The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

All gutter covers and leaf guards are not created equal. A gutter guard or gutter protector has to do three basic tasks:

The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

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The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

1. Gather all the water
2. Keep out leaves and debris from the gutter
3. Be truly maintained truly by the homeowner.

Except for one product, in mild-to-heavy debris conditions all gutter guards fail to do all three tasks effectively--read on.

All solid top gutter guards work by the requisite of outside adhesion. They generally have a solid top and a curved front outside that leads the water downward and into the gutter.

It makes sense to do some research before buying gutter protection. A goods that truly does its job could cost thousands of dollars. But in the case of gutter covers, more money doesn't necessarily mean a best performing product. Remember that salesmen are good at telling you what they think you want to hear.

The bottom line is that choosing the wrong goods can be a night mare. You might end up with birds living in your gutters and if they clog, you won't be able to get into your gutters to clean them or worse yet, a roof leak. And the mother of all failings is overflowing gutters that leak into your basement providing a fertile environment for toxic mold.

Basically there are six dissimilar types of gutter protection devices:

1. Screens-the basic ones are flat and made of metal or plastic with round holes, square holes, and louvered openings. The more sophisticated types have rounded tops, steps, or troughs. Debris lays on the top, dries, and is then pummeled through the openings to clog the gutter inside or the debris clogs the screening device. bottom line is they work if the homeowner is willing to go up the ladder to clean them and replace the ones blown out by storms or hijacked by squirrels.

2. Filters, membranes, and brushes installed on or in existing gutters. One is a solid top with a filter strip in it that requires replacement every few years (sometimes the squirrels help with the job). Others are basically meshes or brushes installed in the gutter. bottom line is that they clog like screens. One builder touts his advantage is that the brush is reMoved and cleaned as required. Can you dream removing a brush full of mucky tree debris and shaking it out? You'll need to wear a rain coat and then Power wash your home.

3. The fin type with a solid top and a rounded front nose. It's one long fin extending the whole length of the gutter-more about them later.

4. Fin Type with trough has a solid top with rounded front nose and a trough.

5. Flipping type gutters, rain dispersal....

6. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a duplicate row louvered front vertical surface.

Which gutter covers may not achieve the first task and Gather all the water? Answer: Those with a very tight radius or use a series of bends on the nose of the gutter cover. The larger the radius and the smoother the radius, the more water that the gutter protector will collect, otherwise the water just skips off onto the ground in heavy rainfall conditions.

If your home has a valley, there is tiny hope of collecting the water unless you use gutter screens (the first type) or the sixth system--more later.

The second job a gutter protector has to do is keep the gutters clean. Most any gutter protector will keep gutters clean in a Light debris environment. However, in mild-to-heavy debris environments--especially spring time--debris will stick to the rounded front outside of the third type (fin) and fourth type (fin with trough) of gutter covers and go into the gutter or the trough.

The third concern is about the ease of maintenance of the leaf guard gutter. Unfortunately, most manufacturers will whether out right tell you that no maintenance will ever be required or that they will infer that none is required. But think about this. If you live in a treed environment where you need to clean your gutters some times during the fall, would you truly believe that you'll never have to do anything to assert your gutter guards? request a homeowner to believe that there is no maintenance required is like request him to believe in Santa Claus.

The truth is that all six types of gutter protectors will clog in mild-to-heavy debris environments. The interrogate is, "Where"? Only one clogs where it can be truly dealt with by the homeowner.

The third and fourth types of products wish the gutter to be cleaned inside. One of these gutter guards also use clips to anchor them to the gutter that work loose causing the cover to collapse into the gutter. You'll also consideration that many of third type are very similar in construct and appearance. One truly has sieve type openings on the top of it which act like a screen.

All products thus far mentioned have to be maintained by having someone climb a ladder and clean the gutter and or the gutter cover. With some of the fin type products, nails need to be reMoved from the roofing to take off the goods which could lead to roofing leaks.

Wouldn't it be great to have a gutter protector that does live up to all its promises-a goods which uses two rows of interspersed louvers in the front vertical outside to Gather rain water and limit the size of the debris that can enter the gutter? And wouldn't it be great to have a goods that can Gather water in valley configurations.

Can you truly dream a goods that can keep gutters clean and free flowing for twenty plus years in heavy debris conditions? A gutter guard that can truly be maintained while wearing a suit and tie with a telescopic pole and brush from the ground?

The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

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Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

All gutter guards clog. But hold on. Whereas all of them clog requiring maintenance, one is easy with which to maintain.

Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

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Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

First, the terms gutter covers, gutter guards, gutter protectors, and leaf guards are basically interchangeable. Some clubs advertise screens as gutter guards and that's just a misnomer as leaf guards all characteristically all have a solid top surface.

Basically there are six separate types of devices:

1. Screens. There are many separate types-flat with all types of openings (round, square, louvers...) made of plastic, wire, and metal. Some disguise themselves with steps in the screening and one even has troughs in it.

2. Filters, membranes, and brushes installed on or in existing gutters--they call themselves leaf guards.

3. Flat solid top with rounded front nose--fin type leaf guards. And there's one in which in expanding to the fin also has small openings on the top--basically a screen in conjunction with a fin)

4. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a trough--fin type with trough.

5. Rain dispersal and the flipping type of gutters. One (not yet on the market) that makes a larger than life chance in the gutter for larger than life downspout attachment. The homeowner has to take off downspouts from house to clean--more joy for the homeowner (a gutter full of muck advent down upon him.

6. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a duplicate row louvered front vertical outside to collect water.

Of practically 100 separate gutter cover/screen/filter products to choose from all but one fit in the first five categories.

For the record, all screens (the first type) clog. To maintain them, one has to ascend a ladder to clean the screen and the gutter beneath the screen because dried debris on top of the screen is often pummeled into the gutter by rain water. This maintenance is often more work than just cleaning the gutters would have been. One screen cLamps to the front gutter lip, is made of vinyl, disguises itself with steps and troughs, but basically it's a screen and is nearly impossible to take off without destroying the gutter when if fails.

The second type (filters) is whether a filter installed in what is otherwise a solid top outside or some kind of filter or filament or brush installed inside the gutter. Again it doesn't take an Mit graduate to look into the future and see what will happen--debris will moderately collect on the filter, filament or brush. Palpate shows that after two years at most, this debris solidifies resulting in clogging the gutter. The brush-in-the gutter principles recognizes this and suggests removing the brush from the gutter periodically to clean them--can you fantasize the fun in that--slop all over the roofing, siding and windows?

There are a dozen or so of the fin type leaf guards (the third type). They are whether covers installed on top of gutters or the all-in-one leaf guards to replace existing gutters. Patents have expired and the field has exploded with many variations of this style. The rain water sticks to the rounded outside and flows downward into the gutter. Years of Palpate shows that in expanding to water, adequate tree debris adheres to the outside in mild-to-heavy debris conditions to clog the gutter.

Maintenance can only be done by ascending a ladder, removing sections of the leaf guard and cleaning the gutter and downspout--not a pleasant task for the homeowner who is often at the mercy of the installing enterprise to render service. Because some of these protectors are nailed into the roofing, the roof is in duplicate jeopardy of developing a leak when they are substituted from being cleaned. In the case of the all-in-one leaf guard, the gutter must be flushed. Larger than life downspouts are used to adapt this flushing, but it still requires person to ascend a ladder to do the dirty perilous job.

To rectify the organize scantness in the fin type, two types of hybrid covers have been developed:

1. A fin type with small openings on the top solid surface--basically a screen in aggregate with fin. It too is branch to the same problems screens face plus the fin type which ultimately clogs the gutter.

2. The fourth type (which in expanding to having a fin) contains a trough with sieve openings. It doesn't take an Mit graduate to see that the same number of debris that flows over the fin will also enter the trough where whether the sieve openings in the trough clogs or adequate debris passes the sieve openings to clog the gutter. Again, servicing is a big problem.

The fifth type has nothing to do with protecting existing gutters but instead replacing them with a dispersal principles which clogs with debris on top and doesn't work in Light-to-medium rain fall conditions and replacement gutters that are cleaned by flipping them or using telescopic pressure principles to clean gutters--messy and dirty chores for the homeowner.

The third and fourth type of guards are in the right direction but they don't limit the size of the debris that the fin collects. Wouldn't it be nice to limit the size of debris? Wouldn't it be great to have two rows of interspersed louvers that deliver the water into the gutter and limit the size of debris that enters the gutter?

While all leaf guards clog would it not also be great if the gutter inside never clogged even after twenty plus years; and louvers that might clog in heavy debris conditions be illustrated from the ground and be honestly maintained from the ground by using a telescopic pole and brush? And wouldn't it be great if this were not a dirty job but one that could be referred to as "suit and tie" maintenance if it every had to be done? The sixth type of gutter protector is the answer.

In reality, to tell whatever who has to clean his gutters more than twice in the Fall that a guard will never need servicing is like asking him to believe in Santa Claus.

Do Gutter Covers and Gutter Protectors Clog?

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