Are gutter guards worth it with all the trees around here?

What gutter guards do, and what they don't

A gutter guard is a cover that lets rain into the gutter and keeps leaves out. That's the whole idea. The sales pitch you hear on TV is that you'll never clean a gutter again, and that part isn't true for any guard we know of. Something always gets through or piles up on top: seed pods, pine needles, the grit that washes off asphalt shingles, the spring tassels off oak trees.

So the real question is whether guards cut your cleaning down enough to be worth what they cost. With no guards, a house under big trees needs gutter cleaning two or three times a year, and a typical cleaning runs $350 to $550 a visit. A few years of that adds up to about what a set of guards costs. Under a couple of small trees, it never does.

The other half of the answer is safety. On a two-story colonial in Blue Bell or Dresher, the gutters are 20 feet up. If you clean them yourself, guards mean fewer trips up that ladder, and that alone is worth something.

Screen, micro-mesh, reverse curve, or foam: which kind works

Every gutter guard on the market is a version of one of these four. Here they are honestly, cheapest to most expensive roughly, with what each one does under the trees we have here.

Screens

Plastic or metal panels with holes about the size of a pencil eraser, sold by the box at the hardware store. They keep out whole leaves, which is most of the volume in the fall. Maple helicopters, pine needles and oak tassels go right through the holes or wedge in them, and once they're in the gutter they're harder to get out because the screen is in the way. Some screens slide under the first row of shingles to hold them in place, and lifting shingles to do that can break the seal that keeps them down in wind. Fine for a few big-leaf trees. Not much help under pines.

Micro-mesh

Very fine stainless steel mesh on a stiff frame that sits over the gutter. The holes are small enough that almost nothing gets in: needles, seeds and shingle grit all stay on top. The catch is that the stuff on top doesn't always blow off. In spring, pollen and oak tassels can dry into a mat on the mesh, and then rain runs over it instead of through it. Brushing or hosing it off from a ladder once a year or so usually fixes it. Of the four types, this is the one that copes with the widest mix of trees, pines included.

Surface tension (reverse curve)

A solid hood that covers the whole gutter, with a rounded front edge. Rain follows the curve around the nose and drops into a slot underneath, and leaves slide off the front. They work well under big-leaf trees on roofs that aren't too steep. On a steep roof in a summer downpour, water can come off fast enough to shoot past the slot. Small seeds and needles can still get into the slot, and once they do, the hood has to come off to clean it. They're also the most visible type from the street, because they change the look of the roof edge.

Foam and brush inserts

Foam blocks or big bottle-brush tubes that sit inside the gutter. They're cheap and easy to put in yourself. Brushes catch leaves in the bristles, so you end up pulling them out and shaking them clean. Foam holds debris on top, stays wet, and seedlings can sprout in it. In our winters a soaked foam insert can freeze solid. We'd steer most people away from both.

Match the guard to the tree: Big oaks and maples with whole leaves: almost any guard helps, and micro-mesh or reverse curve help most. Pines: micro-mesh, since needles go through screens and into reverse-curve slots. Small trees or none: you probably don't need guards at all.

What we see under the trees in Fort Washington, Willow Grove and Abington

Our worst gutters are on the wooded lots. In Fort Washington, the big oaks and tulip poplars around the state park fill gutters in a single week in late October. On the older streets in Willow Grove, mature oaks and maples hang right over the roofline of houses that were built when those trees were saplings. Abington's older blocks are the same story, and wherever pines or spruces line a property, needles fall into the gutters all year.

Gutters under those trees fill, overflow, and the water soaks the fascia, the board along the roof edge the gutters hang on. When we take old gutters down on these houses, rotted fascia is a common find. That's the real cost of clogged gutters, more than the gutters themselves.

Winter matters here too. Our freeze-thaw cycles mean snow melts on the roof in the afternoon and refreezes at the cold edge overnight. A gutter packed with wet leaves freezes into a solid block, and that helps ice dams form and push water back under the shingles. Guards keep the leaves out, but no guard stops ice from forming on top of it in a hard freeze.

Which guards we put on: (Question for Jim: which gutter guard products or brands Armstrong installs, and which type Jim recommends most often under heavy trees)

(Question for Jim: does Armstrong install guards on existing gutters, or only when the gutters are in good shape or being replaced?)

A gutter guard job, start to finish

(Question for Jim: one recent gutter guard job you are comfortable publishing: town, house type and stories, what trees were over the roof, how often the owner was cleaning before, which guard type went on, whether fascia or gutters had to be fixed first, and the price or a price range)

The photo at the top of this page is from a gutter guard project of ours in Plymouth Meeting.

How to decide whether guards make sense on your house

1. Look up. Count the trees whose branches reach over the roof, and note which kind: oak, maple, pine. That decides the type of guard, if any.
2. Count your cleanings. If you, or someone you pay, is up there two or more times a year, guards are worth pricing.
3. Check the gutters themselves. Guards on sagging, leaking or undersized gutters are money wasted. If the gutters pull away from the house, drip at the seams or overflow in heavy rain, fix or replace those first. A new gutter job typically runs $1,200 to $7,500, and gutter repair is often a lot less.
4. Check the fascia. Push on the board behind the gutter with a screwdriver from a ladder. Soft wood needs replacing before anything gets screwed into it.
5. Get guards priced as their own line. If you are getting new gutters, ask for guards as a separate line item so you can decide on them separately. Doing both at once is the easiest time.

Guards still need a look once a year: Even with good micro-mesh, walk around in a hard rain once a year and watch the gutters. Water sheeting over the front edge means the guard surface is matted and needs brushing, or a downspout is clogged below it.

When you don't need gutter guards

If your house is in an open development with a couple of young trees, skip the guards. One cleaning a year in late fall is usually enough, and you'll spend less on cleanings over the life of the gutters than on guards. Same if it's a one-story rancher and you're comfortable on a step ladder: a bucket, gloves and a garden hose to flush the downspouts is all it takes. Just stay off the ladder on a two-story house if you're not steady up there.

Related questions

Are gutter guards worth it?

Usually yes if big trees hang over the roof or the gutters are two stories up, and usually no if you have only a few small trees. Guards cut down how often gutters need cleaning, but none of them make gutters maintenance-free. Installed guards typically run $1,200 to $5,000.

What kind of gutter guard works under oak, maple and pine trees?

Fine stainless micro-mesh handles the widest mix of debris, including pine needles and maple seeds. Reverse-curve hoods work well under big-leaf trees but let needles and seeds into the slot. Screens stop whole leaves only, and foam or brush inserts are the least reliable.

What are the types of gutter guards?

There are four: screens, micro-mesh, surface-tension (reverse-curve) hoods, and foam or brush inserts that sit inside the gutter. Screens and inserts are the cheapest and do the least. Micro-mesh and reverse curve cost more and keep out much more.

Do you still have to clean gutters with gutter guards?

Yes, less often. Micro-mesh usually needs the top brushed or hosed off about once a year, and reverse-curve hoods need the slot cleared now and then. Downspouts can still clog with fine grit, so watch the gutters in a hard rain once a year.

How much do gutter guards cost?

Installed gutter guards typically run $1,200 to $5,000, depending on how many feet of gutter, how many stories, and the type of guard. A one-story house with short runs sits at the low end. You get a free written estimate before any work starts.