Gutter protection

[nyrna]

Ok if the gutter guards aren't worth the money and are being promoted here to increase sales what is worth the money?

[Rich]

A neighbor put these on his house. They seem kind of expensive to me but they sure eliminated the leaf problem.

[Ronald Carter]

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

First of all, "top posting" (posting your message above the quoted text rather than below) is considered poor Usenet etiquette. I don't really care, cut I thought I would let you know. Some people will flame you for it.

What is worth the money is a subjective matter. Look at it this way; you can paint your house with a brush or with a roller. Either way, the house gets painted. But, if the roller cost $10, but leaves streaks, and the brush cost $2, but leaves bristles embedded in the paint, which one is the better value? It depends on your individual likes and dislikes.

Steelco screens and Leafguard both keep out leaves and debris, but when it comes to pine needles, Leafguard gets the edge.

When it comes to heavy rain or steep roof pitch, screens have a significant advantage because they don't generally reduce gutter efficiency the way covers do. High volume and fast moving water reveals the weakness of the "water tension" concept. It doesn't take a master degree in physics to figure this out.

Neither covers nor screens will keep out 100 percent of pine needles, dirt and sediment. So, eventually, the gutters may need some light cleaning to remove the sediment. Here, the edge goes to the screens, because the covers are a pain in the ass to remove to service the gutters. Screens are easy to remove, if needed, but you don't really need to remove them (the Steelcos, at least) because you can spray the water hose right through the mesh.

Using Steelco screens as an example (because that's what I'm familiar with), the cost is less than $2 per foot, and installation is so simple you can do yourself. The brand name cover products generally cost from $8 to $15 per foot, installed.

So, to summarize, they both work. They just work differently and each has it advantages and disadvantages. The only weakness I see in the screens is pine needles. Just how much of a problem that is depends on the how bad the pin needle issue is. The biggest difference between the product is price. There is no comparison. The cover products are grossly overpriced, and are often sold using high-pressure sales techniques.

Those are pretty much the facts, without writing a book about the subject. You decide. $10.00 a foot for covers, or $1.50 a foot for Steelco screens, plus the cost of a ladder, if you can borrow the neighbor's. :)

RC

[Ronald Carter]

Just as a follow up, here is a an excerpt from a web site I found when doing a little research browsing:

--- begin quote ---

With the many gutter projects that APCO installs each year, we made finding the best 'leaf prevention system' a top priority. APCO has researched and tested all major cover* systems. Most possess similar deficiencies:

1. small debris still pass through
2. heavy rains overflow the system
3. no access for cleaning
4. high costs of the system

APCO believes the solution to leaf prevention is the traditional gutter screen with the new powder coated paint finish. This product is the 'only' gutter screen that APCO installs because it is affordable, and many times it out performs the competition!

--- end quote ---

*the original copy stated "screen". An email from site's owner confirmed that this was an undetected error, and the copy will be corrected to read as above.

RC