Feet ↔ pounds, both directions, waste included

Gutter Coil Calculator — Feet ↔ Pounds by Gauge

Coils are bought by the pound and installed by the foot. Pick the material, gauge, and coil width, and the tool converts either direction — with the waste factor and the full-roll yield already folded in.

1Coil, gauge & direction

Material & gaugeYield reference: 15" universal width.Coil widthWeight scales with width — 23.75" is 58% heavier.

Run length (ft)Total gutter footage to form.Waste factor (%)4% covers seamless setup & offcuts.

2Conversion result

Order weight

53.7 lb

Aluminum .027 @ 15" · 0.17 lb per ft

Weight per 100 ft: 17.2 lb
Yield: 5,814 ft per 1,000 lb
Gross ↔ usable: 312 ft incl. 4%
Full roll (20" ID / 40" OD): ~2,909 ft · 500 lb

Yield math

Weight per foot = coil width × gauge thickness × material density.

4% waste rule

Seamless setup strip and offcuts ride on every order.

Priced by the pound

Copper moves on the metal market — footage is the variable.

Where the math earns its keep

Six Times a Coil Conversion Decides Real Money

Feet-to-pounds is not trivia — it is the conversion every supplier ticket, bid line, and truck load crosses. These are the six situations where crews actually run the numbers, with the specific trap each one hides.

Bidding a 300 ft seamless run

Feet to pounds, waste included: 300 ft of .027 at 15" plus a 4% setup allowance is 312 ft, which converts to about 54 lb of coil. Multiply by your per-pound price, add the machine time, and the material line of the bid is defended before the supplier's truck leaves.

Ordering copper by the pound

Copper coils are priced by the pound but installed by the foot — the two units must reconcile. At 16 oz, 1,000 lb yields about 2,200 ft; at 20 oz it drops to 1,760 ft. A quote that confuses the two weights is out by a third of the footage before the truck is loaded.

Checking a supplier quote

Feet and pounds are two ways to sell the same roll. If a quote says 1,500 ft of .027 aluminum, the scale should read about 258 lb at 15" width — 1,500 × 17.2 ÷ 100. If it reads 320 lb, either the footage or the gauge on the label is wrong, and now you know which question to ask.

Downspout coil on the same truck

The 23.75" downspout coil is the heavy one: at .027 aluminum it weighs 27.2 lb per 100 ft — 58% more than the same gauge at 15". Crews that estimate downspout stock with gutter-coil weights come back light, because the wider strip is where the weight hides.

Copper 16 oz vs 20 oz

The 20 oz coil is 25% thicker and about 25% heavier per foot — 56.9 vs 45.5 lb per 100 ft at 15". On a priced-by-the-pound metal, that thickness difference lands directly in the bid. Run both through the calculator before committing: many residential copper jobs hold 16 oz comfortably.

Waste factor reality

Seamless machines do not start on a dime: each setup burns strip, and offcuts accumulate at every cut. A flat 4% overage covers a normal day of mixed runs. Long straight eaves can dip under it; a day of short runs with miters blows through it — set the factor to the job, not the habit.

Rolls of aluminum gutter coil stock in a fabrication shop

Every pound on the pallet is footage waiting to be formedPhoto: Unsplash

Reference table 1

Coil Yield by Material & Gauge

All rows reference the universal 15" coil width — the one coil that forms both 5- and 6-inch K-style. Weight per foot scales linearly with width, so a 23.75" downspout coil multiplies every number by 1.58. Aluminum .027 is the anchor row: about 5,800 ft per 1,000 lb, which is why it is the metal every yield chart starts with.

Material	Gauge / Weight	Coil Width	Linear Feet per 1,000 lb	Weight per 100 ft (lb)	Typical 300 ft Run Weight
Aluminum	.027	15"	≈ 5,800	17.2	51.6 lb
Aluminum	.032	15"	≈ 4,900	20.4	61.2 lb
Galvanized steel	29 ga	15"	≈ 3,830	26.1	78.3 lb
Galvalume steel	26 ga	15"	≈ 2,900	34.5	103.6 lb
Copper	16 oz	15"	≈ 2,200	45.5	136.6 lb
Copper	20 oz	15"	≈ 1,760	56.9	170.8 lb

The formula behind every row

Yield math: weight per foot = coil width × gauge thickness × material density. Aluminum .027 at 15" yields ≈ 5,800 ft per 1,000 lb — steel is ~2.9× heavier per foot at the same formed size, and copper about 3.3×. That density gap is the whole reason steel and copper quotes must be reconciled by weight before a bid is signed.

Reference table 2

Standard Seamless Coil Widths

Coil width is the first number the forming machine cares about and the one that decides which profile a truck can run. Five widths cover essentially the whole residential and light-commercial market — and the 15" universal is the one most shops standardize on.

Coil Width	Profile Fits	Use
11.75"	5" K-style	Single-width runs on standard 5-inch residential work
13.875"	6" K-style	Oversized runs where a 6-inch body is the whole system
15"	5" or 6" K-style	The universal shop width — one coil serves both profiles
16"	6" K-style (generous hem)	6-inch with deeper back flare for tall fascia
23.75"	Commercial box / 8"	Downspout coil and wide commercial box gutter work

Order 4% overage — and price copper by weight

Order 4% overage on seamless runs for machine setup and offcut waste; copper coils are priced by the pound, so feet-to-weight accuracy directly moves your bid. A 300 ft copper run at 16 oz converts to roughly 141 lb of coil — if your quote was written at 20 oz weights, it is 171 lb, and the gap is your margin.

Why the universal 15" exists

The 15-inch strip forms both a 5-inch K-style (with a wider back hem) and a 6-inch body without changing coils. Shops carry one stock SKU per color, trucks never run short of the right width mid-day, and the yield math — the table above — stays the same for every job on the schedule.

Downspout coil is a different SKU

The 23.75" width exists for downspouts and commercial box work, and it is the most commonly mis-ordered coil in the trade — crews order by weight from gutter experience and receive 58% less footage than expected. Convert with the width set to 23.75" before any downspout stock call.

Steel Coil Weight and Copper Pricing — the Two Questions Behind Every Quote

“How much does a coil of steel weigh?” is really two questions wearing one coat. For gutter-forming stock, the answer comes straight from the yield table: 29-ga galvanized at 15" runs 26.1 lb per 100 ft, so a 500 ft roll weighs about 130 lb and a full 40" outside-diameter coil holds roughly 5,500 ft — the best part of 1,450 lb. For flat mill coils, the same formula applies at whatever width and thickness the mill rolled: width × thickness × 0.284 lb/in³ × length. The density is the constant that never negotiates; width, gauge, and length are the variables your project chooses.

Copper works differently, and that difference is why the conversion direction matters. Because copper trades on the metal market, suppliers price the coil by weight and let the footage land where the gauge puts it — a 16 oz coil yields about 2,200 ft per 1,000 lb while a 20 oz yields 1,760 ft for the same mass. Ordering “the same number of feet” in 20 oz instead of 16 oz costs 28% more metal, not 25%, once the thickness compounds through the weight. Contractors who bid copper by the foot while buying it by the pound are exposed to both the market and the gauge, and the calculator above is the two-minute check that closes that gap.

Galvalume and galvanized steel sit between the extremes. Galvalume 26 ga weighs about 34.5 lb per 100 ft at 15" — heavier than the thin 29-ga galvanized, lighter than copper, and about twice aluminum .027. Its coating survives decades of roof runoff without the white rust that eventually dots cheap galvanized, which is why it shows up on commercial runs where repaint cycles are priced into the bid. All four metals use one machine and one conversion logic — only the density changes.

Pair this tool with the full system calculator

Coil yield answers the material line; the system design answers everything above it. The free gutter calculator on the Gutter Calculator homepage sizes the runs, profiles, downspouts, and fittings that determine how much coil the job actually consumes — while this page converts that footage into the pounds the supplier will invoice. For the complete tool shelf, the all-calculators directory gathers every sizing and cost tool on the site.

Aluminum .027 at 15" yields about 5,800 ft per 1,000 lb — and if your supplier quote implies anything dramatically different, the gauge on the label is the first thing to check.

FAQ

Coil Conversion Questions, Answered

The questions contractors and metal-roof crews ask most about coil yield, weight, and pricing.

How do I convert gutter coil feet to pounds?

Multiply footage by the weight per foot for your material, gauge, and coil width. At the universal 15" width, aluminum .027 weighs 17.2 lb per 100 ft, so 400 ft is about 69 lb. Add your waste factor first — 4% is the seamless standard — because the coil weight on the truck includes the setup strip and offcuts, not just the footage that ended up on the fascia.

How many feet of gutter coil are in 1,000 pounds?

It depends on the gauge: at 15" width, aluminum .027 yields about 5,800 ft per 1,000 lb, .032 yields about 4,900 ft, 29-ga galvanized steel about 3,830 ft, and 16 oz copper about 2,200 ft. Any yield calculator is just this table in motion — which is why a Senox-style yield chart printed on the shop wall never goes out of date.

How much does a coil of steel weigh?

For a gutter-style coil, weight equals the strip length times weight per foot. A 40" outside diameter, 20" inside diameter roll of 29-ga galvanized at 15" width holds roughly 5,500 ft at 26.1 lb per 100 ft — around 1,440 lb per full coil. Larger mill coils of flat sheet scale with the same logic: the formula is width × thickness × density × length, and steel's density (0.284 lb/in³) is about 2.9× aluminum's.

What width coil fits a 6-inch K-style gutter?

Two widths work: 13.875" cut for exactly the 6-inch profile, or the universal 15" that forms both 5- and 6-inch bodies. Shops that run both profiles daily standardize on 15" so one coil serves every truck; shops that only form 6-inch on commercial work often drop to 13.875" to save weight and cost on every run.

Why is copper priced by the pound, and does it matter?

Because copper is a commodity metal with a live market price — suppliers quote the coil by weight and let footage fall where the gauge puts it. That makes feet-to-weight accuracy a bid-level skill: 16 oz copper at 15" yields about 2,200 ft per 1,000 lb while 20 oz yields 1,760 ft, so a 25% gauge choice swings the footage on every pallet by a third.

What is a gutter coil yield calculator?

A yield calculator converts between the two units coils are bought and sold in — linear feet and pounds — for a specific material, gauge, and coil width. Feed it footage and it returns weight for ordering; feed it weight and it returns footage for scheduling. Ours adds the waste factor and the full-roll estimate so one pass answers both the supplier call and the day plan.

How much waste should I add for seamless gutter runs?

Four percent is the working standard: it covers machine setup strip, the first cut to true, and normal offcuts. Add more for a day of short runs between miters or downspout outlets, less for long uninterrupted eaves. The number matters because the coil you pay for by the pound includes every inch the machine consumed, not just the footage invoiced to the customer.

What is the difference between .027 and .032 aluminum coil?

Thickness and weight: .032 is about 18% thicker and heavier per foot (20.4 vs 17.2 lb per 100 ft at 15"), resists dents and ladder pressure better, and costs more by the foot. .027 is the residential standard that balances price and durability; .032 shows up on commercial work, hail-exposed neighborhoods, and anywhere the formed gutter needs to shrug off abuse.