Gutter guards

[mattkime]

n/t

[Carm]

No gutters. It’s funny that some houses here (SoCal Desert) have gutters. We get very little rain. Proper drainage is key here. Before we got our pool built, there was one corner of my backyard that would “flood” with water after a heavy rain. Drainage was installed around pool and in patio during pool install. No more problems.

Basement? And or a lot of rain to keep away from house foundation?
There are so many varieties of gutter guards. If I had them and I had a tree near my house I would get them.

[Todd's keyboard]

Just had them installed on the gutters for a house on one of the islands in British Columbia. Am curious to see how well they work this fall and winter. The rain water off the roof flows in to the cistern that becomes the water supply to the house.

As near as I can tell, different styles of gutter guards may be more or less effective with different types of leaves and needles. I’m hoping the ones we have will work for our area.

Todd’s deciduous keyboard

[davester]

There are various types of gutter guards. Whether they work or not depends entirely on the type of debris that lands on your roof. We have giant redwoods towering over our house. The only type of gutter guard that work for redwood needles is ultra fine stainless steel mesh. For other types of trees you probably need a different type of guard.

[TheTominator]

I thought about it, but I was always concerned that they would fall off the roof.

Instead I installed security cameras up there and had the guards patrol the area at ground level.

[pdq]

TheTominator wrote:
I thought about it, but I was always concerned that they would fall off the roof.

Instead I installed security cameras up there and had the guards patrol the area at ground level.

:goodone:

Seriously tho, I’m trying out two kinds of g.g. this year. We have two areas of the roof w gutters, and in one I’ve covered the whole length with these:



Under $2 a piece at Home Depot (for 3 ft). They are plastic with a larger mesh that is covered with a finer mesh layer. They snap in to my style gutters (with some effort) and are cheap enough that I didn’t feel bad cutting some holes for roof heating cables to pass through.

Will the plastic survive the UV exposure of being up on the roof all year? Will they work? We’ll see.

I bought just one of these (also from HD):



More expensive, a little more substantial, but still plastic, with vinyl edges. That was a real pain to get in place so it’s starting at a significant disadvantage in my book.

[Ombligo]

I don't have them on my gutters, and have no desire to get any. I don't fault anyone who does use them, but cleaning out mine takes about 10-minutes twice a year.

The pine needles would likely stick in the holes and makes a ton more work anyway.

[DinerDave]

pdq...
I use "these" also from Home Depot.
I definitely got my money's worth, they have been up for over 10 years. Yes, I should remove them, really do a good gutter clean/flush with water as stuff WILL accumulate eventually no matter how much you spend on a system, but we finally just decided on which siding estimate to go with, so when the gutters are moved I will deal them. I may just replace them all with the same, or maybe just use a more expensive system. All depends on the cash left over when the dust settles.

But, yeah, $2 times however many pieces you need were worth it to me after 10 plus years.

Dave

[Markintosh]

No experience with actual gutter covers. But if you're installing new gutters, I can't say enough good about the LeafGuard gutters. They are a gutter with a curved upper cap, all in one piece that were just amazing on our old house. At elevation 4500 feet in the Sierra, we picked up a dense combination of oak leaves, pine needles and cedar on our roof. The gutters handled all of that great, with no cleaning ever required. Although it seemed impossible, they also handled heavy flows during gully washing thunderstorms, and winter snow and ice.

They are not cheap, but they were well worth it.

https://www.leafguardgutters.com

[mattkime]

Ombligo wrote:
I don't have them on my gutters, and have no desire to get any. I don't fault anyone who does use them, but cleaning out mine takes about 10-minutes twice a year.

Are your gutters eye level? Most of my work is just setting up and moving the ladder.