Gutter guards for leaves and "helicopters"

[chrisc]

I spent over an hour cleaning out a gutter on only one side of the house yesterday and I don't want to go through this again. I have only lived here a couple of years now. I have 3 huge trees (not pine) and one pine close to the house. I also have other trees not that close, but close enough to add to the problem. I bought those stainless steel gutter guards with the metal hinges from H.D. last fall and they work awesome for leaves. I didn't have to even go up there. I figured I was all set. But this year , I got those

*&!$# helicopters all over the guttter guards. They are getting stuck in the holes and they are getting in the gutters. Are there guards that will do the job right? I figure the money will be worth it since I have a lot of trees around. Thanks

[Rod]

Try Gutter Helmet at

We've been very pleased. No small holes to get clogged.

[Pete C.]

Welcome to the wonders of maintaining a home in a non urban area. Your options are simple:

- Learn to do your annual gutter cleaning like the rest of us, it's the price you pay to live in a nice setting.

- Hire someone to do the cleaning for you.

- Cut down the trees and destroy the area like every other city PYV that moves to the (now formerly) beautiful country, because you're too lazy to do yard maintenance.

- Move back to the city and leave the beautiful country to those who care enough to maintain it.

[Mikepier]

Call the FAA right now and tell them about helicopters landing on your gutter.

[Joseph Meehan]

Yea. I can only suggest one thing. There are a number of different designs and the different designs work better with some things and less well with others. So far I am lucky. Over 15 years in my current home and I have never had to clean gutters and I don't have any guards. So far it all washes down without clogging. I suggest you start checking with local neighbors that have the same problems (same type of trees) as you do. What will work will for you may not work well in a different area.

I say a TV show once that did a number of test. The result was someone makes a guard that will work on just about any problem, but no one had a product that would work on all the problems.

They did not try what I had on a historic home. The gutters were far larger than standards and built into the roof with very large down spouts so nothing really got caught.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 6/4/2008 6:01 AM chrisc spake thus:

There's the "Leaf Filter" system, which looks like it ain't cheap but seems to be a superior way of keeping crap out of gutters:

[Art Todesco]

round, roughly 5/16" holes. The Maple seeds go right in, however, the wing doesn't. The wings line up like little soldiers. We just spent about 2 hours cleaning them out. I like the newer units available at my HD. They basically close the gutter pretty much completely except for the outside

1/2". There is a little dip with slots to let the water in. Leaves and seed helicopters should go right over the edge sending them to the ground to propagate their species. I am planning on a new home in the Smokey Mountains, and if possible, there will be no gutters ... maybe gravel at the drip spot.

[Dan Espen]

My neighbor has deflectors instead of gutters. The water hits the deflectors and instead of dropping straight down, is sprays an area maybe 3 feet wide. That would work well with the gravel plan.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 6/4/2008 2:53 PM Dan Espen spake thus:

Interesting; how do those work?

[JimR]

[snip]

Why have gutters at all? There's another option -- which I've started to use -- especially outside the city, except over doorways there may be no reason to have gutters. I've had some removed and there are more I'm considering taking out, like around the back and sides of the garage --

[Dan Espen]

My neighbor likes them.

I haven't seen any erosion around the house and they don't clog up.

They do dump a lot of water near the house. You'd need some plan to deal with the water after it hits the ground.

[Pete C.]

Typically to control erosion and puddling of water by the foundation. If you don't have gutters you really need to have fairly large overhangs, a gravel target strip for the water to impact on, and good grading to insure the water travels away from the foundation.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 6/4/2008 5:55 PM Dan Espen spake thus:

Yes; but *how* do they work?

[Noahbuddy]

David Nebenzahl wrote in news:48473011$0$4959$ [e-mail]:

I have something similar to this one pictured:

One of the best investments. My house is under a large canopy of trees. Those guards keep out everything.

The ones who say you don't need them probably live in the desert and have never seen a tree.

[Dan Espen]

Oh, "how" not "how well".

It's just 3 or 4 narrow strips of metal. The water runs off the roof, hits the strips of metal and bounces off. That way it doesn't pour down in a sheet, it sprays an area of the ground like a shower.

Nothing to clog and much less visible than a gutter.

[Dan Espen]

That's the same principle as the ones my neighbor has but those look like they mount over a gutter.

The ones my neighbor has have no gutter. It's just these strips of metal mounted where the gutters would be that deflect the rain.

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[chrisc]

[Dan Espen]

It looks like you responded to me, but your text makes no sense as a response to the ascii art I posted.

There is a reason no one else in this thread top posted or failed to trim.

My neighbor and I both get more helicopters than you can imagine. Mostly from Tulip Poplars. They're not a problem for him.

[Reno]

"chrisc" wrote in news:48469201$0$3349$ [e-mail]:

I installed something called Gutter Filter in my new house eavestroughs. Works pretty good for two summers now. Google will find it.

It is a triangular black plastic spongey material that you just push into the trough. It is a bit over-sized so its own springy pressure holds it in place. The triangular shape leaves some of the flow area open for water flow under the filter.

Leaves just sit on top and blow off. The only problems are at roof valleys where dirt and small seeds build up on the top of the filter and partially block the flow - I haven't seen any overflowing gutters but I went up and blew the crap off with a leaf blower; only took a few minutes.

We have a lot of very high oak and elm trees and get a ton of leaves so these gutters would have been murder to keep clear without something.

The filter is very coarse so fine sand would get through but nothing larger. It's not perfect but way better than nothing.

Our winters are very cold and I chose this system because I figure it might be better at dealing with snow and ice. Not sure if others wouldn't have been as good.

[DerbyDad03]

This Old House featured a one piece gutter system that looked just like the Gutter Helmet. I realize that Gutter Helmet is a retrofit for existing gutters, but the end product looks just like the system shown on This Old House.

The "contractor" was showing the host how they worked by pouring water from a jug over the gutter. More water hit the ground under the gutter than actually went into it. The water just shot right over the gap. Maybe the volume of water from the jug was too much, but I couldn't believe the vendor let the sequence air. The contractor was saying "Look how good they work" as the water was splashing all over his boots.