Gutter Guard Recommendations

[HovEratoTo]

Our standard gutters are badly in need of repair and we want something a little lower maintenance, so we're looking into gutter guard options. We got a sales demo of GutterShutter, which looked solid, but there seem to be a million systems out there and I'm overwhelmed after hearing both rave reviews and horror stories about many.

Any recommendations, especially if you've had a system in place for 5+ years without issue? I'm not expecting something 100% maintenance free but if we're going to spend $4k on a new system I want it to last and be relatively hassle-free!

EDIT: We're located in Virginia and primarily have pine and oak trees around the house, though there are a variety of trees in neighboring yards.

[Dave1442397]

We've had Gutter Topper on our house since 2003.  https://www.guttertopper.com/

They've worked perfectly for us, but we don't have any pine needles falling on our roof. We do have a lot of 60-year-old deciduous trees around the house, so lots of leaves.

Before Gutter Topper, we used to have weeds growing out of the gutters every Spring, and the gutters were clogged with dirt and leaves. Since 2003, we haven't had to do anything with the gutters.

My neighbor got a different type of gutter guard - the ones that look more like a mesh, with lots of small holes to let water through and keep leaves out. She found that the leaf stems would get caught in the holes, and eventually enough material would get trapped up there that the gutters just started overflowing and making puddles around the house. She still has them, but she has to get someone up there to clean them off every couple of years.

[HovEratoTo]

Thanks for sharing! What do you think is a reasonable amount to pay for a gutter system? How did you decide to go with that particular system?

[Dave1442397]

Thanks for sharing! What do you think is a reasonable amount to pay for a gutter system? How did you decide to go with that particular system?

We paid $2112 for the gutter guards back in 2003, so I have no idea what they cost now. I don't know the exact dimensions of our house, but at a guess we have roughly 150 linear feet of gutters.

I looked at a few different systems that had local installers. There weren't as many online reviews available back then, but these days I usually check companies out on Yelp (always check the unapproved reviews too). There's no point buying a good product with crappy installation.

As for the system itself, the design just made sense to my computer programmer mind :)  The fact that the rain water would flow into the gutter while leaves fell off the edge made sense. There were a couple of similar systems at the time, but this seemed to be the better design. I liked that the guards slotted under the first row of shingles, so there was no chance of the roof being messed up due to installation hardware, etc.
 

[HovEratoTo]

Thanks for sharing! What do you think is a reasonable amount to pay for a gutter system? How did you decide to go with that particular system?

We paid $2112 for the gutter guards back in 2003, so I have no idea what they cost now. I don't know the exact dimensions of our house, but at a guess we have roughly 150 linear feet of gutters.

I looked at a few different systems that had local installers. There weren't as many online reviews available back then, but these days I usually check companies out on Yelp (always check the unapproved reviews too). There's no point buying a good product with crappy installation.

As for the system itself, the design just made sense to my computer programmer mind :)  The fact that the rain water would flow into the gutter while leaves fell off the edge made sense. There were a couple of similar systems at the time, but this seemed to be the better design. I liked that the guards slotted under the first row of shingles, so there was no chance of the roof being messed up due to installation hardware, etc.

These details are super helpful. We got another quote for a a system ~$2.5k which seems much more reasonable. If they last 10+ years it seems well worth the cost and reduced maintenance. Thanks again!

[bacchi]

The Costco EasyOn gutter guards are on my 2 story roof. The mesh holes are small and, almost 2 years in, the guards are doing their job.

I installed the Flexxpoint guards from Amazon recently. Comparatively, the material is a lot flimsier (aluminium vs stainless) and the holes are just punched through the metal. I can see how leaf stems would get caught. Leaves are still falling here so I'll get on the ladder (thankfully, it's a 1 story roof) and check them out in a few weeks. The reviews on Amazon, if they can be trusted, claim that pine needles aren't a problem.

Cost: $200 for 100' and 2 full days (had to pre-drill).