Gutter Covers

I installed Lowes brand plastic gutter covers on four houses over the past several years. 3 of the houses are no longer my problem but my own home still has them installed and doing the job to a degree. I found that the Lowes covers were great for allowing the water to get into the gutter with surface tention while allowing leaves and larger debris to go over the side. Smaller stuff, like maple seeds and Locust tree junk that comes in two or three waves each year will plug up the slot that water is supposed to go into to drop into the gutter. Cleaning the slots with a knife blade is a lot easier than pulling out dead material in globs while up in the air, and at least all the water and excess foreign material goes over the side.I am bombarded with ads for other systems that are supposed to let only water thru, but I am not going to pay their prices to experiment with their systems without some guarantees that they are better than what I already have working. Any provable opinions will be appreciated!

 

I have Gutterbrush installed for over 5 years here in New England. I get leaves from maple, oak. locust and pine needles on my roof. Only the pine needles get stuck in the brush, but never enough to prevent the water getting to the downspouts. Don't have overflow anytime of the year. I maintain the brush by combing the exposed part of the brush in the gutter twice a year.

 

I have no problem with any of the leaves either, but those winged seeds the maples generate, along with the flyers the the locusts spread around can plug up my system quickly and badly. I have more trouble in the spring than the fall. I am 72 now and being up two stories to maintain whatever is what I am trying to get away from. I have no pine needles to deal with so I will look into the Gutter Brush. How do YOU rate that brand for the spring time trash issue?

 

Over the past 30 years I have tried every screen, panel, roll type material with various levels of success.

I have not installed any of the helmet guard type tops due to cost, a non DIY install and comments that they were not everything they were advertised.

Currently I am using the foam inserts, LeafFilter, and find them to be the best to date!

Current foam is about 10 years old and when I was doing the siding cleaning this spring found a few spots where it could use some replacement so that will be my spring project next year!

 

I have been trying out Gutterbrush on my lower, easier to get to gutters. They need to be cleaned annually after the Spring maple seeds, mostly because the trees are over them, but no blockage to date. i think installing them on the main roof will be fine because there are only a few branches that high. First, I converted from 4" gutters to 6" gutters.
I do not have enough belief in the claims of someone like GutterHelmet to shell out the $$ they want. My in-laws have them but I don't hear any rave reviews. They actually shed water when we get heavy downpours.

 

I have looked at, read about, asked others about, and paid attention to various gutter guards, shields, or whatever for a number of years, and have not seen anything that is absolutely hands down perfect, but finally decided that it was past time to do something. Lowes seemed to have as good an assortment as anyone so this spring I bought one each of three or four different styles that I thought would do a decent job and took them home to see how I liked the way they fit. I shied away from the plastic or PVC ones because of concern of them breaking down and becoming brittle from the sun, and settled on the Amerimax metal screens. I only have about half of the house done so far, but did get enough up along the worst section before the maples started dropping spinners to cause me to believe that they are going to work fine. One week in particular the tops of the gutters resembled the sparse hairs on my bald head with all of the small leaves on the spinners standing upright in the holes in the screen, but then the seeds dropped off, the little leaves blew away, and with no leaves in there to slow it down, the rain washed the seeds through the gutters and down the downspouts. I have one valley done, and did have an accumulation of spinners there, but with the screen keeping them out of the water so they could dry they blew off within a week or so. I still don't think that any of them are perfect, and that the only way to completely eliminate the problem is to cut down all of the trees, which I'm not going to do, so am very satisfied so far.

 

I appreciate the shade all summer too, but what a mess those trees make. Lowes does not make the plastic one that I originally installed but they have a new version that is slotted and uses a different design to use the water surface tension to go off the roof onto the cover, and let the trash roll off while the water supposedly sticks to the curved edge of the cover long enough to drop into the gutter cleanly. I need to get up there to see what is or is not clogging the two newer replacements. I will post back what I find.

 

You could always look into oversized downspouts 3"X4" if your gutters are big enough to fit them. Claim is they let a lot more debris go down without clogging.

 

I have updated about half of my downspouts with the larger ones, and they do seem to reduce the amount of overflow from the gutters during a heavy rain, but have not seen any noticeable reduction in the amount of debris that accumulates elsewhere along the runs. Seems all you need is one twig or a sturdy leaf to catch at a joint or a hanger bracket, of just gets sideways any place in the run and all of its' friends decide to get hung up and join the party.

 

This is the only kind I will use.

https://www.amazon.com/FlexxPoint-Gu.../dp/B00DMOJK7A

I've got a buddy in the business, he uses this style too. You only have to brush them clean or take a blower to them now and then if the maple seeds have piled up on top of them. They are also easy to remove if you want to check the inside every 5 yrs or so.

 

The Flex points look well made, and I will not pass judgement without trying them, but from the look of those, I see traps for debris that will have me up in the air too much. I will probably have to make them, but I need to have debris falling off the roof and the water going into the gutters. I have 3 underground 6" lines from the downspouts, and they need to run clog free in this neighborhood) My next door neighbor just found that out the hard way. (His soaked basement carpet and drywall are all out in the yard right now) At least the original Lowes covers let the debris AND water go over the side which allowed the 3rd backup drain line to work overtime, but keep the basement dry lol

 

That style did intrigue and appeal to me too, and in fact I liked them better than what I went with from the standpoint that I do not like tucking them under the shingles, even though that's how mine are, but the thing I didn't like about this style is that they look like they could be a pain to get the screws into the facia if the shingles overhang the roofline, which all of mine do. And I like the larger openings mine have so that I can see into them for periodic inspections without removing anything. So yeah, those look like a good way to go too, but a lot of options out there, and for good reason because we all have different types of trees with varying proximities to our homes, and consequently different wants and needs. I'm just happy that I finally quit thinking about them and doing something about it because in a normal year we would have already had to clean the gutters along the front of the house two or three times with all of the spinners we had this year.

 

You just need a 6" long driver on an impact for the 1/4" hex screws.

 

We had a new standing seam metal roof installed about 10 years ago, and I had new gutters at the same time. We had Sentinal leaf guards made in Hillsboro OR installed with the new gutters. They are basically an expanded metal sheet with stainless steel screen wire wrapping over the expanded metal. They stop everything. Leaves and needles may pile up on top of them but a leaf blower will blow them off. Some times just the wind will take care of them when they are dry, but even when they pile up the water still goes into the gutter.

My neighbors experience with the helmet style gutter is that they keep the leaves out, but the fir needles still go into the gutter. We have more firs than anything else so it is a problem.

 

Tried to call Sentinel In Hillsboro. but got a tape. I need to see some pictures of them before I move forward. (I left them phone # and email) Google did not bring up a web site or anything.

 

Sentinel got back to me by phone today, They are sending me a sample of their product which I should have in a few days. I spoke to the wife of the owner, who was very knowledgeable. I look forward to seeing these.

 

I have two sizes of the Sentinel guards on my bench. I think these people have something here! Rather than fit under the shingles, these snap into the gutter itself. Im sure one of these will fit into my lower gutter so I can run a test. I will post back what I find.

 

I looked at the Sentinels and I sure liked them, except that the Sentenel clips into the front side of the gutter under the lip. This looks to me like it would create a barrier that would catch debris. I do not want to go up there to clear ANYTHING any more. I have made my own, that are working great. I might be able to get a patent on it, so that is all I am going to say now. I can see these covers working in a rainstorm from both above and below the way my house is constructed, and they are working like a charm. Water goes in the gutter, trash flows over the cover and hits the ground. I have watched them thru 4 rainstorms of different intensity and they performed perfectly for me.