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Our home is almost done so my thoughts are turning to the mundane things in life like maintenance....
With the leaves falling I am wondering about gutter cleaning... is it best just to have them done once or twice a year or go with some sort of gutter protection?
Reading reviews of the systems people love them or hate them...
I don't use a leaf guard on gutters in my present home, don't have a leaf problem, on my previous home in FL, built a carport that was close to pine trees, installed 6" gutters with a leaf guard that covered the top of the gutter, worked great, on occasion some needles got through but not a big deal. The leaf guard was sold like gutters, by the foot, it was almost the cost of the gutters.
During my first year here I had no gutter guards - it eventually became a minor disaster. I can chalk it up to no previous experience with Fall and leaves. I did clean the gutters before I left for the Winter, but it wasn't enough to prevent blockage and overflows for the 6 months I wasn't here.
Flash forward to the second year...I priced out gutter guards (!) and decided to try the low-cost solution, first. This consisted primarily of a filter/blocker contraption on the upward side of the down spout hole in the gutter. Long story short - it did work for a short time, but didn't work for the times I wasn't here to maintain the areas: essentially, removing the accumulation of leaves/detritus in front of the down spout in the gutter. Hardly better than nothing.
Flash forward to the third year...I bit the bullet and purchased gutter guards. I got the kind that recess into the gutter about half an inch and have holes punched in them every half inch or so. In my experience, they definitely work better than nothing and better than the down spout blocker devices. I find that I still need to clear debris from the top of them at the end and beginning of our season here, but fortunately that task is pretty simple: just a leaf blower or sweep is sufficient.
They appear to do the trick as far as keep the gutter clear of large water collection debris. The only place it appears to collect debris is where there is overhang from a secondary roof at angle to the gutter installed roof. The issue is the mud like sediment that coats the bottom of the gutter.
The wind up here tends to dry the leaves, etc. that collect on the gutter and once they are dry, they simply blow off the guards There will be the occasional leave that gets it's stem stuck in the wire mesh, but they also eventually blow off with the repeated winds up here on the mt.
Gutter Guards...like asking what is your fave car, lol!
Our Mtn home has lots of roof surface, many peaks/elevations, most high to really high off ground, lots of gutters and lots of trees surrounding/some overhanging the house...
The orig/17+ yr old screen guards still work well on the flatter/lower volume roof surface to gutter areas. Other roof slopes/V roof come together, multi level stuff, et al are an utter PIA.
I had Gutter Man of Western NC LLC out of Asheville, redo a few problem areas a few years ago: K6 gutters in place of oe K4s, bigger volume down spouts, and their 'proprietary' screen. Those gutter lengths still work well, though they still require some serious surface cleaning blowing, post Spring catkin time and of course 'now', when the leaves are coming down/blowing around by the millions, literally.
I tried Gutter Helmet in a gutter for a couple years, but heavy rains/roof slope runoff equals rain running off the roof edge not into the GutterHelmet 'slot', and no amount of water cohesion will prevent that, regardless of their claims, in my experience.
I am going to have Gutter Man re-do my entire house gutter system with their K 6, (~6" wide vs usual K4/4"), either in the next few weeks or next Spring.
If one has few trees/leaves around their house, serious gutter/gutter screening may not be necessary, but water around the house foundation is not a good thing. My 50Cts...GL on the search, decision and its effectiveness!
mD
The usual pic of our Mtn Joint from a drone still, shot by our house painter...this is 'back of house', that faces our above average view down the Mtn. The front of the house has it's own set of technical peaks/roof valleys, elevations. Tough house to gutter properly and very difficult to keep gutters 'clean' here.
Last edited by motordavid; 10-28-2018 at 06:41 PM..
Thanks all.. we are creating a decent envelope of buffer from our trees... we have drainage pipes running from the downspouts so between that and proper sloping I am hopeful.
My give it a year and see if they are needed or if hiring a cleaner will do... no. Ladders for me
This is an interesting topic , in that I like to collect the water an use it for gardening ,so it eventually get's back down into the soil .
So far as gutters go if one is not collecting the water , it seems that the only place gutters are important is walk ways out of the house .
Yes, I collect the rain water for use in my garden as well. Didn't need it so much this year (!), but precipitation this year seemed more than normal.
Apart from collecting rain water, gutters are useful to direct water away from vulnerable areas of the house - more than just walk ways or entrances. For example, when we purchased our log cabin, the previous owner did not have gutters on the second level drip edge. A as result, rain falling from the second floor roof to the first floor roof resulted in significant splash back on the wood at the bottom of the second level. This in turn caused significant wood rot that had to be repaired. At the same time I made the wood repairs I added gutters/downspouts to the second level so that situation will not repeat.
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