Gutter Guards
Hey: We live in the South(Atlanta) and have a few pine trees along with hardwoods. Trying to keep the gutters clean is a full time job at best! I am looking at adding gutter guards of some type and Gutter Guards were recomended.. They basically are a screen with holes in them that allow the water top passthrough an dthe leaves should fall off the house. My concern is what about all the pine needles? Won't they clog the little holes in the screen? If so, which type are better or the best. I called a local guy and he loves the Gutter Guards becaus ethey will not allow moisture to back up into my house. Sounds like a sales pitch to me... So, any ideas or thoughts? Thanks and take care Dan I've seen a few installations of these guards and think they could cause new problems if not installed right. I've noticed they tend to push up the first row of roofing, negating the pitch somewhat. With all the TV and radio ads they've got going, as well as offering free gutters in many cases, I'd be leary of spending much money on them. Some places offer the guards for sale...minus the ad costs, the free gutters, etc. You might just buy them, and install them yourself on 1 gutter, then see how they do. I don't believe there's ANY 100% cure-all for having to clean gutters on occasion....except not having them of course. I have tried alot of them and dont think any work to good They have a small screen that goes into the downspout tube in the gutter that keep the big stuff out of the down spout and you just clean it now and then. Home depot and lowes have the water pipe like thats a 180o at the top and put a water hose on it and just walk along as it cleans out the gutter. I have the pines here also and I think the needles are just made to get stuck in my pool screen. I just clean and check the gutters one time a year. ED I have them on my home and they keep out leaves fine.its the pine needles, and poplar and maple seeds that always find a way to get through them. I believe its better without them myself. I have purchased and witnessed many gutter guards in my career and none of them up to now work...and the worst is the one that is screwed on so you cannot get in there to unclog it... I know they say they will come back and clean your gutters, I wish I could see their lists of call backs... Plus they are down right ugly. Now there is a new product and it works, .GO to www.gutterfilter.com, It is not a cheap solution, but neither is paying someone to climb the ladder every month or 2. Nor is it cheap to replace the wood on your house due to blocked gutters... You make the call and decide what you want.. Any this stuff is like a pourous polyurethane foam, it fills the gutter so nothing but water can enter.. I do not work for this company and I would like to hear from someone who has had it installed on their house.. Dennis I'm with Ed on this one, buy the downspout screens. I tried those flat ones with the holes on the the spouting at the cabin and the pine needles filled it anyway. I've been trying out a gutter guard called Sheerflow made by L.B. Plastics. I found this in a local Menards (similar to Home Depot) in Wisconsin. Here is the website for this product: http://www.lbplastics.com/products/special_gutter.asp It is made of plastic with 3/8 holes but what makes it good is the covering with what appears to be fiberglass window screen. the screen is welded to the plastic guard and nothing, and I mean nothing, can get into the gutter except water. It comes in brown or white, slides under the shingles and then snaps onto the gutter. Installation is easy unless you run into shingle nails when sliding it under the shingles (happened to me). then you have to trim off some of the guard to avoid the nails. Otherwise, it would be a piece of cake to install. I've had it about a year or year and a half on the front of my garage. So far so good. The only negative so far is that maybe 10% of the water doesn't go through the screen material during a heavy rain and goes over the edge. I attribute that to water tension caused by the fine weave of the screen material. This fall I'm going to add it to the front of my house. The big unknown is how long this material will last over the long haul. By the way, the cost was like $.50 to .75 a foot, pretty cheap. HARVEYBOX, How did it handle the winter? Did the water from the melting snow just freeze on this and create a bigger problem for icicles? This was always me concern. Yak- they came through the winter okay. I recall a few brief periods where there were some icicles, but I don't think it was enough to really bother me.
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