Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Here are a few observations from a home inspector that has seen bunches of these things installed.
If installed properly, they seem to work well. However, if the trees around your house have little leaves, or seed pods, or flowers, then the small stuff seems to find its way into the gutter and will need to be cleaned out. The problem now is you have this neat hood over the gutter making access difficult.
If not installed properly (the stuff I see a lot):
Shingles at the edge get damaged and water can run behind the gutter.
Leaves and stuff pile up behind the gutter hood and creates a little compost pile at the edge of the roof.
The leaves have to go somewhere, so instead of collecting in the gutter, they will flow off the roof and you can rake them up as they fall.
Most of the houses I have inspected with them, have signs of debris backing up behind the gutters. But then, house with gutters have the same problem sometime.
I think the big issue would be if you had tress that had small stuff that dropped off. I have seen LOTS with gutters that have a lot of junk in them.
Wehn I had aalot of trees I used the metal doomed ones from lowes and the plastic. The metals worked at keeping the leaves out and on;y had to be washed out about once a year but never really were that full. Seal the ends on those metal also.
I have had The Gutter Helmet system on my home since 1990 and not one problem. Occasional once a year. From the ground, I rinse the nose of the Gutter Helmet where the pine trees are. I have seen my neighbors with Leaf gard and the sponge have had so much trouble. IM totaly santisfyed with the Gutter Helmets! Kevin Nowak, Near Buffalo NY
The warranty sounds good but I have called four times in the past month for warranty service, am promised a man to arrive at my home to honor the warranty and have had a NO SHOW every time. One gutter was installed improperly; debris piles up behind the gutter hood and creates a little compost pile at the edge of the roof. This will cause structural damage. The Gutter Helmet salesman told me if the gutters are installed 1/4 inch off the specified angle, they will not work properly. We have many tall oak trees. The debris they produce do not work will with Gutter Helmet; especially if you can't get service after installation. I'm not a happy camper at this point in time and when my neighbor considered installing gutters and asked me about Gutter Helmet, I let him know of my experience.
I installed these gutter covers from Home Depot a year ago and they seem to be working fine. One precaution, you may need to lower your gutters slightly so you can maintain the roof slope out over the gutter covers, otherwise they tend to collect debris at the change in slope and causing rain to back up under your shingles along the edge.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
