Gutter Guard?

[don h]

I am considering replacing my present gutters with Gutter Guard. Are they really worth the HIGH cost?

[Gina and Les Armstrong]

I've heard good and bad. The style that is slotted on the top, like a strainer, can become clogged. A neighbor's house had that style, and the little "helicopter seeds" would land on the roof, get washed down to the gutter, and get caught in the slots. The funny thing is that the seeds would sort of stand up as they got caught in the slots and the gutters looked like a little cemetery with all of the seeds sticking straight up. The gutters were clean as could be, but cleaning the seeds out of the slots was a chore. The smooth top guards seem to sheet the debris off the gutter completely, but they cost more. My father in law has the smooth type and really likes them. Make sure you stand firm with the sales person. My father in law has a large ranch and his first estimate from the sales rep was for around $9,000 just for the gutters (no replacement of downspouts). After about two hours, he got the gutters and downspouts for less than $4,000. He is a salesman's worst nightmare, but he always get a good deal.

Les

[Joseph Meehan]

The information I have heard that appears to be the best is that it depends. The different systems work for different situations. Oak leaves will clog one type and pine needles will clog the one that works with oak leaves, etc. Most have a problem when it comes time to clean them, and they all will need cleaning at some time.

[jdk]

plus i know for fact that wasp and such love the plastic ones. went to clean and got zapped two to three times. thru them away. use a leaf blower to clean the gutters now.

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:54:10 GMT "Joseph Meehan" posted:

They should have ratings, like G, GP, R, and X. But O and P, instead.

Does anyone know anything about Harbor Freight's gutter guards? I was at the store and wanted to see how long one was.

Oh, the catalog didn't give the length, and I meant to check the webpage. 20 foot pieces for 4 dollars, on sale at the moment for 2 dolars. I guess that's less than 8 dollars for my whole house. Now I know they can't be very good, but I'm still tempted.

"Rhombic mesh" sounds phoney, but actually makes sense, a rhombus being a parallogram with 4 equal sides, a diamond iow.

Actually, the trees here are getting taller and nearer, but whenever I've looked up to 18 months ago, I had no leaves in my gutters. Yet now one seems to be clogged, and is overflowing in the middle.

Could it be that the new shingles put on 18 months ago shed so many stones that it clogged a gutter?

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

[johnny]

"Gina and Les Armstrong" wrote

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your father in law no doubt got took. That's the way these outfits operate, they give an extremely ridiculous high price, then come down to the ridiculous high price. This makes the homeowner believe they got a great deal.

Those gutter places will install those smooth top gutter helmet gutters or whatever else name they're advertising them at, for about $3.00 lineal foot and still make money for everyone.

Even if your father in law had a 100'x50' ranch (huge ranch) with a hip roof (gutter on all 4 sides), it would be 300' gutter, plus 4 outside corners figured at 2' each. The elbows for the downs are figured at 2' each, if had

4 down drops, it would be 8 elbows equaling 16', plus 4-10' downs. About 364 lineal ft. Even figuring at 400', including tear-down and charging a premium price of $3.00 for downs, that only comes out to $1,200.00. What the heck, bumping the price up to $5.00 a lineal foot is making a killing and still only comes out to $2K. But, shhhhhhhhh, don't tell father in law, he probably thinks the salesman got fired over the deal.

[Joseph Meehan]

Take a look at the down spouts. You may find parts of shingles and other waste construction parts blocking the flow.

[JJ]

"johnny" wrote in news:Z7rZd.136789$ [e-mail]:

That's about what I paid.....$1,200. I got the kind that is slotted so the water comes off the roof and flows like a waterfall into the gutters. It's great. I have the helicopter seeds that don't go into the gutters anymore. No leaves or anything. Just water.

Mine are kind of like this:

Except mine has 2 sloping areas on top.

[Buck Turgidson]

I had new gutters and siding and opted for the "leaf guard". I don't know the brand name, but they work well. One problem (if it is a problem) I do have is that I tend to see more icicles in the wintertime after a snowfall. I don't remember seeing them with the old gutters.

But it sure beats climbing up on a ladder 4 times a year. What's a night in the hospital cost, vs the gutters?

[Art]

I have Leafguard brand gutters with a built in top and they work well on everything from leaves to pine needles. Parents house had them with 7 oak trees around them and they worked well there too. Only thing bad is the price. Every corner is hand done and expensive. FIgure 3 times normal replacement gutter assuming you get oversize downspouts as recommended with them.

I had gutter helmits add ons in my last house and they were worthless. Also tried those screens and they sucked too.

[Jim]

My gutters tend to fill and freeze solid each winter. Rather than regular gutters I'm looking at the Rainhandler system. Any real world experiences?

[JJ]

Jim wrote in news:hcWZd.31844$ [e-mail]:

I don't have that system, but my thought is that it dumps a lot of rain water at the foundation. Potential wet basement problems. I have frozen gutters,too. Also, all that stuff could be splashing out over your driveway and on your cars. Right now I can hear the water running thru them....yay!

[nielloeb]

NO!

Buy GuttaGards.

It's cheaper and you can install them yourself.

I've used them in Georgia, where they don't even let pine needles in.

GuttaGard: guttagard.com Cheapest place to buy: doitbest.com

[Art]

They look similar to Gutter Helmits except lower profile. The problem I had with the GH was that whether they work depends on the slant of the roof. THat is why the one piece units like Leafguard make more sense.

[Rich256]

My daughter has them. Works fine as long as you don't need to have the water routed far away from the house and there is not a walkway directly below the roof. Totally eliminates the leaf problem.

[Jim]

Any ice damming problems?

[Rich256]

No, Denver area so not usually a problem anyway.

[Ronald Carter]

In a previous posting, Usenet was endowed with the following text from "don h" :

In the last 10 years, 40 different brands of gutter voodoo products have popped up, claiming to be the greatest thing since the rain gutter itself. In my view, all gutter cover products are over hyped and over priced. People spend ridiculous amounts of money on them, then forced themselves to believe it was a good investment. I still favor the Steelco gutter screens, because they are inexpensive, and they are high quality, and they work extremely well without reducing the rain-catching efficiency of the gutters.

Check them out:

RC