gutter guards

[badgolferman]

My ranch style house was built in 1967 and has copper gutters. I have several maple trees in my back yard and the neighbor has pine trees along the fence line near one side of my house. Around this time of the year all the leaves and pine needles start falling and I have to go up on my roof weekly to blow out the gutters with a leaf blower. Several years ago I broke down and bought a Greenworks 40v battery blower precisely for this reason because I got tired of dragging long extension cords onto the roof then getting them caught on the gutter hangers and edges.

I've talked to a few gutter companies about guards but they all want to tear down the copper gutters and install new ones with their gutter guards. The lowest estimate was $1000.00 from a friend. I don't want to replace the gutter guards, but I'm also getting too old to constantly go on the roof and blow out the gutters. This year I decided to buy these cheap gutter guards from Lowe's.

I had to buy 42 of these to cover the 125 ft. of gutters around my house. At least half of them had to be modified with a razor blade to fit around the existing hangers and nails holding the gutters up. It took me roughly five hours over two weekends of going up and down a ladder more than a hundred times to get all these installed. They slip under the shingles and hook into the lip of the gutter to hold fairly securely. The leaves are all sliding off them onto the ground, but we haven't had any heavy rains yet to see if the water goes through the mesh into the gutter or also goes over. Time will tell if it was a worthy investment. Since I'm sell in a few years and moving from Virginia to Florida I'm avoiding putting too much money into the house.

Total cost with my military discount = $102.36

[Jim Joyce]

Depending on how curious you are about the water behavior, you could use a garden hose to deliver some record setting 'rain'. If it's a single story house, you can probably do it while standing on the ground. No need to wet the whole roof. Just spray a small section and watch what happens as the water runs down toward the gutter. It should either wash over the gutter, (hopefully not), or fall into the gutter and get carried away to the nearest downspout.

[invalid unparseable]

I got the micro-mesh gutter guards from Home Depot over 3 years ago.

I was going to install myself but wife does not want me climbing anymore so my landscaper did it in trade for an old ladder which was too big for me to handle anymore. I only did the lower eves where leaves collect. They have been on for over three years now and still work well with no attention.

[Clare Snyder]

I've got the aluminum ones similar to these by Spectra -

they have NO PROBLEM handling our south-central Ontario rainstorms. Not sure how they would handle your Florida Hurricanes - -

-

[Jim Joyce]

Ed P gets the Florida hurricanes. I only get the Mississippi hurricanes. Ours are better. :-)

[Ed P]

And I have no gutters on the house.

[Retirednoguilt]

Let's hear from you in about 2-3 more years. I lived in the same house for 30 years and tried at least 3 different brands of gutter guards to keep the leaves out of the gutters. They all worked well allowing heavy rain to enter the gutter and all worked well keeping out whole leaves and large fragments of leaves. However, after about 5-6 years, all clogged with the dust and smaller particles of leaves that penetrated the openings in the guards and clogged the gutters. I'm not impressed that any of them work "permanently".

[invalid unparseable]

I will do that. I had guards similar to what OP posted without the underlying screen and they clogged with small pieces. So far these are much better but as with any new homeowner product only time will tell.

[Clare Snyder]

Not sure about "permanent" = hut how's 12 years?? with a Honey Locust, 4 maples. and formerly a cherry tree. LOTS of leaves....

[Retirednoguilt]

If I were still living in a single family detached house, I'd get those micro-mesh gutter guards in a heartbeat. Now I live in a condo. No leaves to rake, no snow to shovel, etc. Should have moved years earlier but inertia and a resistant wife won out in those days. Since we moved, she actually likes our new lifestyle better than I do. We went from 3 floors to one. I'm not claustrophobic but I miss the extra space.

[micky]

If you'd moved earlier, you might well have still longed for the house

By waiting the extra time, the advantages of an apartment were more important.

I too wonder how long I will hold out here. My back hurts and for the first time** I paid someone to mow the lawn.

**Well when I was working and feeling flush, I paid a neighbor kid. He's now a VP at one of the 20 biggest corporations in the US and president of his own sub-corporation. When his kids came over to visit their grandmother, I told them how Jamal read the HOA newsletter and saw that there was going to be a board meeting at my house and made a point to mow the lawn before the meeting. Without my saying a word. Most kids his age woudln't even read the HOA newsletter, let alone think, Hey, I should mow the lawn so Mr. Mouse will look good. I'm pretty sure they know anyhow but I wanted his kids to hear from a 3rd party that he didn't get to be VP by just doing what was asked. He did more than that.