What happens with the rain water running off your roof and over the gutter guards is that when the water reaches the edge of the gutter guard system, and starts to fall over the side, the water adheres to the gutter system a fraction longer than anything else, allowing for the water to fall into the small slits on the side of the gutter guard. The picture below demonstrates nicely.

If it were not for the adhesive properties of water, this type of gutter protection would not work. Therefore you would have to use screen or mesh gutter guards instead.

You can make your gutter guards entirely from scratch by buying some chicken wire or vinyl mesh on a roll and a few gutter clips. The first step is to measure you gutter system carefully. You want to know how wide they are so that you can cut the mesh just a little bit larger. You also need to get accurate measurements of the length of each section. However, you do not want to make one long piece of gutter guard to fasten on and cover the entire length of the house. Instead, you want to cut as many three to four feet sections as you will need so that you can overlap the pieces a little still cover the entire length.

Cutting the pieces can be accomplished with a pair of wire cutters or snips. When you come to the corners you will have to do a little more cutting. For outside gutter corners you can cut the screens on an angle so that they come together nicely at the corner. There is no need for overlap here. However, if you come to an inside corner you should allow the straight pieces from the long sections come all the way to the end and overlap each other. The reason you want extra protection here is that an inside gutter corner is usually at a spot where the eaves of your roof come to a valley. Debris collects here and is funneled toward your gutter system. Extra gutter guards are always welcome in these situations.

The gutter clips are fasteners that hook into a loop or hole in the mesh or wire screen and then slip on to the front of the gutter system. Once the gutter clips are in place, you can lay the mesh over the bottom of the shingles on your roof. You can make sure the vinyl mesh or chicken wire stays in place by using small thumb tacks in you shingles. This overlapping of the shingles and gutter screen will make sure there is no way for debris to fall into your gutters.

An alternative to cutting your own sections of gutter guard out of chicken wire or vinyl mesh rolls is to buy premade gutter screen pieces at your local hardware. These pieces are usually made of aluminum which will not rust and are already in three or four foot sections.

The first type is gutter screens. The gutter screens can be broken down further into two sub categories. Some screens lay flat across the top of your gutters and some have a curved shape to them so that they are convex over the top of the gutters. There are advantages to both types. The flat gutter screens are harder to see from ground level. If they are installed correctly you will not even be able to tell they are there. However, the flat surface is the perfect place for leaves and debris to settle. If the holes get covered up by leaves, then the water will have nowhere to go and will run off the side of the house rather than into the gutter system. The curved gutter mesh screens work better in this respect. The curved edges encourage debris to fall off and do not get clogged up as easily. However, you can see these screens from the ground and might be bad for your curb appeal.

The second type of gutter guard system available from Amerimax are what they call shingle gutter covers. These gutter covers are a combination of a solid cover and a screen. There are layers that are mesh and layers that are solid. The screen locks into the far side of the gutters and lays over the roof so that it blends in with your shingles. The sloped bend allows debris to slide off but the water to fall into the gutter.

The third type of gutter guard is a solid cover that works on the principle of water adhesion. These solid covers have a nice look to them and cannot get clogged with leaves or debris because the opening for the water is actually over the edge. The leaves have already fallen off the house by the time the water turns the corner and is falling into the gutter system.

Most of the gutter guard systems from Amerimax snap into place in between the edges of the gutter opening. This makes it easy to remove the guards if you ever need access to the gutters for cleaning or on the off chance that something gets through the guard. However, there are some that attach using clips. These meal clips grab the edge of the gutter system and hold the gutter guard into place. You generally only install these on one side leaving the other side free to bend up if you need access to the gutters.

As your gutters fill up with these other things, they get wet as rain water runs through the gutters. Leaving damp organic material sitting in the warm sun is the perfect environment for mold and mildew to form. You not only have to clear your gutters of the debris, but you need to scrub them because of the mold and mildew that forms in between cleanings.

Gutter guard systems can help you avoid all that. If leaves and debris never pile up then there is less of a chance that mold and mildew will form. Gutter guards will save you time and energy in terms of how often you need to clean your gutters. In addition, they offer you a way to avoid the dangers of working on a ladder and coming into contact with possibly dangerous mold spores.

And believe it or not, over the lifetime of your gutters, gutter guards will save you money. You might pay a gutter cleaning service $200 to clean your gutters twice a year. Even the most expensive gutter protection systems cost only $3,000. That means you will have paid for the gutter protection in less than ten years. In addition, gutter guards add curb appeal to your home so they will help with resale value. That can be invaluable in hard economic times.

The first type of gutter guard is the mesh or screen variety. With mesh or screen gutter guards, a piece of aluminum or plastic with small holes is fitted over the gutter. The holes are large enough to let water through, but too small to allow leaves or other tree debris to fall in. This is the less expensive kind of gutter protection system. You can even make your own gutter screens with some chicken wire. The advantage of this kind of system is that it is easy to remove if you do need to get inside the gutters to clean. One disadvantage is that it is possible that someone might be able to see the screen from the ground and they are not necessarily the most attractive addition to your home.

The second variety of gutter guards is solid covers. Instead of a mesh or screen with many holes covering the top of the gutters, there is a solid piece of plastic or aluminum. Then, at the very edge of the gutter system there is a small side slot that lets water in. You might be wondering why the water doesn’t just fall off the edge if the entire gutter is blocked by a solid barrier. The answer is something called water adhesion. The water running down your roof clings to the gutter guard longer than the debris that falls off the edge of the roof. As the water slows down and clings to the edge, it falls into the gutter. This type of gutter protection is much more attractive to the observer, but it is much more expensive.

The advantage of having a gutter guard system at all is that you will have to clean your gutters less often. Instead of having to clean out leaves and junk twice a year, you might be able to get away with cleaning them once every other year. Another advantage is that, with the solid gutter guard systems at least, they add beauty to your home. The curb appeal of your house will be higher. That can help with resale value.

Most people protect their gutters with a gutter cover installation or gutter guard. Some people call these devices leaf gutter guards. A cover for your gutters has many small holes in it that let the water get through, but not leaves or other debris. It can also consist of simply a mesh screen covering your gutters. Depending on the size of the debris, you will need to look for certain sized holes. If your gutters are usually clogged with small pine needles then you will want smaller holes than if they are usually clogged with larger leaves. However, most gutter guards allow at least some debris to get into your gutters so you will still need to clean them out periodically. These rain gutter guards vary widely in price. You could do it yourself and install a wire mesh covering for about $250 or you could spend more than $2,000 for a manufactured option. Amerimax gutter guard products are quite popular and they have several varieties that vary in price and effectiveness.

One very popular system for gutter protection is one based on the water adhesion principle. A guard extends from your roof over your gutters to the edge and leaves only a small opening precisely engineered to allow only water to enter your gutters. The surface tension of the water makes it adhere to the gutter protection system longer than the debris and as the debris falls over the edge and falls away, the water enters the gutter system and is carried safely away by your downspouts. This particular product can be very expensive depending on the size of your house. The average 1,500 square foot house has about 160 linear feet of gutters and this product costs from eighteen to twenty dollars per foot. That comes out to a price tag of $2,880 – $3,200. Nevertheless, some people think it is worth the money. Most gutter guard reviews of these types of products rave about how well they work.

One final gutter protection option is a foam filter. This product is typically shaped like a triangle and fits into your gutter so that it cannot be seen from street level. Since the foam is filling the gutter, most large debris such as leaves and twigs cannot clog your gutter. The foam allows water to flow through it freely so there should not be any overflow of water. One downside to this type of material is that smaller debris can get in the cervices left around the foam and cause more clogging problems than if the filter was not present. This option is much less expensive than the other options though and can be installed by anyone where other systems might require a professional installation.

There are many options in terms of gutter covers. Your budget and type of debris you’re dealing with will determine which gutter guard is right for you.