Posted by roofcoadmin June 19, 2017
Do you want to keep dried leaves and other debris out of your gutters without having to regularly clean them?
Then you must consider getting gutter protection for your house. Gutter protection is a good way for you to veer away from the messy task of constantly cleaning out the gutters of your house and for keeping it free of damages which debris can cause.
Presented here are the most common types of gutter protection you can choose from for your own use at home.
The Different Types of Gutter Protection or Gutter Guards
The Screens
The most popularly utilized gutter protection, screens, are available in a wide variety of shapes and materials, and can be installed in several ways.
They will work best for keeping out bigger debris, such as leaves. However, the gaps in the screens are still big enough for pine needles and seeds to pass through. This may require you to remove the screens in order to take them out of the gutter, which in a sense, adds a step to gutter cleaning.
Moreover, the screens themselves can become clogged with debris and other particles and dirt buildup. This will require you to clean the screens which can be a little tricky because some debris cannot just be blown off or brushed off the screens, especially if the accumulation is heavy and sticks to the screen of this type of gutter guard.
In terms of installation, screens are the most convenient and efficient gutter protection in that they will only need to be slid up under the roof shingles. In this case, the screens will be angled downward, which can be helpful in allowing the debris to slide off.
On the other hand, there are screens which are only dropped in. This type of gutter screen makes an ideal choice if your roofing shingles are too brittle to hold the screen or if your roofing system cannot be easily lifted up to slide the screen underneath it.
The Surface Tension
With surface tension gutter protection, the water hangs onto the rounded nose of the gutter guard and then flows off the gutter itself while leaves and other larger debris slide over the edge. This suggests the surface tension gutter protection works best with bigger rubble and fragments, and at the same time, with the smaller ones too, which are normally flushed out with the waters through the vertical pipes without being obstructed.
However, it is important to note the surface tension gutter protection works best if it is angled similarly to the slope of the roofing system. This is not entirely possible with long gutters since the gutters will need to be pitched so that the water can run off the pipes which suggests one of its ends will need to be hung high enough. This is the major drawback in the surface tension gutter protection. This type of gutter guard, if installed too high on the soffit panels, will cause larger debris to impede the flow of water alongside the other debris, which will collect more waste in the gutter.
The Fine Mesh
The fine mesh serves like screens in that they can block everything from obstructing the gutters except the smallest particles. While the tiny spaces in the fine mesh will not clog with pine needles and seeds, they can still get clogged with other small particles such as shingle sands and stones.
The advantage of fine mesh over screens is that fine mesh is much easier to clean by blowing or brushing off its surface and gaps.
Ultimately, the gutter guards are great a form of keeping your gutter cleaner than without them. However, it is important to remember these forms of gutter protection are not free of any maintenance. In fact, they will require cleaning and upkeep from time to time, only not as messy and taxing as cleaning the gutter itself.