LESLIE: Mark in Wisconsin is having a gutter issue. Tell us what’s going on.
MARK: Oh, yes. We have lots of trees around our house. And so, in the fall, they fill up with leaves and also, we have pine needles and lots of acorns. So I was wondering what product you would recommend for curtailing that issue.
TOM: Well, there are many, many, many different types of gutter guards, as I’m sure you know. The basic screening that we kind of all grew up with, as the very first gutter guard, is somewhat effective but it’s high-maintenance because all of those – especially those pine needles get right through that. You end up having to pull the screens off to clean it.
So, one product you might want to think about is this type of gutter guard that, essentially, let the leaves wash off the gutter but takes the water into the gutter. They lay on top of the gutter, they go up under the first roof shingle and they work on the principle of surface tension. As the water runs down the roof, it comes across this gutter guard and it goes over sort of a curved edge into the gutter. But the leaves wash off the top.
There’s many different manufacturers that make this but I’ve seen them work and work very well, in most situations. If you happen to have a roof that has a high pitch with a lot of – forcing that water coming down in a heavy rainstorm, I can see it also bounce right off of that and go over the side of the house, which you don’t want it to do.
The other thing that you might want to think about is if you do choose to use one of the screen systems, make sure it’s a hinged system. And these screen systems today have hinges so that you can lift up – lift them up every 4 feet or so, get your hand in there and clean out the junk in the gutter.
MARK: Oh, OK. I’ve never seen a hinged system before.
TOM: On the MoneyPit.com website at MoneyPit.com, we have an article called “Cost of Gutter Guards: Are They Worth It? Tips to Select the Best Way to Prevent Clogged Gutters,” which describes about a dozen different types of gutter guards that are on the market right now. So take a look at that and hopefully, that will help you out.
MARK: OK. Sounds real good. Thank you so much.
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