The Best Gutter Guard Makes Water a Friend Instead of an Enemy to Your Home

Jun 25
21:19

2011

Richard Kuhns

Richard Kuhns

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Water at your home's foundation can ruin your home. Home's can be designed to keep water away from the foundation but most aren't designed that way which means that if you have tree debris you'll need the best gutter guard to keep the foundation of your home dry.

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Without the best gutter guard installed on your home water is an enemy. Presuming your roofing is not leaking you want to make sure that all the rain water that runs down the roof does not have a chance at getting into your windows,The Best Gutter Guard Makes Water a Friend Instead of an Enemy to Your Home Articles siding, and basement .

Water problems are easily avoided if the ground around your foundation has decorative rocks and is sloped away from the foundation and you have a two foot overhang on your roof. The rocks simply disperse the water falling from your roof. Since you have a large overhang, it's unlikely that the rain water will be blown back to your siding and windows. Grass or mulch would erode, but rocks won't. The good news is that rain water will flow away from the foundation since the ground is sloped away from the foundation. If you're designing a new home, this is and ideal design.

But not everyone is this lucky. An over hang of a foot at most is what you generally find in most homes meaning that water falling from the roof edge can easily be blown back to the siding and windows. It's also a rarity that you'll find decorative rocks around a foundation with the ground sloped away from the foundation. Without a large overhang, rocks around the perimeter and the ground sloped away from the foundation, you'll need gutters to collect the rain water from the roof.

If you have no trees around your home, you simply need to make sure your gutter installation is a quality one with effective sealing of joints at end caps and inside or outside corners. You'll also want to be certain that downspouts leading water away from the foundation are clear and open.

One customer had a problem with water getting into his basement. The problem was the the leader was too long. In fact it was so long that the homeowner installed a goose neck on the bottom of the leader. Instead of simply having an elbow leading into a leader on the ground, he had a flexible pipe that formed a U and then extended to drain away from the foundation. The rain water pooled in the bottom of the U of the flexible pipe and flooded the area next to his foundation. The answer was to remove a few inches from the bottom of the leader and install and elbow with a few feet of leader. If only all wet basement problems were this easy to solve.

However, if you have lots of trees around your home, you will be stuck cleaning your gutters. I've seen situations where by the time we finished cleaning the gutters enough debris had fallen to clog the downspout in a rain storm that happened before we left the property.

With lots of trees around your home you will need assistance in the form of gutter protectors. Here are a few tips to keep from choosing a gutter guard that will cause more aggravation. gutter protectors] are a farce.

The first tip is to stay away from all kinds of screens no matter what their claims are. There are expensive ones made with surgical stainless steel and cheap ones. Yes, the expensive ones work great with coffee grinds but blossoms and leaves are not like coffee grinds. They lay of top of the screen and clog it.

gutter protector] with one longitudinal nose. To see this basic design google "Niagara rain gutter cover leaf guards and gutter guards" and you'll see it. Leaves and blossoms wash from the roof onto the gutter guard and follows the water into the gutter where it clogs the downspouts. There are dozens of designs based on this basic single fin. Some of these gutter covers even have troughs which also clog with debris.

To find the best gutter cover the real tip is to locate a leaf guard that significantly cuts down on both the quantity and size of debris that can pass it and get into the gutter. A gutter protector with a louvered front face would fit the bill. In fact there are three of the best gutter guards that meet this criteria. One that's not recommended for heavy debris conditions has a single row of louvers.

If you google "Carefree Vinyl Gutter covers" you'll see what it looks like.

An obvious improvement would be to have two rows of louvers for water collection. To see what it looks like google "Waterloov gutter guards" and you'll find what the best gutter protector looks like.

With this best gutter protector, water is a friend instead of an enemy to your home.