Leafguard Gutters--- anyone use them?

[Tea-rific]

We are having some issues with our gutters... And had an estimate from LeafGuard Gutters today. Has anyone ever used them? What was your experience?

Thanks!

[munkii]

I hope people share good stories because we really need to call someone and get a quote.

[Deleted]

I think that's what my parents have, or something similar. Is it the one with the lid on the gutter and just a slit for the water to go in? If so, she said they aren't good, that stuff still gets in there and it's just much harder to clean out. But they live under approximately 1,000,000,000 trees, so they might just be fighting a losing battle there.

CR rated a cheapo DIY system higher than the professional installation stuff. It's called Gutterglove? Can't recommend it myself, just throwing it out there. Other DIYs it really liked were called Amerimax and Raindrop.

[whitemerlot]

I have had Leaf Guard at my house for 10 years. I have nothing but great things to say about it. We have 3 huge maple trees in our yard that are near the house.

[heartmama]

We got them last year.  We live in an older neighborhood with a lot of big trees including a huge black walnut.  We used to clean our gutters 3-4 times a year, we haven't cleaned them since geting the new gutters.  The big thing about leaf guard isn't the guard thing necesarily but the fact that the downspouts themselves are huge, like you'd need to cram a ton of stuff in them to clog them.

I love them, just two really minor things that bug me. One when it rains really hard and there is junk on top of the guard part it washes it all onto my flower beds and buries my flowers, this happens like twice a year and I do have to pick up that mess.

Second we had some issues with some huge chunks of ice crashing off our roof this past winter.  I'm sure it's not something that will happen every year, and at least they didn't get huge ice dams in the gutters themselves. Again not really a big issue, but something to be aware of so you don't get creamed walking out your door.

[FoxInFiji]

We had Gutterglove installed instead of something like Leaf Guard. We live in the woods with over a dozen forms of tree/leaf litter and anything long and skinny gets in the gutters anyway with Leaf Guard according to our neighbor. Just so we're clear this is the style they have it's the name brand Leaf Guard:


This is what we have:



It's an extruded aluminum frame with very tightly woven stainless steel mesh. Nothing can get through it. Even our grit from the shingles stays on top. The wind blows ours clean but they do give you and inverted push broom to sweep everything off from the ground (on one level areas). In the 5 years we've had it we've had no problems. It is pricey but well worth it because of all of the debris we get year round (the oak trees still keep leaves on all winter that blow off on top of the snow). This system is bulletproof and since it's our forever home it will be on there for a very long time.

If you don't have that same kind of debris it may not be such an issue for you.

[wineenthusiast]

We have this cheap DIY version from Menards and they are okay.  I dont imagine Leaf Guard brand is any better and if there is a big price jump, I'd go with the cheaper ones.  We only needed it on 1 gutter that faces a neighbor with a huge Maple.  Lots of little thinks still go in the gutter but don't clog it and just wash out to the end.  H does have to clean off the top of screen somewhat frequently but he can just reach up and do that as opposed to pulling out a ladder to see & clean inside the gutter.

[gtkim]

I had LeafGuard quote my old house and they were 3.5x higher than the company I ultimately chose.  I found a local company to install a generic product that is the same thing and saved over $4000.  I never had any problems with them.  We have them on our current house too.

[auntie]

My friend has gutter helmets. They have worked well for almost 20 years.

www.gutterhelmet.com/how-it-works.cfm

[tarheels]

Jun 20, 2013 16:08:07 GMT -5 wineenthusiast said:

We have this cheap DIY version from Menards and they are okay.  I dont imagine Leaf Guard brand is any better and if there is a big price jump, I'd go with the cheaper ones.  We only needed it on 1 gutter that faces a neighbor with a huge Maple.  Lots of little thinks still go in the gutter but don't clog it and just wash out to the end.  H does have to clean off the top of screen somewhat frequently but he can just reach up and do that as opposed to pulling out a ladder to see & clean inside the gutter.

Our house came with these. If you live in a veritable forest, don't even think about it. They're so flimsy, if a twig gets stuck and the wind blows, we'll find the segments of guard in the yard. They clog terribly and have made more of a mess of our gutters than just leaving them open. They may be fine if you have a tree or two around, but you need one of the other systems discussed here if you live on a heavily wooded lot.

[mmp]

I have something that looks like a black sponge in my gutters. I love them. Haven't had to clean the gutters in two years.

[FoxInFiji]

I just wanted to add that all of our gutters are buried. Because of the orientation of our house to the road we have path to the front and back yard right next to the house where 2 of the 4 gutters would go. When we bought the house it had no gutters because they knew they would clog and because of the routing issues with the sidewalks. But because it had no gutters the large volume of water from the roof ran to a low corner of the house and over time settled that corner more than the rest. The water also rotted out the wooden patio door on the two story side of the house (where the overhang doesn't do anything) and sunk the patio to tip toward the house. So gutter were needed along with buried downspouts. If anything gets clogged in the gutters it will only pile up in the buried pipe. Plus on the two story side of our house it's not easy to get a ladder up there with only limited locations to put a ladder. If our gutter guards only stopped some of the debris we would still need to get up there once or twice a year.

The other nice benefit to the well filtered gutter water is that they are perfect for rain barrels. We hope to put one or possibly two someday.