Choosing gutter guard

[demuire]

Does anyone have any recommendations to types/brands of gutter guard? Like, I've seen several different types/brands, and of course everyone sort of claims that their's works and is the best or best value for money. There's the plastic and metal mesh ones that come in a roll, there's the brush looking one, there's the metal/fibreglass sheets with holes in them...

Any ideas?

[woodbe]

We've had good results with All Clear leafguard. It's a colorbond perforated and profiled sheet. It's been about a year under gumtrees and pine trees without a blockage yet.

http://www.allclearleafguard.com/

It's not the cheapest, but then you might as well not bother with the cheapest, it doesn't work very well. I bought it on the basis that I thought it had the best chance of working of all the types I could find.

woodbe.

[batcat]

I just use the cheapie black plastic mesh bought in rolls from Bunning's.
About every 6 months I pull it out, clean out the dirt etc from underneath and reuse it. 2 years and still going strong, which does surprise me.
Woodbe's allclearleafguard looks good but overkill for the amount of leaves we get (that's my excuse, I dont feel like lifting all the iron to screw down the back section of it).

[demuire]

Thanks for the replies. Some of my gutters are not very accessible (or at least, I don't know how to get to them short of actually getting on the roof and walking across the house) so something with low maintenance would be ideal.

woodbe: Did you get yours installed, or did you DIY? I've just gotten a quote to get some of my gutters replaced and a gutter guard installed, and wow - I didn't expect the gutter guard to be quite so expensive. $925 for the gutters, $1190 for LeafNEmber and $900 for GutterGuardian (both of which are a mesh sheet design by the look of it, LeafNEmber looks a little bit better). I'd seen those cheap roll ones from Bunnings (in both metal and plastic, but they have bigger holes than the sheet stuff) and so was rather surprised by the cost...

[woodbe]

Yes, it's not cheap is it.

We had ours installed. some of our roof is so high that I'm not going up there. ever. I'm pretty sure they would sell you the material for DIY though. We have quite high profile tiles which eliminated products like LeafNEmber.

The range of products comes down to a few types with variations within each:

* fine mesh
* perforated sheet
* Gutter covers

I was able to see a good range one year at the home show, and by looking at the performance of the samples on display, I decided perforated sheet was the best bet for our roof and type of leaves. The allClear seemed the best of the perforated types because it has a ridge running along it's length which prevents leaves from laying flat in the hope that they will dry out and blow off. Seems to work. It also extends up under the first tile a little way, which stops leaves collecting at the inner edge of the gutter.

We're also in a fire risk area, so the choice of material excluded the plastic types.

woodbe.

[demuire]

Thanks for the reply woodbe. My roof is also quite high (well, high for me anyway, it's a highset house and I'm short, and the roof looks a long way away!) which is probably the main reason why I'm reluctant to try to DIY, even though it looks like it may be a fair bit cheaper to do so. I've also discovered that my ladder (which is one of those ones that flip open to double it's normal length) is too short...

I've also got a problem with an extension of the roof over the back verandah, and I have a feeling it's a design problem and the solution would be to re-do that section of roof and completely move the gutters elsewhere. So maybe it would be a good idea to do it all at once.

But yes, wow. I certainly didn't expect the gutter guard to add quite so much to the cost, it's as much as the actual gutters themselves!

[arose62]

This is what I want to use when we rebuild:

http://www.smartflo.com.au/SF_faq.htm

Not exactly a gutter cover, but looks like a solution.

Cheers,
Andrew

[pawnhead]

When I do mine I think I'll inquire as to the cost of full 8X4 sheets of expanded metal. I'm pretty sure that I'll be pleasantly surprised at how much money I'll save by spending a little bit of extra time with a pair of tin snips.

[silentC]

Ours is perforated zincalume sheet made up by the local roofing mob. Just a simple profile that sits in the rolled edge of the gutter. Easy to install, no problems so far, although these days they make you cut down every tree within 10 metres of your house, so it probably makes no difference whether it works or not.

[woodbe]

these days they make you cut down every tree within 10 metres of your house,

I wish. We have to fight like tooth and nails to remove dying junk here...

woodbe.

[erich]

I just did my roof (lots of overhanging trees) with strips of shade cloth... very happy so far... total cost for materials ~ $25....

wish I'd done it years ago!!

[demuire]

Cool How did you secure it?

[erich]

well I have roof tiles so the upper side I just jammed in between the bottom two rows (a bbq egg flipper was a really good tool! combined with a heavy flat swewdriver to lift the tiles as I went along)

the bottom edge I secured by wrapping around some nylon rope and screwing the 'hem' to the guttering...

when I did the first side of the house I ran this over the edge (pic #1)... but when I did the front of the house I changed techniques and secured the rope/shadecloth in the little grove on the top inside of the gutter (pic #2 & 3) because I was worried the capillary action would cause dripping over the edge and we walk under the front eave...

I cant say I've noticed a problem with dripping but securing it inside does look tidier/more professional I guess... the down side is that there is a greater tendency for a few leaves to get caught in the resulting lip

as well as the rope I had to buy a packet of self drilling flat headed screws... they when in like a treat with cordless drill (about one every 400mm along the bottom seemed very secure on the 'over the edge' technique but didn't need them for the second method except at the ends as the rope hem was very snug)

it might look like there is still a lot of leaves on the gutter, but that is a reflection of how many fall on my roof!! they are all dry and blow off with the blower... on side of the house gets mainly larger leaves from the tallow-wood - these dont hang around... the smaller jacaranda leaves a bit stickier!

hope that is all clearer than mud!

It may not be perfect but it is hellava lot better than the earlier system: "honey... there are trees growing in the guttering... again... would you mind? ..."

[SilentButDeadly]

I've tried the basic gutter mesh but it just doesn't work as well as I'd like it to. My gutters still get blocked up by crud.....so the next job is to fit this stuff

http://www.fielders.com.au/product.asp?pID=30 called Water gate which is another pressed stel product except that it is surprisingly affordable compared to others I've seen



Parent's place has had the Smart Flo gutter for nearly a decade. Very good product except that their early version has many joins as it was only available in lengths up to 2.4m at the time........and the joins frequently leak. It also needs to be installed with very good fall to ensure that water actually runs out fast enough.

[silentC]

That's very similar to the stuff I have used, except mine doesn't have the fold in the middle. Not sure of the purpose of that - hard to tell from the photo, but looks like it butts up against the edge of the tin.