Are Gutter Guards Worth the Investment?
Posted: Tuesday, August 04, 2009
by Richard Kuhns
Stress Management Institute
Getting a gutter cover installed, can get expensive when you consider necessary costs as in:
1. Protecting your interests as in liability and work-man's comp insurance.
2. Marketing costs as in the cost of home shows, paid advertising, yellow pages, google ad-words which can all add up to thousands of dollars every month.
4. Trained and specialized labor to install the system correctly.
5. Dealing with a professional contractor with an office and office help with a reputation as opposed to someone operating out of a truck.
When you add all these costs up (depending on the area of the country) it can add up to thousands of dollars to have gutter protection installed so it makes sense to make sure the product will do its job.
What makes a gutter protector worth this kind of investment? Answer: Keeping the homeowner off the roof can make the investment well worth while. Consider this: a hospital visit to mend broken bones can range from a few thousand to $100,000 depending on the complexity of the damage. Add to that the six-to-ten weeks of limited mobility and you add thousands of equivalent dollars in pain and suffering. And don't think it only happens to the "other person".
But the truth is that not all gutter protectors keep the homeowner off the roof. And in many cases, once the leaf guard is installed, if it fails and the gutter clogs, the homeowner can not get into the gutter to clean it; but instead he is totally dependent on the installing company to come and service the system. And then it's important for the homeowner to read the fine print as some installers charge the homeowner to clean a clogged gutter--that's like adding insult to injury.
Basically there are six different types of gutter protection devices and only one is worth the investment:
1. Screens
2. Filters, membranes, and brushes installed on or in existing gutters.
3. Flat solid top with rounded front nose--fin type.
4. The fin type with solid top with rounded front nose and a trough--fin type with trough.
5. Rain dispersal and flipping type of gutters.
6. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and double row louvered vertical surface such as the Waterloov Leaf Guard.
The first type (screens) is often installed by companies that sell and install gutter. It's amazing that almost every year a new style is invented. Inventors just don't get it that no matter what they do to the openings in a screen device or how many steps or troughs they make it into, it's still the same animal and will fail in mild-to-heavy debris conditions requiring yearly maintenance to replace blown away screens, clean clogged ones and remove others to clean clogged gutters. They do not keep homeowners off the roof.
The second type are filters which, if you really evaluate them, are a type of screening. Water easily flows through fresh debris, but after a year or so the debris becomes like paper machete and becomes a barrier to rain water getting to the filter. One manufacturer recognizes this and recommends that the brush be removed periodically and cleaned--again they do not keep the homeowner off the roof.
Graphics of the third type (fin) of gutter covers leads one to believe that debris is jettisoned off the gutter guard onto the ground. Experience shows that in mild-to-heavy debris conditions debris adheres to the front rounded downward surface of the leaf guard and goes into the gutter in sufficient quantity as to clog it. These are usually installed by dealers representing the manufacturer and servicing must be done by the installing company. Again, ending up with clogged overflowing gutters is not a bargain. The homeowner is not likely to fall from the roof, but may lose his sanity getting the clogged system serviced before his basement floods.
The fourth type of gutter guard is supposed to be an answer to the failure of the third type (fin). But it doesn't take an MIT graduate to see that the debris that sticks to the downward curved surface still must enter a trough with sieve openings. Experience shows that either the sieves clog or sufficient debris passes the sieve (a type of screen) to enter and clog the gutter.
The fifth type of device either fails to disperse the water or require dumping. The plus is that the gutter is dumped from the ground, but can you imagine being under a gutter full of water and putrid debris as you dump it? These gutters are also known to warp causing the locking mechanism to fail--again, no bargain!
Wouldn't it be great to actually have a gutter protector that limits the size and quantity of debris that goes into the gutter? One that makes gutters self cleaning and keeps them clean and free flowing? Wouldn't you actually like to know of a gutter cover that actually has kept gutters free flowing and clean for over twenty years in the heaviest of debris conditions?
Knowing that all gutter guards and gutter protectors will clog, wouldn't it be great to know of one gutter protector where you can easily see where it's clogged from the ground and then be able to clean it from the ground wearing a suit and tie if you desired?
And if you have roof valleys wouldn't it be great to know of a company that actually has a product that can be used in conjunction with the gutter guard that can actually collect water from valley and dormers valleys?
There is such a gutter protection system which keeps homeowners off ladders and is completely maintenance free for 85% of all homeowners and for many maintenance is required only once every year or so. And it's that system that makes gutter covers worth the investment.
For photos of various products please go to http://www.waterloov.com/Articles/Pictures.htm To find out more about advanced gutter protection--self cleaning gutters--please visit http://www.waterloov.com
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