your enquiry gets you a far tighter quote.
- Measure the solar array perimeter if you have panels. Around the outside edge of the whole array, not each panel.
Rules of thumb and the allowances to add
- Gutter line is roughly the roof perimeter. For a simple rectangular low-set, that is 2 times the length plus 2 times the width, measured at the eaves rather than at the wall.
- Size check by house size. A low-set of about 140 square metres under a simple hip roof usually comes in at 50 to 60 lineal metres. A 230 square metre home is generally 70 to 85. If your own measurement is a long way outside that, re-check the sketch before you trust it.
- Wastage allowance. Add 5 percent on a simple roof, 10 percent on a complex one with lots of corners, returns and valleys. On 60 metres that is 3 to 6 metres of mesh. Order the wastage, price the actual run.
- Downpipe rule. In a high-intensity rainfall region, a common working rule is one downpipe every 8 to 12 metres of gutter, against the 12 to 15 metres often used further south. The proper answer is the catchment calculation in AS/NZS 3500.3 using the rainfall intensity for your address, which you can look up on the Bureau of Meteorology intensity tool.
- Solar skirt. Sixteen panels in two rows of eight is roughly 9 metres wide by 3.5 metres deep, so about 25 lineal metres of perimeter. Details on solar panel bird and leaf mesh.
- Safety allowance, not a material one. If any part of the run is above single-storey height, price it as two-storey. Underestimating access is how a job gets re-quoted on the morning it starts.
Got your number? Let us check it with a tape
Send your measurement and your corner photos. We measure on site for free and come back with a fixed price within 2 business days, so you can see how close you got.
The sizing mistake that costs the most here
It is not getting the metres slightly wrong. It is guarding a gutter system that was already too small for Mackay rainfall. Mesh keeps debris out. It does not add a single litre of capacity. If a 60 metre roof drains through four downpipes and the gutters overflow even when they are clean, mesh changes nothing, and you have spent $2,700 or more to discover that. Count the downpipes and watch the roof in the next real downpour before you order anything. The symptoms are set out on blocked gutter warning signs, and the fix is usually one or two extra outlets from downpipe upgrades at $150 to $350 each, or a rainhead at $80 to $250.
The second most expensive mistake is forgetting the valleys and box gutters. They are slower work than a straight run, they are the first thing to block on a tropical roof, and if they are not in the quote they arrive as a variation on the day. Count them on your sketch and put the number in your enquiry.
A worked example on a real Mackay layout
Four-bedroom low-set brick and Colorbond home in Andergrove, hip roof, attached double garage, a 6 by 4 metre alfresco under the main roofline, and a 16-panel solar array.
- Front elevation at the eaves: 16.5 m
- Rear elevation at the eaves: 16.5 m
- Left elevation: 11.0 m
- Right elevation: 11.0 m
- Garage side return and porch return: 4.5 m
- Alfresco: 0 m, because it sits inside the main roofline and is already counted
Gutter line = 59.5 metres, call it 60. Add 5 percent for cuts and corners, so 63 metres of mesh is ordered and 60 metres is priced. At $45 to $70 per lineal metre in marine-grade aluminium that is $2,700 to $4,200.
Now the extras. The house has five downpipes, which is 12 metres of gutter each, at the loose end of the range for this rainfall, and the western catchment is the one that overflows, so add one downpipe at $150 to $350. The solar array is two rows of eight panels, about 25 metres of perimeter, at $22 to $35 per metre for the bird and leaf skirt, so $550 to $875. There are no valleys on a simple hip roof and the gutters are sound.
Total for the job: about $3,400 to $5,425. That is the same house the estimator above returns if you set 60 metres, 25 metres of solar perimeter, aluminium mesh, single-storey access and one extra downpipe. If your quote comes back a long way outside that, the difference is either the metres or the product, and both are worth asking about.
You may not need mesh on every metre
The honest part of a sizing conversation is subtraction. Before you order the full perimeter, take a hard look at what actually collects debris.
- The shed and the carport. If nothing overhangs them, leave them out. Guarding metres that never fill is the most common waste in a whole-house quote.
- The shaded southern run. On many blocks one elevation catches almost nothing. Staging that run for later is a legitimate saving, and the approach is set out on the budget page.
- A gutter that is due for replacement. Do not measure it for mesh. Measure it for replacement at $45 to $90 per lineal metre, then guard the new one.
- A house with no trees at all. A $180 to $320 clean every year or two may genuinely be the better buy. We will say so at the measure rather than sell you 60 metres you do not need.
And if you would rather not measure at all, do not. The on-site measure is free and takes about half an hour. Knowing your own number simply means nobody can quote you for 90 metres on a 60 metre house.
Send us your metres and we will confirm them free
Tell us your measured gutter line and attach your corner photos if you have them. We measure on site and send a fixed written price within 2 business days.
Sizing questions we get asked
How many metres of gutter guard does a Mackay house need?
How do I measure my gutter line without going on the roof?
How much extra mesh should I allow for wastage?
How many downpipes should 60 metres of gutter have in Mackay?
How much mesh does a solar array skirt need?
What is the costliest sizing mistake in this region?
Next: choose the mesh grade, see the budget tiers, read what install day looks like, and check the warranty position.
Free on-site measure across Mackay and the Pioneer Valley
We bring the tape, you get the exact metres and a fixed written price within 2 business days.