I need to get a new gutter for one small section of my roof, with the hope that its as maintenance free as possible.
The section is under a magnolia tree, so leaves are inevitable. I’m considering those gutters that are covered, but apparently they are not as foolproof as the manufacturer wants you to believe*
Anyone have any experience with this?
*isn’t that always the way?
I’d recommend covers in places where debris is likely. They will greatly reduce the maintenance. Without them, the gutters will fill up with leaves and sticks and get clogged. But you don’t have to get the fancy covers. The simple ones you can get at the hardware store and put on yourself will do a great job. If you have a 1-story and are okay getting up on a ladder to install them, they’re pretty easy to put on. But I’m sure the ones from the gutter company would be good as well. They’ll keep your gutters clean even if they don’t keep them 100% spotless.
By covers do you mean like a grill or filter of some sort? Because IME they just move the clogging up to them rather than in the gutter itself.
We fixed it by getting bigger, better designed, gutters fitted.
If the covers are slanted back to front, then much or most of the debris should either fall off or be washed off with rain. This is better than having the debris build up inside the gutter, which seems tailor-made to fill up with debris (these suppositions are purely theoretical on my part, I have no experience of these things, since I have a “flat” (i.e. slightly angled) roof with a large drain at the lowest point). That said, it would be interesting to see what bigger and better-designed gutters look like.
I put gutter guards on my house then, a year later, removed them all and tossed them in the trash. Not only did leaves just get hung up and collect on the guards but, even when clean, rainwater had a tendency to just flow over the mesh rather than through it if it was raining with anything more robust than a drizzle. That, of course, defeated the point of having gutters in the first place. I think the mesh holes were small enough that there was some surface tension effect once the water got movin’.
These days, I just go up there with a leaf blower a couple times a year to remove whatever’s been building up. Even with a couple old maples in the front yard, it does the trick fine. Just gotta hit it at the right seasons (after the seeds drop, after the leaves drop and maybe trip in between just for maintenance). Of course, how “easy” that is will vary based on you and your home.
The covers didn’t work well for me because pine needles clogged them up, but maybe those aren’t a problem for you where you are.
@Jophiel — a leaf blower to clear the gutters. I hadn’t thought of that and it sounds like an idea worth trying. Thanks!
If your roof angle is shallow enough that it isn’t particularly dangerous, a leaf blower can be OK. However if the leaves and debris have been in there for any appreciable amount of time, you will blow wet, rotting black stank all over everything including yourself and anything within 10 feet of the gutter line on the ground. And if you have light colored siding or light colored brick, you’re gonna have a lot of cleanup.
I use a long pvc pipe with a u-bend at the end of it and vacuum the stuff out with my shop-vac. Much less messy, no ladders involved.
Mileage may vary, I guess. I just went up yesterday and blew them out. No clouds of stinking black junk, no mess on the house. Probably depends some on what sort/species of leaves and junk you have accumulating in there. Agree that it relies on having an accessible roof that you can safely trot around on.
At our first house we had screens over our gutters. IMO it worked quite well at keeping the leaves out. the only “problem” - which wasn’t much of one - is that in the spring some of the maple samaras would get stuck in them. So I had to go along with a ladder plucking those out.
I think I’ve heard that they now make them with smaller holes to avoid that problem, but I’ve never checked. Our current home’s gutters do not get leaves except in a limited number of easy to get to places.
I would think the screens would work well with large magnolia leaves.
I installed the metal ones you get at a hardware store on the front of our house - a couple of large-ish deciduous trees would fill the gutters each fall. They’ve worked well, and yes occasionally leaves get stuck on them but they usually blow off after a while. If I feel like it I’ll brush them off with a webster. Drainage has been perfect for about 6 years.
I cleaned my gutters twice a year. I still had some rot on the rafter ends and roof decking. After 14 years.
The rot was discovered by my roofers. I was told it’s a common repair for houses with gutters.
I had a new strip of plywood installed. Its 18 inches wide from the edge of the roof. Goes around the house. That eliminated the rotted area.
They cut 6 inches off the rafter ends and added new wood.
I still replaced the gutters. I originally had 4 in deep and went to 6 in. It doesn’t overflow in hard rain.
My gutters have a ‘gutterbrush’ leaf guard in them - so they keep the debris out without becoming a trap for leaves etc.
This was my experience as well. Here in western Oregon we get feet upon feet of rain each year and well-functioning gutters are vital. Over the years I’ve had gutters with different types of guards: some were just screens like hardware cloth, some were the professional type that was a rigid strip of metal with holes drilled in them, and some were like a mushy sponge type stuff stuffed into the gutters. The one thing they all had in common? They didn’t work. Debris would get matted on the various screens and eventually water would simply run across the accumulated junk and over the edge, completely negating the benefit the gutter is supposed to provide. I’d have to clean them out weekly or so just to keep the gutter functioning. Yeah, screw that.
Now I have three large deciduous trees in my back yard and I get a lot of leaves in my gutters. I can go out with a leaf blower a couple times per season, give it a good blow-out, and then blow the debris that came out of the gutter into a pile in the yard, ready for pick up later. Then I give the side of the house a quick spray-down with the hose to clean off any wet leaves that have stuck to the siding. It’s a ten-minute job maybe 6 times per year. My house is a single story ranch so I can do it all from a step stool, which helps tremendously. I also have a little baseball-sized screen cap on top of the downspout to keep leaves from going down the pipe. That also helps – I don’t have to worry about cleaning out the downspout.
If I had the gutter guards I’d have to go up on a ladder with a bucket, pick out all the leaves (which get stuck in the grates, so it’s literally picking them out one by one), remove a section of guard to wash out any bits of debris that has made it past the screens, then put everything back together. It’d be an hour job at least.
So no covered gutters for me, thanks.
There are two companies that run ads near constantly here for their gutter gadgets. Neither look worth a shit to me, and after reading the above comments, seem to reinforce that. Seems obvious to me the covers are either going to clog just as easily or defeat the purpose.
Me? Got no gutters. Got no leaves. Got no rain. Got no reason.
I would get soaked without gutters.
The drips from the overhang would go down the back of my neck while I unlock my front door.