Leaf protection
Gutter guards that suit your trees
The right guard works. The wrong guard is worse than having none at all, because it blocks solid where you cannot see it and gives you no reason to look.
Fully insured Free estimates Residential & commercial
The part that gets sold wrong
Needles are not leaves
Broad leaf sits on top of a guard and blows off. Pine and hemlock needles do not. They are fine enough to drop straight through standard screen and coarse mesh, and once through they pack down into a dense mat underneath, where no amount of standing on a ladder with a trowel is going to reach them.
That is why guard choice has to happen at the property, looking at what is actually overhanging the roof. A product that performs perfectly under maples in Orange County can be the wrong answer entirely under hemlock in Pike County.
How we choose
What the decision actually turns on
There is no single best guard. There is a best guard for your roof, your trees and how often you want to think about it.
- What is overhanging, and how close. Needle cover, broad leaf, seed pods and catkins all behave differently on a guard. So does a tree that is forty feet away versus one touching the roof.
- Roof pitch and surface. A steep roof throws debris and water further out. Metal sheds almost everything. Rough asphalt holds grit, which is its own slow problem.
- How the guard fits the roof edge. Some types slide under the first course of shingle, some fix to the gutter itself. The wrong fixing on the wrong roof can affect the shingle or void a roof warranty, which is worth knowing before rather than after.
- Whether it can still be serviced. A guard you cannot lift to inspect is a guard that hides a problem. We would rather fit something that can be opened up.
- Whether it is worth it at all. On some roofs, with some tree cover, a clean twice a year is simply the better answer. We will tell you when that is the case.
Straight answers
Gutter Guards questions
Do gutter guards actually work?
The right guard, fitted properly, makes a large difference. It is not a magic solution and anyone who tells you it is has something to sell.
What a good guard does is turn a twice-yearly obligation into an occasional check. What it does not do is make the gutter self-maintaining forever.
Does this mean I never have to clean my gutters again?
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. Grit, shingle granules and fine organic matter still get through almost every system, and they settle in the bottom of the run over years.
A guard should take you from clearing packed leaf twice a year to checking the gutter occasionally. That is a genuine improvement, and it is a different claim from maintenance-free.
Which type do you fit?
The one that suits the property. Tree cover, roof pitch, roof surface and how the guard needs to fix at the eave all change the answer, which is why this gets decided at the measure rather than quoted off a list.
Can guards be fitted to my existing gutters?
Often yes, provided the gutter itself is sound, hung properly and pitched correctly. If the existing run is already failing, putting guards on it is spending money to protect something that needs replacing. We will say so if that is what we find.
Will guards stop ice dams?
No. Ice dams are a roof heat-loss problem, not a gutter problem. Guards do not cause them and do not cure them. Anyone claiming otherwise is overselling.
Also
The rest of what we do
Four services, all of them gutters. Based in Equinunk and working both sides of the Upper Delaware, across six counties in Pennsylvania and New York.
Free estimate
Tell us about the property
The fastest way is to call. If it is easier to type it out, send this and we will come back to you.
Fully insured Free estimates Residential & commercial