Rain gutters

There was a thread a year ago about rain gutters but it didn’t really answer my question. My house needs new gutters. I have a lot of tall trees and evergreens around my house so I need some leave filter system. My roofer has told me about the Gutter Helmet, GutterGuardian, and Gutter Protec, but they all seem pretty much the same to me: a piece of metal covering the gutter to keep leaves out.

My question is what’s the difference between these things? Is there anything better? Mostly, what gutter system is the least maintenance and which is the best bang for the buck?

I’d like an answer, too. Various friends and relatives have installed brands A through Q, and nobody is wholly satisfied. I still climb up on the roof every fall with an electric blower and clear gutters the old fashioned way.

Don’t have any experience with the solid covers, but what I have used for 20 years in 2 houses and recommend, are screens that screw into the tops of and cover the gutters. Both houses had several trees - mainly maples - overhanging the house.

Once in the spring I might need to get on a ladder and brush off a few of those maple seeds that get stuck in the screen holes. And maybe once again in the fall to brush off leaves in one or two areas like a corner. But nowhere near the job open gutters require.

Far less expensive than the gutter-guard type things as well.

But I have found that this is a subject folks strongly disagree on.

BTW - clearing gutters with a blower is “the old fashioned way”?! :stuck_out_tongue:

We used to have the screen kind. After we noticed that the gutters weren’t flowing at all, we took the screens off to have a look-see, and lo and behold, three inches of MOSS was growing in the gutters. We’ve ditched those and are looking at other systems.

Oh…and the maple seeds? If you have the “right” kind of screens, they’re just big enough to fit the seed through the opening but not the “feather.” It looks like hundreds of indians on the roof waiting to attack. At least it does in *my * active imagination.

I am in the same situation and I looked into this last year. I basically came to the conclusion that none of the solutions you named will work, and they will make it impossible (or very difficult) to clean. One product you did not mention is LeafGuard. That product looked the most promising to me, but it is also the most expensive It is also the best looking - some of the products you mentioned can be pretty ugly. Make sure you can actually look at a real installation.

The problem with all of these products is that they cover the gutter up, so that unless you pay very close attention (who goes out at looks at their gutters in the rain?), you can have a problem for a long time before you notice it, and you will notice it because damage (erosion) has already taken place. Some people are very satisfied with it, but generally those seem to be the folks that have a small area with some trees over their house, not the dense forest that is over mine.

I basically came to the conclusion that what I really wanted were gutters that were easy to clean. I wanted to get half round gutters that were supported from underneath so that I could clean it by dragging a gutter scoop along it without any barriers. Unfortunately, I could not find a gutter guy willing to install them (the supports are not as strong as the usual spikes).

In any case, I still do what you do. When I get too old to do that I will pay someone to clean my gutters.

Yeah, those “Native Americans” are what I meant to describe cleaning out in the spring. I guess it is more “plucking out” than “brushing off”, but IME many many times more seeds fall to the ground off of the roof and screened gutters, than create a warbonnet.

We never had any moss. Would that be a sign that your gutters weren’t draining well? Both times we had screens installed, they were with completely new gutters, so there were no other drainage problems.

I’ll also addthe proviso that certain options are undoubtedly better than others depending on your region, or even the specific “micro-environment” of your home.

Not really on-topic, but I always find it amusing when I see a house that has sizeable trees growing out of their gutters! Signifies a special degree of neglect in my mind…

Here in NZ I’ve installed a (warning: pdf) commercial system from Marley As everything comes labelled in french, it’s gotta be imported, either from France or Canada. It is half round and has external brackets and appears to be strong, but can’t say anything about snow loadings. (Ok, I see now for snow/high wind, brackets to be at 300mm centres) It’s fairly wide though at 170mm. I also see Marley has a (warning pdf) domestic external bracket system now which I haven’t seen before.

I’m sure that in the US, someone would have something similar?

To fix the brackets, I always use stainless screws, never nails as they loosen and pull out.
I’ve found many houses where the orginal installer has run the gutters uphill too :smack: Guess they can’t read a level :rolleyes: