Gutters and downspouts are an essential component of any sloped roof system. The purpose of gutters is to catch all of the rainwater or snowmelt that drips down the roof slope so it doesn’t drip straight down and end up collecting next to the foundation. During gutter installation, they are designed to be at a slight slope to ensure the water quickly flows downward to where that section of gutter meets the downspout.
The downspout then channels the water at least a few feet away from the house. The only issue is that gutters tend to get clogged with leaves, pine needles, dirt and even the granules that coat the roof shingles. Gutter guards are specifically designed to prevent gutters from clogging and to help homeowners avoid having to regularly clean their gutters. In this article, we’ll explain how the gutter guards work and everything else you should know to determine if it’s worth having them installed on your home.
The Importance of Keeping Your Gutters Clean
Most experts recommend cleaning out all of the gutters on your home twice a year—once in the spring and then again in autumn/early winter after most of the leaves have fallen. If you don’t clean your gutters, there’s a high chance that they’ll clog up and no longer work as they should. Clumps of leaves can also get washed down and cause a major clog inside a downspout.
Clogged gutters are a concern for several reasons. The main one is that a gutter can quickly overflow during a rainstorm if either it or the downspout it’s connected to is clogged. That means all of the water will drip over the edge of the gutter and pool next to the foundation. If the soil next to the foundation gets overly waterlogged, it can exert enough pressure that the concrete wall begins to bow inward or crack.
As the soil dries out, it can also settle or shift so that the foundation wall no longer has proper support and can more easily get damaged. Overflowing gutters can potentially lead to the foundation settling as well, causing cracks to form on walls and sometimes making it so that your windows and doors get stuck.
Foundation damage is something you want to avoid at all costs. Not only can it be quite expensive to fix foundation problems, but you can also end up with major damage to other parts of your home. In cases of serious damage, the house could even become unsafe to live in due to the risk of it possibly collapsing.
The other concern if your gutters are clogged is that it usually leads to ice dams forming on the roof during winter. Ice dams happen when snowmelt flows down the roof and then ends up refreezing over the eave. While this most commonly happens due to insufficient insulation in the attic or insufficient roof ventilation, it can also easily occur because the gutter is clogged and the snowmelt can’t drain away.
What happens is the gutter remains full of water, which then freezes overnight when the temperature drops. You then end up with a dam that causes water to pool at the edge of the roof. The water can then start to seep underneath the shingles and lead to the roof leaking or cause damage to the wooden roof deck. Ice dams can also cause shingles to lift, further increasing the chances of roof leaks.
A major ice dam can also lead to major icicles forming on the gutter or a heavy sheet of snow and ice partially sliding off and hanging over the edge of the roof. Both of these issues can damage the gutter or cause it to bend so that it no longer has the slope it needs for water to drain properly. In some cases, a large ice dam can even tear the gutter right off the fascia board it’s attached to.
How Gutter Guards Work
There are several different types of gutter guards that all serve the same basic purpose of keeping leaves and other debris out of the gutter. They also keep pests out and prevent birds from building nests inside the gutter. With gutter guards in place, you generally never need to worry about your gutters getting clogged and overflowing. They also lessen the chances of ice dams forming.
Cleaning out the gutters on your home can be a pain and also quite gross since you have to remove lots of rotting leaves and debris by hand. You obviously need to use a ladder to climb up to the gutters, which creates the risk of major injury or death if you’re not extremely careful. On some homes, certain gutters can be 20 feet or higher up from the ground, meaning you’ll need a long extension ladder and making the job even more dangerous. All of these reasons are why many people just hire someone whenever it comes time to clean out their gutters. The only drawback is that professional gutter cleaning typically costs a few hundred dollars per time.
If you install gutter guards, you typically won’t ever need to clean your gutters yourself or pay anyone to do it for you. If you normally pay someone, gutter guards may end up basically paying for themselves at some point by eliminating the need to pay for professional gutter cleaning. Installing gutter guards can also save you by lessening the chances of overflowing gutters damaging your foundation or ice dams damaging your roof and gutters.
When trying to decide whether it’s worth installing gutter guards, you should consider a few different factors. One is how often you need to clean your gutters and how big of a risk there is of them clogging. Installing the guards can definitely be worth it if there are numerous trees nearby that lose their leaves since this creates a much higher chance of your gutters clogging. If there aren’t any trees nearby that lose their leaves and you don’t have any pine trees that could drop needles in your gutter, it may not be worth paying to have guards installed.
The other thing you want to consider is the type of gutter guard. Some types are far more effective than others and last quite a bit longer. At the same time, the more effective options are almost always going to be more expensive as well. Some of the best options include PVC gutter covers, gutter helmets and mesh gutter guards. All of these are placed over the top of the gutter to block debris from falling inside.
Foam inserts and brush gutter guards are the least expensive options and also the easiest to install. Either of these types sits within the gutter and basically acts as a barrier that keeps debris out while still allowing water to flow. The drawback is that both of these types of guards require additional maintenance. Leaves and debris tend to pile up on foam inserts.
If you don’t clean the foam off when this happens, the debris can prevent water from draining into the gutter and cause it to just drip off the edge of the roof. The main issue with brush guards is that smaller bits of debris can get stuck in the brushes, meaning the guards still need to be cleaned out periodically to prevent the gutter from clogging.
Searching for a premier residential roofing contractor in Columbus? The Roof Detective is proud to be one of the most trusted residential and commercial roofing companies in the area. We also offer professional siding and gutter services and can help if you want to install gutter guards or you need to have your gutters replaced or repaired.
For more information or to schedule any service, contact us today.
