Gutter Guard Advice

[SLUGGER]

Pros, cons? Are they worth doing? DIY or professional install?

 

[treemanjohn]

I bought the flexxpoint gutter guards from Amazon. They had great reviews and I'm very happy with them. Excellent price and easy installation

 

[1gr8bldr]

A Local gutter company can install an aluminum version/cover with holes for about 1 to $2 per foot. Cheeeeeap compared to the TV pushed gutter guards

 

[GoldDot40]

I bought and installed InvisaFlow guards all the way around my house. They fit "up to" a 6" gutter. Mine are 5" gutters.

The way they are designed, you're supposed to shove them under the edge of the shingles and the front snaps on the lip of the gutter. The only problem with that is if your roof has a high pitch....the guard follows the contour of the pitch. Water will run off the shingles and across the mesh surface of the guard and hardly any goes into the gutter.

I measured and folded over an inch of the back of each guard so that it fit flat on the gutter instead of at a slope. The water runs into the gutter like its supposed to. As far as keeping leaves, pine needles and twigs out of the gutter....they work as designed.

 

[PappyHoel]

I had them on my old home (name brand ones). They were 100% effective and they came with a lifetime warranty that transferred to any new owner. It was a selling point when the house was sold. At the time they had a payment plan if you needed one.

I would recommend them if you live under tree canopy and the customer service was good.

 

[tcward]

I have the Leaf Filter covers on mine...work great.

 

[someguyintraffic]

Let me give you this advice. Do not use Atlanta Gutter Solutions who are 5 star recommended on Home Advisor. Subcontractor. Hasn't stood behind warranty. If they mention surface tension gutter caps tell them leave, no pun intended.

New aluminum and downspouts and gutters were okay. Caps were shotty work, broke shingles installing, still caught leaves, and let water go everywhere.

Replaced with leaf guard caps. Cost me 4500 by the end. 3600sq ft house.

 

[SLUGGER]

Thanks for the info. GoldDot 40, I was wondering about roof pitch being a problem, glad you included that information. Mine is a 9 12 on most of the house and 12 12 on the rest.

 

[GoldDot40]

Thanks for the info. GoldDot 40, I was wondering about roof pitch being a problem, glad you included that information. Mine is a 9 12 on most of the house and 12 12 on the rest.

Pretty sure mine is 9:12 pitch. I'd have to measure and calculate to be 100% sure.

 

[Barfolomew]

I have surface tension style gutter guards that were professionally installed. These replaced the screen style gutter guards because the screens allow pine needles and small seeds from stuff like maple popular trees into the gutters, which means they have to be cleaned. The only downside I've seen from the surface tension style is that under really, really heavy down pours on long/steep roof sections, you'll see the water shoot off them as it flows too fast.

 

[CoryIrons]

Are gutter guards worth the money?
I don't understand! That's good or bad ?? My dad tends that gutter guards don't provide foolproof protection against all the debris that can litter and clog gutters ? ... They don't make your gutters invincible or magically resistant to the debris of the seasons.

 

[The Original Rooster]

Are gutter guards worth the money?
I don't understand! That's good or bad ?? My dad tends that gutter guards don't provide foolproof protection against all the debris that can litter and clog gutters ? ... They don't make your gutters invincible or magically resistant to the debris of the seasons.

That has been my experience for sure. Now that I have a relatively shallow pitch roof, I found it was easier to just take them off permanently and clean out my gutters every year. The guards never caught everything and I always had to take them off to clean out the junk in the gutter that got by them anyway.

 

[hoytman308]

I had the mesh type plastic ones. They were a disaster because they still clogged up in top of mesh. The house had trees hanging over the roof on 3 sides and when the leaves would get wet they would stick. Then more would stick so then I was 2 stories off the ground cleaning gutters. I fixed that ordeal by selling that house and building a new one with no trees around it. ?. No gutter cleaning in my future now or long term.

 

[K80Shooter]

I bought and installed InvisaFlow guards all the way around my house. They fit "up to" a 6" gutter. Mine are 5" gutters.

The way they are designed, you're supposed to shove them under the edge of the shingles and the front snaps on the lip of the gutter. The only problem with that is if your roof has a high pitch....the guard follows the contour of the pitch. Water will run off the shingles and across the mesh surface of the guard and hardly any goes into the gutter.

I measured and folded over an inch of the back of each guard so that it fit flat on the gutter instead of at a slope. The water runs into the gutter like its supposed to. As far as keeping leaves, pine needles and twigs out of the gutter....they work as designed.

I have these and they work great. I also installed them myself, very easy. Home Depot sells them in my area.

 

[B. White]

I just added a couple of homemade ones as an experiment when doing some work on the end of the house near a big white oak. I took 1" wire like we used to use for rabbit pens and cut a section about 18" long to fit above the downspout. I snipped the wire to push a section down on the end to form a ramp that goes down in the gutter. This does not cover the full length, but we'll see if water and fresh leaves will wash or get blown up and out. It was cheap and I have nothing to lose. I read too many complaints about the guards and thought it worth a try.

 

[GoldDot40]

Notice this thread is 2 years old. That said, the ones I used are still working as advertised. The only accumulation of junk is where they put a shield in the 90° corners...but the accumulation is on top of the mesh screen. I can just hit it with the leaf blower if they're dry and clear it out easily. The gutters themselves are still leaf free.

 

[Deerhead]

I have the micro mesh gutter covers and lots of pine trees in my yard. The gutter covers work really well. No more cleaning gutters for me! I still have to blow my roof clean (4x12) pitch but that's easy! I highly recommend them.

 

[natureman]

I have never had acceptable results with any of the DIY ones from HD and Lowes. Tried 4 or 5 different ones.

 

[treemanjohn]

The ones I mentioned above are still working flawlessly. They cost less that $1/ft