I've lived in this house for 2 months and had to clean the gutters 3 times. I have a bunch of trees around the house and was thinking about going to home depot and picking up some chicken wire and putting it over my gutters to reduce the amount of leaves that get stuck in my gutters. I can't seem to find a websites that explains the best way to do it and attach it. Any tips?
They make LOTS of products specifically for this task that are very easy to attach. They are not expensive so the idea of building your own is pretty silly. Not to mention the fact that the holes in chicken wire are much too large to be effective for the task.
I would guess that your Home Depot likely has no less than three different gutter screen products that you can purchase.
Where do you live? Ranch, or 2-story?
IMO, the only product of this type worth considering is the type that relies on the surface tension of the water. These have a solid cover, with only a small narrow gap beneath the front edge. Debris rolls off, while the surface tension of water makes it curve enough to go in. There are companies that install them professionally, but they do it as part of replacing the whole gutter system. I've also seen that at HD, as plastic add ons.
I have the vinyl screens and they work great. A person I work with has the "gutter helmet" type that you describe and he states that in a hard enough rain you effectively no longer have gutters at all. The water jumps over them like a ramp and goes straight to the ground. It seems that no solution is perfect so "inexpensive and easy" are what I look for first.
I have no idea what brand they are, but I feel confident that I every hardware store I have ever been in has carried some sort of gutter screen. I would be very suprised if you had to visit more than two places to find the vinyl ones. They are VERY common.
The back slides under the first row of shingles (if you have shingles) and the front side snaps over the front edge of the gutter. I would estimate about five secconds per section to install (they are about 3 feet long).
There are plastic gutter guards that slip under the last row of shingles and snap onto the edge of the gutter. They work reasonably well, but you will still need to check your gutters once a year especially if you have pine trees.
I use these, they come in 25' rolls. You will also see metal ones - DON'T GET THEM. The plastic ones are easier to put in and take out. The metal ones can only be used once because they bend when you remove them and they don't really go back in the same.
Pine trees are really not so bad, they don't shed many needles and the cones are too big to be an issue. However, maple buds and "helicopters", and ash seed "needles" will easily get through the screens, so I clean spring and fall. I have all three trees next to my house.
S
So-called "surface tension" is a myth and a fraud, perpetrated by the Communists. How could water be tense? It doesn't have to pay a mortgage, or be at work on time. It doesn't get yelled at for sleeping at its desk. It doesn't have a boss or a wife!
"mrsgator88" wrote in message news:RJCYg.17982$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net...
I have 360' of gutter on my house. I tried all the BORG type of gutter toppers and finally decided on the Amerimax brand that have the plastic, window like screen. on the top of them. They slide under the first row of shingles then snap into the front of the K style gutter. Installed about 20 feet of them on the garage and then put the hose on the roof and the water just hit the little flat piece of the guard that sticks up, over it and hit the ground effectively allowing only about 50% of the water to enter the gutter. I then decided that I would re-engineer the guards by drilling about a 1/8" hole in the guards right before the lip. This was pretty easy on the drill press. I then installed them on the rest of the house and garage. This has allowed them to work very well, all the water now goes in the gutter unless you have a very heavy rain. I have maple, pine, oak and other trees that blow leaves on my roof. I was mostly concerned about the pine needles. So far over the three months since I have installed them, they have seemed to work well, only minimal pine needles have gotten into the gutter. Mostly the only things that I have seen in the gutters are the aggregate off the shingles. These guards cost about $1.78 ea at the Borgs. My reasoning for drilling the holes was that the guards that have no screen and just holes would allow many more items to pass into the gutter and that having only one small row of holes would only allow minimal items to get into the gutter. So far it seems to be working. The commercial companies wanted from $7K -$15K to install new gutters with their helmets. This cost considerably less and if it continues to work as well as it has so far I will be satisfied. Each situation is unique, you should get some samples and see what works best for you. They all have their good and bad points.
LJ
The Coanda effect also works against these things. Take a hose and simulate the system working. Then drop a small piece of paper, or a leaf, or pine needles, or roof crud, (etc.) in the water flow, and watch it get sucked inside.
Not only does the water adhere to product, it also adheres to the debris. Then, to make matters worse, you now have a closed system that makes it hard to clean out.
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