How A Female Founder Is Fixing A Problem The Trades Ignored For Decades

NATIONWIDE - AUGUST 2025 - (USAnews.com) — The phone wouldn't stop ringing. Month after month, contractors and homeowners continued to call Lucie Quigley, asking for a ladder stabilizer that had long since been discontinued. The company that made it had closed its doors, but the demand remained relentless. These callers weren't looking for just any tool; they needed something specific, something that protected their gutters from being crushed every time they leaned a ladder against them. After fielding dozens of these calls, Quigley realized something profound: this wasn't just about a missing product. It was about an entire industry blind spot that nobody was addressing.

At 52, standing in her home office in rural Nova Scotia, Quigley made a decision that would transform her from employee to entrepreneur. She would resurrect the product herself, rebrand it, and build something better. That decision gave rise to Gutter Saver PRO, a Canadian-made ladder gutter protector that's quietly revolutionizing how professionals and homeowners approach ladder safety across North America.

The problem Quigley identified seems obvious once you know it exists. Every year, thousands of gutters get crushed, bent, or damaged by ladders leaning against them. The weight of a person climbing creates pressure that aluminum gutters simply weren't designed to handle. Beyond the costly repairs, which can run hundreds or thousands of dollars, damaged gutters create dangerous instability for anyone climbing. Yet somehow, in an industry obsessed with safety protocols and equipment standards, this particular hazard had been largely ignored.

"Most people don't realize that every time they rest a ladder on a gutter, they're risking damaging their gutters," Quigley explains. The calls she received weren't just complaints about property damage; they also included concerns about personal safety. They were stories of near-misses, of ladders sliding along crushed gutters, of falls that could have been prevented. "I hear every day from customers who wish they had known about the Gutter Saver PRO before they damaged their gutters or before their ladder slid along the gutter, resulting in a fall."

What sets Gutter Saver PRO apart from its few alternatives on the market is its engineering and integrity. While other products claim to protect gutters, they fail at the fundamental level; they don't actually transfer the ladder's weight away from the gutter and onto the fascia board, where it belongs. Others are cheaply made, inconsistent in quality, or simply not built to withstand professional use. Quigley's version does what others don't: it genuinely redistributes weight, provides stability, and holds up under demanding conditions.

The manufacturing story behind Gutter Saver PRO reflects the values driving the company forward. Every unit is produced in Canada at an ISO-certified facility that Quigley visits on a regular basis. She knows the workers by name, ensures they're paid fair wages, and treats them as partners in the mission. "We're proud to know the people who make every unit, and they're proud of what they build," she says. "That matters." In an era of offshore manufacturing and race-to-the-bottom pricing, this commitment to quality and ethics sets Gutter Saver PRO apart.

Building a business in the trades as a female founder comes with unique challenges. The roofing and construction industries remain overwhelmingly male-dominated, where establishing credibility often means overcoming assumptions before even discussing the product. Yet Quigley has found that her outsider perspective became her greatest advantage. She approached the problem not as someone steeped in industry traditions but as someone who could see what others had learned to overlook.

The response from professionals has validated her approach. Roofers who initially dismissed the product as unnecessary became converts after experiencing the stability difference firsthand. Solar installers began keeping multiple units on their trucks after realizing the significant time and liability savings they achieved. Safety trainers began incorporating Gutter Saver PRO into their programs, recognizing it as an essential tool for comprehensive ladder safety education. Insurance groups took notice, too, understanding that preventing gutter damage means preventing falls.

Within its first year, Gutter Saver PRO shipped several thousand units across North America. But the numbers only tell part of the story. What's more significant is the shift in conversation happening on job sites and in hardware stores. Contractors are starting to see ladder protection not as optional but as professional standard practice. Homeowners who climb ladders twice a year for holiday decorations or gutter cleaning are realizing they've been taking unnecessary risks with both their property and their safety.

Quigley draws an analogy that captures her vision perfectly: "Think about life before bike helmets. As kids, we never thought about it. Now you wouldn't get on a bike without one. That's how I see the Gutter Saver PRO." She's not just selling a product; she's normalizing a new safety standard, one installation at a time.

The company's tagline, "Ladders Damage Gutters. Gutter Saver PRO Stops It", cuts through industry jargon to state a simple truth. But behind that simplicity lies sophisticated thinking about market education, behaviour change, and category creation. Quigley isn't competing for market share in an existing category; she's creating the category itself, defining what ladder protection means and why it matters.

Operating from rural Nova Scotia without outside investors, Quigley has built Gutter Saver PRO through determination and strategic thinking rather than venture capital. Every decision, from product design to customer service, reflects a commitment to solving real problems for real people. The company answers every call, responds to every email, and treats each customer interaction as an opportunity to advance the mission of making ladder use safer and smarter.

The momentum continues building. Distributors are adding it to their catalogs. Trade publications are taking notice of this female-led company disrupting a corner of the industry that desperately needed disruption. What started as persistent phone calls about a discontinued product has evolved into a movement reshaping how an entire industry thinks about ladder safety and property protection.

For professionals who stake their reputation on quality work, for homeowners who value their property, and for anyone who's ever felt that moment of instability when a ladder shifts against a gutter, Gutter Saver PRO represents something more than a tool. It represents progress, prevention, and the power of seeing problems that others have learned to ignore. As Quigley continues building her company from that small Nova Scotia community, she's proving that sometimes the best innovations come not from industry insiders but from those willing to question why things have always been done a certain way.

Discover how Gutter Saver PRO is transforming ladder safety and protecting properties across North America. Connect with the growing community on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, or reach out directly at info@guttersaverpro.com to learn why thousands of professionals and homeowners are making ladder protection their new standard.