Rain gutter covers - do they work?

Factual Questions
1

So the wife and I were at the local yearly home improvement and garden show a few weeks ago, and I noticed that there were a fair number of vendors selling products that claim to keep the leaves out of your gutters. Usually the product is a mesh screen, or a solid cover, the idea being that the rain will go into the gutter, and the leaves stay out. The one that I remember was called Gutter Guard, but there were certainly others.

Do any Dopers have these installed on their gutters currently, and if so, how are they working? I confess to an enhanced interest in these right now – we had a heavy day of rain on Sunday, and I spent about 30 minutes on a stepladder outside our house unclogging a downspout with my plumbers’ snake that was choked with leaves and maple tree seeds. I’d like to try to not repeat that experience if possible. :wink:

2

They work, however there is a mixed curve into terms of cost and performance.

If you buy decent self-install guards (100-200 bucks) you’ll get 90% of the performance of gutter helmets/caps/guards installed by a company with slick sales people.

I lived on a pretty heavy wooded lot and enjoyed the pretty good pop in guards that had a little extra mesh layer over the plastic screen.

We’ve been beaten down by hail, 65 mph gusts from trop storms and were up to our knees in leaves each Fall. The gutters stayed clean. They will go strong for another decade.

I’d spend another 200 bucks on those for my next house and would never consider dropping 2500 or more on some pro stuff. Don’t like ladders? …pay some handy man to install the ones from the home improvement center.

Expect much anecdotal evidence.

3

The self-installed ones work really well for us - I only have to clean right at the downspout a couple of times a year.

Installing them involved lots of pain and cursing, though.

4

DvlHouse is in the middle of a five acre wooded lot, so leaves they are a-falling. The house had self-installed guards when we moved in, but they didn’t seem to have been done correctly – in many areas they had blown off. It cost us about $250 (Neither MrsDvl or I were going up on a ladder) to have the gutters cleaned and new guards installed, and for a while now there have been no problems at all.

5

Can anybody link to some decent do-it-yourself guards?
And how well do they work for non-leaf tree stuff like those maple tree propellers?

6

I don’t have a link, but you want the plastic screens which provide most of the mass that are backed up by a second mesh layer. best bang for the buck.

7

I have installed gutter guards similar to these. Since the house is only one story, installing them myself was not a problem - it took less than an hour to do the front and back of my house.

We ordered them out of a mail-order catalog (can’t remember the name of the company), and the price was pretty close per section as in my link.

These have kept out not only big leaves, but pine straw, helicopters seed thingies, and pretty much anything that gets dropped from all the trees surrounding the house. The worse I have to do is once a year run a garden hose up there to was out the mud that has accumulated.

Well, he did ask for personal experiences…

8

I just figured the OP might have expected that everyone performed controlled studies. :slight_smile:

10

Reported as zombie spam.

11

I don’t think any of them keep 100% of the leaves and dirt out. The screwed on Gutter Helmet are a huge pain to clean out what still manages to get in. They were on the church I used to maintain. My house has DIY snap on ones. I paid $1.50 each for 3’ sections 20 years ago. They are expanded metal, arched, and have a couple of clips to hold them on. Try Lowes, etc. They do a good job.

12

Don’t know if the thread is going to get locked or just have the spam erased or deleted, but just in case anyone else pops in (or Googles), I’ll update the above.

It’s now been about three or four years since we had the guards re-installed, and so far there’s been absolutely no problems. Storms and whatnot have come through, yet none have blown off. The woods still surround the house, but none of the gutters is clogged. I recently did a during-the-rain walkaround to check for something else, and saw no problems. I don’t know the brand off-hand, but if I can find a sample (and someone thinks it’s important), I’ll look for an extra and post a pic.

14

What about if you have a fig tree near the house with leaves the size of side plates (and far bigger than the size of a downpipe)? I guess not, huh?

Mrs P and I had a good look at the options and couldn’t find many options that came highly recommended. Actually the experiences relayed in this thread are more positive than I have seen elsewhere.

15

I’ve researched this topic of gutter guards for many hours. Based on user postings on a multiplicity of sites, PLUS Consumer Reports ratings, there is little doubt that the MOST effective type is the micro-mesh variety.

Makes sense.

If the holes letting water through to the gutter troughs are large enough, all sorts of stuff falling off trees will get through. Leaves are generally the largest falling items, hence the easiest to keep out of gutters. It’s the other smaller stuff - seed pods, tassels, mostly spring-time stuff - that requires micro mesh in order to be kept out of gutters.

What type of micro-mesh? DIY? Or contractor installed?

That’s up to your personal preference.

If you DO go with a METAL micro-mesh, be CERTAIN it’s surgical grade stainless steel , otherwise you’ll have a rusty mess. (Vinyl is much less costly- see below)

If you choose to use a contractor, you’ll likely pay $10-20 per linear foot +/-, so check references before signing any contract.

If you’re going to DIY, check out on-line reviews at COSTCO.com of their EasyOn stainless steel mesh product. A bargain at about $2.00 per linear foot.

I chose to go to Lowe’s and purchased SHEERFLOW Gutter Filter. About $0.60 per linear foot. It’s a vinyl and fiberglass product. Be sure to install it correctly - with the mesh material on the top !

I have found nothing more effective and better priced than Sheerflow.

The other systems without micro mesh work ok for leaves, but most still let smaller items get into your gutters. Micro mesh products are the only ones that consistently and reliably keep out virtually everything but the rainwater itself.

Did My Homework Before Posting

16

I still liked the solution that my parent’s house in North Carolina had, 30 years ago - NO gutters, just a metal strip over the steps to the front porch to divert the water away from there. Seemed to work well, and NEVER had a problem with it.

I see from looking at Google streetview that the new owners added gutters. There loss.

17

This discussion started 5 years ago. I suspect the guy with the original question has long since fitted his gutter guards.

The real purpose of gutters, downspouts, & drain lines is to conduct rainwater way from the house around the entire perimeter. The strip over the door works fine for the tiny purpose you mention, avoiding a waterfall at your front door. But all around the rest of your house water cascades off the roof, falls right next to the foundation, and works to undermine it and or cause water intrusion into your basement.

In areas of the country with little annual rain, or for houses lucky enough to be on properly graded lots, gutters may be optional. For the majority of houses in the US, Europe, etc. gutters with drain lines to carry the water well away from the building are an essential feature to avoid water damage problems over the longer term.

18

If you have a ton of pine trees, and use gutter mesh, you end up with pine needles sticking straight up in the holes like hair. The only way to get that out is to remove it by hand which takes forever.

19

I agree and that’s the main reason I avoided a mesh guard. I am surrounded by several pines and a huge pin oak so I installed the DIY solid guards over 10 years ago. The only gutter maintenance I perform now is cleaning the outer rounded edge of the guard that allows rain water to run from the top of the guard back into the gutter. Debris (basically gunk) builds up at the edge over time and must be cleaned about every 3 years. Fortunately, I have a one story home.