A changing of the guard. Any gutter guards that don't suck?

Our house had some basic  expanded metal mesh gutter guards when we bought it. They kind of work at keeping large things out, but they let small leaves and seedpods  through that I get to clean out every spring/fall before our buried downspouts get clogged. This job sucks, and I'd like to do it less often so I'm considering making a change.

Im seeing flat guards with a finer mesh, Guards that are solid metal with small holes drilled in them, and solid covers. Seems like everyone either loves or hates them all as reviews are polarizing for each type of product. Any advice to help me narrow it down a bit? Anything I'm missing?

House details: 5 inch seamless gutters, low pitched roof, lots of different trees around (maples, a huge oak, and locusts are the primary offenders here). Large, ranch home with large attached garage and a hip roof so gutters go around the entire thing. Over. 4000sqft under a big ass roof, so I'm guessing easily 300-400 hundred linear feet of gutter. That means cost is a bit of a factor but this is our 'forever' home so I don't want to cheap out. Downspouts are buried into black corrugated drain tile that runs to various spots in my 1.75 acre lot and would be a massive pain to redo if they get clogged or blocked.

I ripped off similar gutter guards on my house.  I find its easier to clean out the gutters once a year and not deal with having to remove the guards, which were about as effective as yours.  

FYI, a pressure washer does a great job cleaning out gutters.  

I was having to clean out my gutters a couple times a year. I took a gamble on a section of hard to reach roof and threw these cheap guards up with low expectations. I was impressed and put them around the entire house. 2 years later and my gutters are still clean. The plastic is starting to get a little brittle though, so I expect that I will still need to replace them in another 2 or hopefully 3 years. If I can get 5 years out of a set im pretty happy. 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Amerimax-Snap-In-Gutter-Filter-PVC-Gutter-Screen-6-5-in-x-3-ft/50040810

I used to have to clean my gutters monthly. Lots of trees, maples, oaks and cottonwoods.

One end of the house is 2 stories down to concrete if I should slip.

I bit the bullet in 2011 and got Gutter Helmet.

Not cheap, but they guarantee that you will never have to clean your gutters again. If your gutters do get clogged, they will come and clean them for free.

8 years later, mine have never needed cleaned.

https://www.consumersadvocate.org/gutter-guard/c/gutter-helmet-gutter-guard-review

I've never had much luck with any of those. I have a big maple tree that covers about 1/3 of my roof and is constantly dropping sticks, leaves, seed pods, and other assorted crap. I just end up going up there a few times per summer with my leaf blower and blasting the gutters clean. It helps that I have a ranch with a shallow pitch and can easily walk my whole roof, that's not an option for a lot of folks, though.

If you want to go with complete replacement, I have Leafguard gutters on my house.  They have a solid cover that's an integral part of the gutter assembly.  They work great - I get zero debris in them.  https://www.leafguard.com/

The Gutter Helmet style really love to make ice dams in my experience.  Want it fixed once and forever?  Do what they do up north and pull those gutters off.  We don't need no stinkin gutters.

STM317 said:

Our house had some basic  expanded metal mesh gutter guards when we bought it. They kind of work at keeping large things out, but they let small leaves and seedpods  through that I get to clean out every spring/fall before our buried downspouts get clogged. This job sucks, and I'd like to do it less often so I'm considering making a change.

Im seeing flat guards with a finer mesh, Guards that are solid metal with small holes drilled in them, and solid covers. Seems like everyone either loves or hates them all as reviews are polarizing for each type of product. Any advice to help me narrow it down a bit? Anything I'm missing?

 

House details: 5 inch seamless gutters, low pitched roof, lots of different trees around (maples, a huge oak, and locusts are the primary offenders here). Large, ranch home with large attached garage and a hip roof so gutters go around the entire thing. Over. 4000sqft under a big ass roof, so I'm guessing easily 300-400 hundred linear feet of gutter. That means cost is a bit of a factor but this is our 'forever' home so I don't want to cheap out. Downspouts are buried into black corrugated drain tile that runs to various spots in my 1.75 acre lot and would be a massive pain to redo if they get clogged or blocked.

 

I have rolled roof edges. Gutter guards don’t work.  They offer foam that fills the gutters.  rain flows through the foam but leaves sit on top until nature blows them off.  

Yeah, when I had a Sam's Club membership (done with that junk, Costco only now) I bought the foam gutter fill with a 15 year warranty.  I did almost all my gutters over a two or three year span.  The stuff works well.  Very well.  It fills the gutter, allows water to flow freely through, and everything else lays on top.  On a dry windy day, it all blows away.

Only problem is, it's not going to last 15 years.  I'd guess the oldest installed sections are maybe 8? years old.  It's starting to deteriorate, and crumble in the center, allowing debris to accumulate.  In another year or two, I'm going to have to pull all that E36 M3 out.

Whaddaya wanna bet the company is either out of business or is a bit lax on honoring their warranty?  And no way can I prove date of install.  I did it 20 feet at a time over a couple years when I'd put up Christmas lights.

I appreciate the replies everyone! 

If my downspouts weren't buried, I might consider ditching the guards completely but I really don't want to have to dig up hundreds of feet of clogged drain tile so I'm trying to keep as much as possible out of the gutters.

Im also trying to avoid full gutter replacement or paying somebody to come install some "proprietary" product like Gutter Helmet as they're costly and I have a problem paying other people to do simple things that I can do on my own. 

Thanks for the insight on the Foam inserts. You brought up some things that I hadn't considered. I'll have to do some more thinking and read some more reviews about it.

I think at this point I'm leaning toward the fine mesh style. Reviews make it sound like they do almost as well as the solid covers at keeping stuff out, while letting more water into the gutter. The most common complaint about them is that heavy rain can just flow over the top, but I'm hoping that my low pitched roof and proper installation angle would mitigate most of that. Im absolutely open to more input if anybody has anything else.

 In reply to STM317 :

My drains are buried too and run through stone retaining walls.  It’s almost 25 feet up to the gutters, so at my age I’m not climbing a ladder to wash out leaves. 

Plus I have big tress trees shading almost my whole house.  

Maybe the shade is what protects the foam but there is no sign of it deteriorating.  If it did I’d just buy new and install  every 9-10 years.  It takes just a few minutes to drop the foam section in. And it’s cheap enough 

I installed Leaf Relief a few years back.  I also have a couple huge white oak trees along with a few others that I live under.  The seed pods that come off of these trees can get trapped in the lower section of the guard but can easily be blown off.  I have looked under mine and they are still clear 3+ years later. 

I bought mine at ABC Supply.  

https://www.lynchaluminum.com/product/5-retro-zip-style-leaf-relief/

STM317 said:

Our house had some basic  expanded metal mesh gutter guards when we bought it. They kind of work at keeping large things out, but they let small leaves and seedpods  through that I get to clean out every spring/fall before our buried downspouts get clogged. This job sucks, and I'd like to do it less often so I'm considering making a change.

Im seeing flat guards with a finer mesh, Guards that are solid metal with small holes drilled in them, and solid covers. Seems like everyone either loves or hates them all as reviews are polarizing for each type of product. Any advice to help me narrow it down a bit? Anything I'm missing?

 

House details: 5 inch seamless gutters, low pitched roof, lots of different trees around (maples, a huge oak, and locusts are the primary offenders here). Large, ranch home with large attached garage and a hip roof so gutters go around the entire thing. Over. 4000sqft under a big ass roof, so I'm guessing easily 300-400 hundred linear feet of gutter. That means cost is a bit of a factor but this is our 'forever' home so I don't want to cheap out. Downspouts are buried into black corrugated drain tile that runs to various spots in my 1.75 acre lot and would be a massive pain to redo if they get clogged or blocked.

 

I put up gutter fences like this for my house. I use a high-pressure washer to clean them! It does an excellent job of cleaning the chutes.  

TR7 said:

I was having to clean out my gutters a couple times a year. I took a gamble on a section of hard to reach roof and threw these cheap guards up with low expectations. I was impressed and put them around the entire house. 2 years later and my gutters are still clean. The plastic is starting to get a little brittle though, so I expect that I will still need to replace them in another 2 or hopefully 3 years. If I can get 5 years out of a set im pretty happy. 

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Amerimax-Snap-In-Gutter-Filter-PVC-Gutter-Screen-6-5-in-x-3-ft/50040810

I've got those, they have actually held up well. 9 years and counting.. 

stuart in mn said:

If you want to go with complete replacement, I have Leafguard gutters on my house.  They have a solid cover that's an integral part of the gutter assembly.  They work great - I get zero debris in them.  https://www.leafguard.com/

Interesting. I'll have to look into this over the winter. 

Our house was built in '84 and doesn't have gutters. Judging by the wear near the front door and driveway, it's never had gutters. So that's on the list for the spring. We have 5 large trees in our front yard so this would be helpful.

frenchyd said:

 

I realize this is a bit of a zombie thread. But...

Whait, WHUT?

Do you really have stone veneer bearing on and in full contact with wood...?

In reply to STM317 :

From what we've seen in performance protecting gutters and absorbing maximum rain water, we believe Valor Gutter Guards are the absolute best. We've seen such a difference with them, we use them exclusively with our clients.
 

In reply to TheGutterBoys :

Did you literally join this just to advertise your company?

TR7 said:

I was having to clean out my gutters a couple times a year. I took a gamble on a section of hard to reach roof and threw these cheap guards up with low expectations. I was impressed and put them around the entire house. 2 years later and my gutters are still clean. The plastic is starting to get a little brittle though, so I expect that I will still need to replace them in another 2 or hopefully 3 years. If I can get 5 years out of a set im pretty happy. 

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Amerimax-Snap-In-Gutter-Filter-PVC-Gutter-Screen-6-5-in-x-3-ft/50040810

that's what the wife used about 12-13 years ago. Most have stayed a few have been replaced. 

Duke said:

frenchyd said:

 

I realize this is a bit of a zombie thread. But...

Whait, WHUT?

Do you really have stone veneer bearing on and in full contact with wood...?

 

I didn't think that was all that unusual just rare due to the cost these days. 
 

Old thread but relevant information. I live in the woods, had the leaf filter micro mesh gutter guards installed. They quoted something crazy $5500, but negotiated the whole was down to just over $2000 the following week. Only issues in the three years has been water will freeze on top in the winter at times then the water will just run over, same issue with leaves getting wet and stuck on top of the guards. 

I looked at the different lowes/depot micro mesh that have similar decent reviews and issues, but decided I didn't want the hassle of the install as I don't do well with heights. Wish I didn't have to deal with negotiating with a pushy salesman but sometimes that is part of the game with house work. 

The people who replaced our roof and gutters wouldn't sell us any kind of guttar guards. They said our trees would quickly block them. (We have a bit of trees.)

Gutter guards are great until you have to remove them to clean the gutters.  Then gutter guards are just more work.

Someone needs to invent a gutter rhomba

Duke said:

frenchyd said:

 

I realize this is a bit of a zombie thread. But...

Whait, WHUT?

Do you really have stone veneer bearing on and in full contact with wood...?

 

Nope.  No wood/Stone contact.    The stones sit on thick copper flashing  that protects the Black walnut Timbers. Those Timbers are  attached to the inner white oak Timbers with 1/2x10" hardened stainless steel lag bolts.  
 Between the inner and outer Timbers are 6" SIPs providing solid foam insulation.  Providing separation between the plywood outer layer of the SIP is Tyvex.   Holding the brick ties ( average of 3-7 per stone ) are copper roofing nails.  
  Protecting the whole wall is 24inch overhangs. Plus all the stone were place so any water that ran off the stone ran to the outside.   In addition the trick most Masons  use to remove moisture from behind  stones.  ( cotton clothes line) was used.   With the exception of SPSs & Tyvex I'm following the methods used by European timber framers that have lasted centuries. 

In reply to Noddaz :

Gutter guards depend on perfect conditions to work properly. Not too heavy of a rainfall so the water curls around and drops into the gutters. Too heavy and most rain is shot off.          Leaves have to shed from the roof before the rain falls to avoid pulling leaves into the gutters.  
   Since the weather seldom is perfect, some leaves wind up in gutters anyway and without the heavy flood of rain to wash them to the downspout, pile up in the gutters anyway.  
    My approach is to use foam designed to allow rain to flow through it and go down the gutter to the down spouts.  Leaves fall on top of the foam but wind gusts blow them free. I'm now on my 5 th year since I put them in and they still are doing the job.  When they fail I'll have them pulled out and replaced with more of the same.