The old and still abundantly available Amerimax leaf guards had openings far too large and were hard to secure properly. These mesh leaf guards are most likely why most homeowners feel that leaf guards do not work well. They were nearly 100% failure prone! They required cleaning underneath with too much debris getting into the gutter. This resulted in extra work or charges from gutter cleaning companies. See the picture below of the Americmax mesh as compared to a more modern leaf guard design. See the small debris and seeds went right through Amerimax!
As they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention" and there are some very good products on the market that work very well. However, as a home owner, you need to be careful because there are some products out there that work well but the companies charge an absolute fortune for them (about $25-$30 per foot)! A good quality gutter protection should cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of about $5.00 to $12.00 per lineal ft. and that includes gutter cleaning and installation of the product. It's really a matter of good, better, best. Lets look at a product that work well that are on the lower cost of the price list: Alu-Rex. Alu-Rex is the metal plate with tiny holes in it as shown above next to the old style mesh. Below is another picture of AluRex:
This product installed, cost around $5-7 per foot but the cost can be more based on roof type and pitch, how high the job required is, and how much shingle over hang there is. If you have too much shingle over hang, forget about installing AluRex.
Alu-Rex works great! I have had few issues with Alu-Rex except for one house that had very intense spruce needle debris. We were able to fix this by creating some clean-outs over the downpipes and the customer must have the debris blown off the gutters and roof valleys once per year.
Another problematic area with any Gutter Protection are roof valleys. Debris collects on the roof in these areas. In fact, it gets trapped in these areas. Then a huge rain washes it out and straight down toward the eavestrough. It lands on the Gutter protection and just sticks there. However, it should be noted that this is a problem with all roof valleys and gutter protection. See below a roof valley filled with debris:
A far superior gutter protection is an 18 gauge stainless steel micro mesh that has been powder coated so that it does not rust. It is then wrapped with a fine mesh to assure that nothing goes through but water. It is called Diamond Back Gutter Covers. The installed price of this product is around $12 per foot. See the pictures below:
It is one of the best products on market and far superior to others. You get what you pay for. In my opinion, it is worth paying the extra few dollars for a product like Diamond Back Gutters. it is a real life time products that will not need cleaning.
If you live in the Greater Hamilton or Burlington/Oakville area and would like a quote for a professionally installed Gutter Protection System then please call The Eavestrough Company at 905-966-2564 or visit our website at http://www.theeavestroughcompany.com
