- Nobody likes a gross gutter,
but even worse than a gross gutter,
is a gutter that doesn't work.
Enter gutter guards.
Gutter guards are devices that well, guard your gutter,
but not all gutter guards are built the same.
The best gutter guard for you is gonna depend
on your preferences and your situation.
I'm Brandon from Bill Ragan Roofing Company,
and today we're going over the strengths and weaknesses
of gutter guards to see what's best for you.
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Number one, gutter screens.
The first gutter guard we'll be going over
is a gutter screen.
Gutter screens are exactly what they sound like.
They're a screen like material
that will cover your gutter and let in water,
but not most debris.
They have two main strengths,
and that's their affordability and their ease of cleaning.
And you may be asking yourself right now,
Brandon, I have a gutter guard,
isn't the entire point
that I don't have to clean my gutters anymore?
To some extent that's true.
You'll still have to clean your gutters, unfortunately,
but gutter guards of all varieties,
make it to where you have
to clean your gutters, far less often.
There's a trend that you'll notice moving forward,
where the easier a gutter
with a gutter guard attached on it is to clean,
then the more often you're gonna to need to clean that.
Gutter screens are the easiest ones to clean
because all you have to do is just lift them up
and then you can get to everything
that's gone through the gutter screen, into your gutters.
Now, the way gutter screens are designed ,
is that they won't block the smaller debris
like your maple seed helicopters or your pine needles.
So maybe not the best choice,
if you're surrounded by pine trees.
What gutter screens do block
will just get simply stuck on top of the gutter screen,
but it's gonna rely on wind to knock it off.
So, if you go a long period without having any wind,
then you may see some building up of debris
like your larger leaves and your twigs on top.
They're gonna be waiting on either you
or a gust of wind to brush it off that gutter guard.
With those cons in mind,
however, does come the advantage that they are one
of the most affordable types of gutter guards.
Now, they do make plastic gutter screens,
but we don't recommend that.
Simply because usually they're gonna break
and give you problems
before you get any real benefit out of them.
That's why we recommend installing
either aluminum or powder-coated steel gutter guards,
depending on your needs.
Number two, micro-mesh gutter guards.
Micro-mesh gutter guards,
or gutter mesh, as you'll sometimes hear it called,
is kind of like a gutter screen.
However, instead of the small holes
that you'll get with a gutter screen,
micro mesh is exactly what it sounds like.
Where it's a tightly woven interlaced fabric mesh
that will block a lot more debris than a gutter screen will.
They are a great choice for pine needles,
if you're looking at what gutter guard needs
to block pine needles.
But they won't block a lot of the very tiny debris,
like small seedlings and little bits like that,
that can still make their way into your gutters.
The primary con that you'll see with gutter mesh,
is that when you install it,
you actually have to screw it in.
So it's a lot harder to clean than gutter screens.
They'll still block a lot more debris.
So you wont have to clean them nearly as often,
but cleaning them will require a lot more handiwork.
And in all likelihood,
you're probably gonna want that professionally done.
The main comparison with gutter mesh to gutter screens
is that micro-mesh gutter guards
are gonna be a lot harder to clean.
But you'll have to do it a lot less often
compared to gutter screens.
Number three, gutter helmet.
Gutter helmets are a lot different than gutter screens
and gutter mesh because they don't rely on wind
to knock off any debris.
Any debris that rolls over on top of your gutter
is actually just gonna roll right off
because they cover the entire gutter.
The way that gutter helmets work,
is that when water comes down,
it relies on surface tension for it to actually wick back
into your gutters
while the debris still slides off the roof.
And that water goes into tiny little openings
on the gutter helmet.
It's not a perfect system though,
and you'll still see some water make it through
and onto the ground.
So we don't actually recommend gutter helmets,
if you have a basement.
The other main cons of gutter helmets
is that they're the most expensive of the three options.
And they're hardest to clean.
When you do get your gutter helmets clean,
which by the way, you will rarely ever have
to clean your gutter helmet.
But when you do, you're gonna need manufacturer's people
to come out there and actually do the cleaning for you.
Because if anybody outside
of the manufacturer's domain touches your gutter helmet,
it voids the manufacturer's warranty on them,
and you don't want that.
Also, unlike gutter mesh and gutter screens,
gutter helmets will actually be a little less low-profile
and can possibly be seen from the street view.
So you may have to take aesthetics in mind
when purchasing your gutter helmet.
So there you go.
Those are our opinions on the top three best gutter guards,
as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Hopefully now you're armed with the knowledge you need
to make the best decision for your home.
Remember to subscribe and like the video, if you enjoy it.
And we thank you so much for watching.
Take care.
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