"Leafproof" gutters

Not car related, but this place is full of an awful lot of smart people.

We're in the process of buying a house. It's going to need some rain gutters. The gutters will be located rather higher above the ground than I'd care to work on very often for cleaning and such.

Do these:

http://www.leafproof.com/

work?

In other words, will they significantly reduce the amount of time I need to be up there maintaining the damn things?

I bet the design is both leaf proof and water proof...in other words, you'll get a leaf substrate covering the top of the gutter and the water will flow across them to fall on the ground as though there were no gutter in the first place.

They look expensive.

What makes them better than standard gutter screens?

Go to Lowe's, they have a lower cost alternative. Basically a thin piece of plastic roughy 2 1/2 ft long with holes and screen on the under side. You slide the top part under the shingles and the bottom part has a U shape that will fit on the edge of the gutter.

I have Leafguard gutters on my house, and they work very well. They've been up for about five years now and I get zero leaves or seeds in them. http://www.leafguard.com/

I haven't found any of those type of things that work. I tried probably 6-7 different types in the 33 years we have lived in this house.

The solid types keep the leaves out but any time we get any heavy rain the water just runs across and over the gutter on to the ground.

If it has any holes in it (screen, etc) the maple seed pods fill up the holes and then it acts like a thatched roof when it rains.

Unless you're filling a cistern, I can't think of any reason to not go with these.

oldopelguy wrote: Unless you're filling a cistern, I can't think of any reason to not go with these.

I have a box of these in my shop right now. I cant bring myself to put them up. My parents had them on their house and while they dont clog they also dont move the water away from the foundation. I am going to bite the bullet and have the largest seamless open gutter I can find installed. Then I will figure out a way to clean them from the ground.

I live on a street where the maple trees meet overhead, and the houses are 2 1/2 storeys tall. It's a bitch to get up there every spring and clean out the gutters, but I can't help thinking the maple keys and flowers will clog any kind of gutter guard I put up. I'm thinking next year I'm going to just pay some sweet young thing to clean them out for me.

I used to have a giant maple tree right next to the house so I had seeds everywhere, but they didn't get into the Leafguard gutters I mentioned earlier. Even the tiny seeds off elm trees don't get in there. They handle heavy rainstorms as well.

The leafproof require a very small roof pitch (flatter roof) or else the run off speed of the water is too great. I had an 8:12 pitch and the water just ran completely past the edge except in light sprinkles.

I now have the expanded metal looking (actually they're plastic) covers and they work wonderfully.

My roof is 10:12 pitch, no problems with runoff.

Lesley wrote: I'm thinking next year I'm going to just pay some sweet young thing to clean them out for me.

I tried that, but I couldn't find any teenage girls to go up the ladder

I have maple trees, a 2 story house, and a cistern that needs to be filled. As far as I know, nothing, other than a ladder, works.

My old gutters rotted my facia boards, thus I have eliminated all gutters. I just use strips over the doors to minimize water dripping. I also live in So Cal where it rains 1 day a year.

Those Leafguards seem to work pretty well around here. The developer flattened nearly every tree in the 'hood so I don't have the leaf problem even with open gutters. Never had to clean them. I've had to clean them at other houses, those angled pressure washer ends made for cleaning gutters work pretty well. If the pressure at the nozzle is reasonably low (use the biggest orifice nozzle) then it's not even real messy. I dunno how well that would work on a 2 story though.

It's more expensive, but if the fascia boards are covered with aluminum or vinyl before the gutters are put up the rot problem is nearly eliminated. That's one big plus about vinyl siding houses, all the fascia tends to be either vinyl or aluminum.

Canoe gutters?

SVreX wrote: They look expensive. What makes them better than standard gutter screens?

I don't know, that would be largely what I'm asking in the end.

In my experience, screens get clogged up only slightly slower than bare gutters. And blasting screens clean is tougher than blasting bare gutters clean, as the screens grab a hold of things like pine needles and such. And if your extra lucky seeds from other trees sprout in the pine needle mat and hold the whole mess to the screen even more solidly. Screens are still worthwhile, but if I can do better, I will. These (and the similar ones linked to below) seem like they should avoid some of the problems that screens have.

Expensive doesn't bother me if they actually put a decent enough dent in the # of times I'm up there working on them. But if they don't, then of course expensive sucks.

Jensenman wrote: It's more expensive, but if the fascia boards are covered with aluminum or vinyl before the gutters are put up the rot problem is nearly eliminated. That's one big plus about vinyl siding houses, all the fascia tends to be either vinyl or aluminum.

Yep, the fascia boards are already already vinyl.

JFX001 wrote: Canoe gutters?

I love canoes it's one of the reasons I moved to northern MN.

And the canoe is decidedly irrelevant. I'm not asking for a better way to clean them, I'm asking for a way to reduce (not eliminate) the frequency.

If I really wanted a "better" way of cleaning them I'd get the robot from the guys who make roomba vacuum cleaners. Not because I expect ti to work all that well, but dammit, robots are cool.

This looks like a Northern discussion.

As a Yankee who has lived 20 years in the South, and as a builder who has installed most of them, I've come to the conclusion that Southerners have the better answer.

They don't have them.

OK, there are exceptions. But generally, they do without, and I've seen absolutely no issue.

The only reason I can see to justify gutters is if you have a basement (most Southern homes do not), AND a reason to divert the water away from the foundation walls to keep out of the basement.

Agreed, most northern houses have basements, and steeper pitch roofs, which puts the volume closer to the foundation walls at a greater velocity. Which is why I said this looks like a Northern discussion.

But do without if you can, or where you can.

My $.02.

Opus wrote: My old gutters rotted my facia boards, thus I have eliminated all gutters. I just use strips over the doors to minimize water dripping. I also live in So Cal where it rains 1 day a year.

The gutters didn't rot the fascias. The water rotted the fascias.

But I agree with your solution, as noted above.

@SVreX:

It ain't just a northern thang - lots of building departments require gutters or some other method of rainwater collection.

oldopelguy wrote: Unless you're filling a cistern, I can't think of any reason to not go with these.

I used them on one job (my mother's next door neighbor in NJ, so I've had a chance to watch them for a long time). They lasted well (over 20 years at this point), but they weren't the solution to everything.

-Installation was slower and aggravating- they required getting up close and carefully fitting them every 2 feet, as opposed to a long length that can be put up from a ladder.

-They are very flimsy, and make simple things like leaning a ladder up against the house impossible.

-They look really stupid on a house. They always prompt the question, "What the heck are those?".

-They don't divert the water away from the house, and there are no downspouts, so they can't be extended.

They in fact do not ever clog, and therefore perform as advertised. But I never sold another job with them again.

SVreX wrote: This looks like a Northern discussion. As a Yankee who has lived 20 years in the South, and as a builder who has installed most of them, I've come to the conclusion that Southerners have the better answer. They don't have them. OK, there are exceptions. But generally, they do without, and I've seen absolutely no issue. The only reason I can see to justify gutters is if you have a basement (most Southern homes do not), AND a reason to divert the water away from the foundation walls to keep out of the basement. Agreed, most northern houses have basements, and steeper pitch roofs, which puts the volume closer to the foundation walls at a greater velocity. Which is why I said this looks like a Northern discussion. But do without if you can, or where you can. My $.02.

Rex, You live below the gnat line. Most of the houses below the Mason Dixon line but above the Gnat line have basements. 90% of the ones in the metro Atlanta area do. The Carolinas, Tennesse, Northern Mississippi also.

I agree, doing with out gutters when you can is a good option but if your lot has a slope to it you will get washing, possibly under the foundation. I have planted landscape to break up the flow of water, shrubs under the eaves to break up the flow before it hits the earth also helps. Getting it established before the rains wash it away or frost kills it can be a challenge. Also, keeping it from being so large it presents a safety issue is also a concern.

Gutter helmets work very well from my experience.