Gutter guards

[mattkime]

Pics please!

[pdq]

Grateful11 wrote:
I've never seen a gutter that
didn't have some amount black particle crap in them.

For me, that crap is the surface of the shingle that wears off over time. I have a friend who used to sell that particular stuff (crushed rock, I think) to the shingle industry.

Now that I think about it, I should have him clean out my gutters!

[neophyte]

Most any type of gutter guard will keep leaves out. Pine needles are my problem. I have the plastic 2- 3 foot section type that snaps on securely yet allows me to pull up the section over the downspout for periodic cleaning. And my sections had a quarter inch lip that stuck up at the forward edge that trapped stuff, so I removed them with a utility knife.

[Acer]

I used gutter filters, the one pdq pictured first. They were pretty effective at keeping out debris from the gutter. However, some areas where the roof has a low pitch the filter tops would get covered with debris. I had trouble with ice dams, though, and removed them in a troubleshooting effort.

[SteveO]

I used the ones Costco sold several years back - they were a porous foam insert that eventually filled up with decaying leaf material (helicopters, leaves, buds, etc) so much so that they became a wonderful filter media for growing oak trees from my gutters — the seeds would land there and have built-in channels and a ready standing-water source for nourishment. My house looked like it could've been in The Shire or something.

Getting 6" gutters soon here. Current 4" are too small for our tree load and steep roof pitch. This thread reminds me to have new, wider downspouts installed as well. I'll wait to see how bad the gutters clog (or not) before going the Depot route with those 3-4' plastic covers. Got a bid from one of the Leaf Guard companies here that has the very fine steel mesh system but it was 2x another gutters-alone bid and I didn't think it worth it, mainly b/c the local reviews said this company is new to my area, and uses subs for the installs...and it sounds like said installs leave much to be desired.

It's a never-ending battle between the leaves in my gutters, and all the work it takes to get the rest off the lawn/beds. Ugh.

[pdq]

SteveO wrote:
I used the ones Costco sold several years back - they were a porous foam insert that eventually filled up with decaying leaf material (helicopters, leaves, buds, etc) so much so that they became a wonderful filter media for growing oak trees from my gutters — the seeds would land there and have built-in channels and a ready standing-water source for nourishment. My house looked like it could've been in The Shire or something.

Ha! Very mentally evocative. You should have gotten some goats to live on your roof and graze on your gutters.

Seriously tho, HD had those foam inserts too, and I brought one home to see. But my gutters have intermittent supports that cross the gutter and would have made it a real pain to get those foam thingies installed underneath. So it went back. Now I’m extra glad it did.