Gutter guards or leaf filters...

coltle6920

coltle6920

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Anyone have them on their home?

My neighbor had installed what I believe to be the Leaf Filter style. The leaves are piling up on the gutters. Unless there is a strong wind before a wet period those leaves will stay there and decay. It's my opinion that the "vents" in the Leaf Filter will be clogged and therefore useless for their initial intended purpose. Seems like water wont be able to filter into the gutter and ice dams could form over the Winter months.

I have seen YouTube video showing the possible long term effect of having Leaf Filter installed om one's home. Seems like a scam to me.

Anyone here have either of these systems installed on their homes and have an overall opinion on how effective they are?
 
Thought about these "leaf filters" for our place, but we have a lot of pine trees around us, and would guess the pine needles would work their way through the vents and settle in the gutters . For me I think it would just make cleaning gutters more of a royal pita than usual. I figure if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
I have had them for 12 years and have to clean out the leaves every other fall! Also, once you have gutters on your house you will have more ice dams then without them. Water freezes until the gutter it is full and then ice builds up whether you have leaf guards or not. Ice dams are not formed by gutters, but rather by a lack of insulation and ventilation in your attic. If, however, you have a metal roof the snow will fall off I would not have gutters at all since they will affect the roof's ability to shed snow in the winter.
 
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I had new gutters and gutter guards installed on my home this fall. I tried to research different systems and recommendations were all over the map.

My previous gutters and gutter guards were only seven years old but were damaged by roofers this summer and thus the reason for replacement.

I ultimately decided on the K-guard gutter helmet system for the following reasons:

1) My old system was the gutter helmet type and it served me very well. I do not have pine needles, but the rear of my property is all oaks, ash, and hickory so I get a tremendous amount of leaves.

2) I like the look of the K-guard system and aesthetics were very important to me.

3) Regarding Leaf Filter, I did not like the sales pitch given by their representative. The initial estimate was over $12,000.00. Then it dropped to $8000.00 and finally to just over $6000.00. This left me feeling like they would take all they could from me.

4) The Leaf Filter system requires a lot of maintenance from what I can tell. The screens must be cleaned periodically and that requires climbing a ladder which we are trying to avoid. Also the dirt and debris that build up on the surface of the screen just looks bad. (maybe you can't see it from the ground but my OCD self still knows it is there) They say a "surgical stainless mesh" is now used in their system but I can't help but think it still could be a breading ground for algae growth.

I tried to get other estimates on various systems. One never got back to me with a price even after calling and texting the company and a local roofer who advertised gutter installation just wanted to use a type of flat screen.

It's a tough decision on which way to go and not an insignificant investment. As I mentioned earlier, I have had good results with a one-piece helmet type system. Others may have some good advice or experiences. I wish you all the best whatever direction you decide to go.
 
Years back to keep the Mrs happy I had a gutter installled with the good tops. I also had a big tree that dropped helicopter type seeds. They fall straight down and easily went into the slots.

When I moved up to the lake no gutters, I went with a good metal snow slide roof.
 
Another problem I have seen with gutter guards is the accumulation of dust and small debris in the gutters, collecting at low spots and downspout openings. Eventually the build-up becomes sufficient to stop drainage. I recall a couple of homes with weeds and vines growing in the gutters; small seeds gets through the filter and finds nice spots to germinate and grow.

My personal opinion is that gutter guards are another home improvement scam to drain the customer's wallet.

No need to worry about the ridiculously high prices; many contractors offer easy monthly payments. In many states products and services installed on the home provide proof of the contractor's lien on that property, so the contractor can sell the finance contract to a secondary lender at a discount and pocket a big chunk of cash quickly. The lender turns a low-interest loan into a high-interest cash flow by paying the discounted price, usually with a perfected lien to protect the investment. (A $1,000 contract at 3% interest, when purchased for $500 then provides a 6% annual yield, and that is a very mild example of what can be done when hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts can be bundled and sold on the secondary market. Some of these deals can be turned into 30% annual yield or more).

The salesman (or estimator, whatever term might be used) probably has no experience with anything except studying the slick advertising materials and perfecting his sales pitch. His commission might be half the job total when sold at retail, less when sold at a discount. Once he gets the hook set he'll do just about anything to reel in the fish.
 
Our house had gutters when we bought it. They were a maintenance headache largely due to the trees and I still had water getting into the basement fairly often as the old down pipes leaked badly. One of them fell off during a storm and water stopped coming in on that side. Got me looking at the rest of them. The house is 124 years old according to records and had a remodel in the 1920's. According to some of the old timers it was built by a transplanted Dutchman and either he or his son did the remodel later. They built a number of houses and a couple of churches around here over a span of at least 40 years.

Which is a long winded way to get to the point that every building attributed to them, including mine, has huge overhangs to get the water out away from the foundation. I took the other gutters off and water stopped coming in on two of the other corners. One corner is still a problem as it faces the alley side of the house and the alley has been built up over the years till it is uphill from the house, compounded by the walk from the house goes out to the alley at that point. I did put a gutter back up there and ran it to a rain barrel to reduce the water that reaches the foundation. Been working on the ground by the alley to slope the alley runoff away from the house at that end, the remains of the old hedge keep it away along the rest of that side.

With sufficient overhang (my house is just shy of 4 feet) rain gutters really aren't needed unless there are other issues.
 
I replaced leaf filter type gutters because of snow and ice accumulating and pulling gutters loose.

Leaf Guard gutters have a “sloping roof” over the gutter.
Leaves can’t get in and snow and ice slide off as weather warms up.
They are more expensive, but they work.
 
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No gutters here but local stations were blitzed by ads for Leaf Guard gutters.
My son and I caught one of their commercials, looked at each other and laughed. We both agreed that during a deluge or maybe even moderate rain about 90% of the water would flow over the trough cover. The spokesman even claimed the flow would create a vacuum effect to curl the water into the gutter.

We laughed harder. A quick google search by my son, he hadn't even finished typing before the negative review sites flooded (pun intended) began to appear.
Another good idea poorly executed, my opinion only.
 
Had gutter guards installed about 14 years ago. And never a problem. The type used just clipped on the gutter at the bottom and slid up under the edge of the shingles. The surface was small holes with a screen backing. Had to replace one when a limb fell and dented it. The cost was $1.49 for each three foot section. Me and a friend installed the guards around a large house and two double garages. Took about three hours and easy to do if you don't mind up and down a ladder a lot.
 
I have one section of my gutters about 20 feet long that is under an oak tree and gets full of leaves in the winter. I bought 6 of the 3 foot long cheap snap on gutter guards you can find at Lowes for a total of about $30 and they worked just fine. The few leaves that did make it into the gutters (a section of the gutter was above my aluminum patio roof and inaccessible) were easy to clean out since the guards were easy to take off and reinstall. Sure I still had to climb the ladder but it was a much easier chore with the guards keeping out 90% of the leaves. They lasted about 4 years until they became brittle from the Florida sun.
 
Ours were installed years ago and work great with no maintenance so far. They are metal sections a foot or so in length with lots of small diamond-shaped holes. The ends overlap each other. The upper length of each segment is thin and slides under the bottom edge of the lowest run of shingles. The lower length is molded in an inverted U-shape that snaps down over the outer edge of the gutter. None have come loose and there have been no clogs in well over ten years.
 
We have gutter guards which we bought from Costco . Living in Fl we don't have to worry about ice , just Spanish moss . Seriously , it was the best thing we could do . Getting up on a ladder and cleaning out leaves ain't fun , and neither is falling off a ladder .
 
I don't have any form of cover on my gutters. I also don't have any trees on my property.

The leaves are a little easier to get rid of than those buds that pop up in the spring. One would think that they would easily flush down the rainspout but instead they clog up right at the elbow. Have to take a coat hanger and run it through the elbow to clear the plug.
 
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