Good gutter protection?

[Tom Sestito]

Looking for recommendation on gutter protectors.

Are they worth it?
What is a good design?
Do you have a specific product recommendation given my situation?

On one side of my house and garage there is a huge Black Poplar which drops tons of sticky seeds in the spring, and loads of leaves in the fall. On the other side of the house I have a spruce tree that hangs over the house and sheds pine needles all the time.

Also I live in an area prone to thunderstorms dropping massive amounts of rain at once.

At present I have to clean the gutters twice per year - once in the spring after the sticky seeds have fallen, and in the fall to get rid of the leaves.

At least I live in a bungalow, so it's not too high.

Thanks

 

[SouthLake]

what a rabbit hole this is... im convinced no perfect solution exists. its maddening!!!! ive been going through this for years.

currently on the cheap-o-home depot snap on ones. they have been doing their job but im sure its just a matter of time before they collapse or fail

I had metal screw in ones that became wasp habitat.

Had gutter stuff, which did not clear heavy rain fast enough and overflowed. also became a growing pot.

for a while i was just going gutter guard free and cleaning them out, this actually worked the best and easiest. but in the fall that becomes a weekly task around here.

 

[RWorth]

I think this year I'm going to take them all down and just put up short sections over the doors.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Gutterglove. Best in the industry. I haven't touched my gutters since I had it done. Don't get talked into the cheaper copycats like LeafFilter. They'll tell you theirs is better (it's not) and that Gutterglove voids your roof warranty (it doesn't).

http://www.gutterglove.com/

Tommy

 

[jhelrey]

Cut the trees down... Too close to the house.

 

[SouthLake]

Cut the trees down... Too close to the house.

lol love posts like these, clueless.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I have Rainguard gutters on my house. The cover is an integral part of the gutter so you'd have to replace your old ones, but they work great. I have a lot of trees around my house but get zero leaves or debris inside the gutters, and they drain water no matter how heavy it rains. https://www.leafguard.com

 

[toolmiser]

I am also patiently waiting for the perfect solution. I talked to a person selling them at a home show, I asked how they performed in heavy rain, he said you will get overflow that you need good drainage. I said that is why I needed gutters.

I've also heard they can be an issue for ice damming. My neighbor has them and clears the edges after every snowfall. Glad his house is only single story. I would rather clean the gutters.

 

[Radix2]

No gutters, don't need them with proper landscaping.

 

[Misfire]

Huge maple overhanging the front and massive ash tree overhanging the back. Installed Leaf Solutions guards when we moved in three years ago and haven’t touched the gutters since. Not cheap but worth it.

http://www.leafsolution.com

 

[58Yeoman]

Costco.

 

[6768rogues]

In 40 years of looking I have never seen a good product. Some mesh types fall in the gutter and plug it worse. Some don’t work and let junk in, making them harder to clean. Some are so fine water often overflows, no junk in but little water, either. If you have underground leaders, basket strainers at the outlets keep stuff from going down and plugging buried pipes.

 

[kwschumm]

There is no gutter solution that works on fir needles, if that's the issue then I'd advise budgeting to have the gutters cleaned regularly.

 

[Tom Sestito]

Thanks guys for the replies. I'll look into some of the products you recommend, see if I can go touch and feel at the local hardware store.

 

[Elsinore13]

Give some consideration to E-Z Gutter products. E-Z Jim has been a fixture around the vintage motocross scene that I'm a bit addicted to. Good guy and Made In The USA...

https://www.e-zgutter.com/about

 

[MushCreek]

No gutters, don't need them with proper landscaping.

Yeah, those ruts in the yard under the drip line are so attractive. I installed cheap gutters, and bought some covers at Home Depot. They work OK- not great, but better than nothing. Systems such as Leafguard are way out of my budget.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

No gutters, don't need them with proper landscaping.

Maybe if your on a slab, have a 10° slope away from all the exterior walls and like ruts in the ground along the drip edge.

Tommy

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I have Rainguard gutters on my house. The cover is an integral part of the gutter so you'd have to replace your old ones, but they work great. I have a lot of trees around my house but get zero leaves or debris inside the gutters, and they drain water no matter how heavy it rains. https://www.leafguard.com

I'm glad they work for you, but they don't work for **** for pine needles and and heavy rain shoots right off. Around here I've also seen them fill up with crud.

Tommy

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Gutterglove. Best in the industry. I haven't touched my gutters since I had it done. Don't get talked into the cheaper copycats like LeafFilter. They'll tell you theirs is better (it's not) and that Gutterglove voids your roof warranty (it doesn't).

http://www.gutterglove.com/

Tommy

I have seen the following product at Costco recently.

http://www.costco.com/EasyOn-Gutterguard-5”-Version---100’.product.100019377.html

It's made by Gutterglove and it can be "taped" or "screwed" to the gutter.

I have 20 year old cheap metal mesh screen that work fine - they keep almost all of the debris out of the gutters. When it snows they get covered and drip over the lip of the gutter - which is irritating over the front stoop.

I had a rep from one of the Home Show gutter guard solutions come out and provide and estimate for new gutters and covers. The gutters we $X per foot and the covers were $3X per foot - which seemed a bit pricey.

When I have the roof and gutters done this summer I will put screens on myself and call it done.

Cheers

Jim

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I have seen the following product at Costco recently.

http://www.costco.com/EasyOn-Gutterguard-5”-Version---100’.product.100019377.html

It's made by Gutterglove and it can be "taped" or "screwed" to the gutter.

I have 20 year old cheap metal mesh screen that work fine - they keep almost all of the debris out of the gutters. When it snows they get covered and drip over the lip of the gutter - which is irritating over the front stoop.

I had a rep from one of the Home Show gutter guard solutions come out and provide and estimate for new gutters and covers. The gutters we $X per foot and the covers were $3X per foot - which seemed a bit pricey.

When I have the roof and gutters done this summer I will put screens on myself and call it done.

Cheers

Jim

That's about as good of a product as you can get for DIY. We use it at work. It's available under different names at Home Depot, Costco, Lowe's and Sam's Club, but it's all from Gutterglove.

Tommy

 

[roc_on_the_rocks]

Gutterglove. Best in the industry. I haven't touched my gutters since I had it done. Don't get talked into the cheaper copycats like LeafFilter. They'll tell you theirs is better (it's not) and that Gutterglove voids your roof warranty (it doesn't).

http://www.gutterglove.com/

Tommy

Thanks Tommy! That really looks like a good design.

 

[58Yeoman]

I have seen the following product at Costco recently.

http://www.costco.com/EasyOn-Gutterguard-5”-Version---100’.product.100019377.html

It's made by Gutterglove and it can be "taped" or "screwed" to the gutter.

I have 20 year old cheap metal mesh screen that work fine - they keep almost all of the debris out of the gutters. When it snows they get covered and drip over the lip of the gutter - which is irritating over the front stoop.

I had a rep from one of the Home Show gutter guard solutions come out and provide and estimate for new gutters and covers. The gutters we $X per foot and the covers were $3X per foot - which seemed a bit pricey.

When I have the roof and gutters done this summer I will put screens on myself and call it done.

Cheers

Jim

That's what I put on my hip roof gutters a couple years ago, and I'm satisfied. My brother had some kind of gutter helmet gutters installed on his small house last year, and it was something like $6000. All my covers were less than $500, but I didn't have to replace my gutters.

 

[Radix2]

Yeah, those ruts in the yard under the drip line are so attractive. I installed cheap gutters, and bought some covers at Home Depot. They work OK- not great, but better than nothing. Systems such as Leafguard are way out of my budget.

Maybe if your on a slab, have a 10° slope away from all the exterior walls and like ruts in the ground along the drip edge.

Tommy

You guys have no idea. Basic foundation ground cover plants, shrubs, stones, etc. work just fine in handling the normal edge drip. The water is widely dispersed and not as aggresive as you imagine. For places where valleys dump out you need to do something more like a rock splash detail.

I haven't had the chance to finish the landscaping in back of my 40x85 addition - no gutters and just the wild plants that have grown up back there have had no trouble preventing erosion.

Sure it takes a little effort to get established, but that is nice easy safe work from the ground and a permanent solution. In a wooded location gutters just don't cut it and should be minimized to where needed if any. Maybe you have areas where they make sense, no need to have them everywhere which is the fashion, minimize the maintainance.

Just another way to make the sausage.

 

[ard]

I've got a 12 ft 'extension' I made out of 3" ABS drain for my leaf blower. Two 90s and an old nozzle on the end. Walk around the house, twice a year, blast them clean.

Two things- not a lot of trees near my house, AND only a wet and dry season here. Generally the leaf drop doesn't happen during continuously rainy periods.

More sausage making.....

 

[Jeepster04]

I have Rainguard gutters on my house. The cover is an integral part of the gutter so you'd have to replace your old ones, but they work great. I have a lot of trees around my house but get zero leaves or debris inside the gutters, and they drain water no matter how heavy it rains. https://www.leafguard.com

My parents had these on the house I grew up in. Trees all around and the gutters were always clean.

Its amazing how much aggregate the singles lose that typically ends up in the gutters. The driveway and deck had aggregate all over it. The valleys required several holes be drilled in the top of the gutter to prevent overflows.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

You guys have no idea. Basic foundation ground cover plants, shrubs, stones, etc. work just fine in handling the normal edge drip. The water is widely dispersed and not as aggresive as you imagine. For places where valleys dump out you need to do something more like a rock splash detail.


Just another way to make the sausage.

Stones are reasonable. Shrubs are not dense enough. Any mulch or other topping in between the shrubs other than stones gets washed right out. You still get ruts in between the shrubs and even down at the root balls. Then the plants need constant resupply of soil. Ground covers can't always be used, like in areas where you have a lawn right up the the building and anything else would be deemed unattractive.

I have a shed with no gutters. Even with only a 7' drop, the water is more aggressive than you would think. Even a normal rain will literally "cut" a trench into the grass after a while. Even with Zoysia. The erosion would REALLY be aggressive on a Cape like mine with a steep pitch if I didn't have gutters.

Tommy

 

[sixty4]

Years ago, I used to work for a builder that did some really nice high end homes. He would do something like this, to eliminate any gutters at all except building entrances or exits.

 

[BuffettFan]

We're fairly heavily wooded and have quite a few oak trees, cottonwoods and maples.
I used to have to clean the gutters 2 or 3 times a year.
I had the gutters replaced and Gutter Helmet installed at the same time.
Not cheap, but they guarantee that you won't have to clean your gutters again.
If you have an issue, they will clean them for you.
7 years in, and I've never an issue.
In a downpour, the water will run over them, but it does the same thing on my neighbor's house, which is almost a twin to mine, without any gutter protection.
Not a DIY product, but I'm happy with it.

 

[spudley]

Years ago, I used to work for a builder that did some really nice high end homes. He would do something like this, to eliminate any gutters at all except building entrances or exits.

This is exactly what I did at a densely tree'd lake home 20 years ago and it works great. No bushes planted near the house and the wife's flowers are in pots. Basement is bone dry.

 

[glentre]

In my home, the contractor dug a shallow ditch at the drip line (no gutters) and filled it with small white stones from the big box store. The stones dissipate the impact of the falling water and it is either absorbed into the soil below or gently washes away. After a few years, the grass started growing throughout the stone line and now the stone is hardly visible.

Glen

 

[myredracer]

Depends on the tree species and how close to your house or nearby and what winds can be like. Code can sometimes dictate what you need to do or can't do.

Built a house once and had been hearing a local gutter co. advertising gutter protection on the radio that was guaranteed to keep stuff out of your gutters. Guaranteed! Excellent!
Looked like the one in the 1st photo (Leafguard??). We were in a forested area with lots of fir, cedar, maple and balsam and others all over our property and near the house and garage. Despite several phone calls and promises to come out for a quote, they just never showed up. Wonder why?

Our current house has the type with small holes like in the 2nd photo. I thought it was going to be a maintenance problem, but 10+ years later has been fine and haven't had to clean it. Probably could do with a pressure washing along with the face of the gutters but aren't going to worry much.

If you are in an area that can get heavy snowfalls, improperly installed gutters can be pulled right off the house. Happened to us a few weeks after we had the entire house done by a major local co. After many heated calls and threats, they re-installed new ones along with the guard in the 2nd photo. This guard is structurally attached from outer edge of the gutter to the fascia (on ours anyway) so snow can't pull it all off.

Fir needles have gotta be the worst thing ever invented for clogging gutters.

 

[glentre]

Gotta agree with Myredracer above regarding the type with curved slots like in his first photo. They are terrible. The debris and especially pine/fir needles just wrap around the curves and fall into the gutter, making a real cleaning chore as the caps need to be removed to get the needles out. Changed to the flat mesh type on our rental property with no problems except that the debris tends to form a mat that the water won't penetrate. It's easy to remove since it tends to come off in one piece like a length of cloth. We have the curved slot type on our summer home and this thread has got me convinced that cleaning them out every year is just not worth it. A change to the flat mesh type is coming this summer.

Glen

 

[ChaseDE]

I have the kind similar to Myredracer posted, second picture, with the perforated sheet metal. They seem to work very good, never had an issue yet.

 

[Cairo94507]

I have large Redwood trees surrounding my home and I installed the EasyOn gutter guard I purchased from Costco. I have not had a problem since. Nothing sticks to it and only water gets through it. Easy to install and virtually nothing to maintain.

 

[Trey T]

Gutterglove. Best in the industry. I haven't touched my gutters since I had it done. Don't get talked into the cheaper copycats like LeafFilter. They'll tell you theirs is better (it's not) and that Gutterglove voids your roof warranty (it doesn't).

http://www.gutterglove.com/

Tommy

I researched into this topic to modify my gutter system and the gutter gloves seems like it will work in my area.