It’s one of the most common asked questions when homeowners are considering installing gutter guards; Do Gutter Guards Work? If “work” to you means significantly decreasing the amount of maintenance needed to keep you gutters clean and eliminating the need for interior gutter cleanings; then the answer is yes. If your idea of guards working is a 100% maintenance free solution, then we can’t answer that with yes. See this post to understand how a gutter guard works and is it worthy to invest in.
Are Gutter Guards Worth It?
Have you heard “never clean your gutters again” “100% maintenance free gutters” or anything along those lines? If you have, chances are that needing to do any sort of gutter maintenance after hearing these claims is quite honestly maddening. Since these unrealistic expectations were not met, it’s easy to assume things like “my gutter guards failed”. Because the truth of the matter actually is that your gutter guards haven’t failed you, your salesperson did!
There are many companies and products claiming to free you from ever worrying or needing to maintain your gutters again. But, this promise is just not something we as a gutter installers can guarantee, as no product is truly 100% maintenance free.
The idea with gutter guards is to significantly decrease the amount of maintenance needed, and to eliminate the need for 1-3 (or more) interior gutter cleanings a year. While we have many clients who have not needed any maintenance after guard installs for over 10 years, we cannot promise that this will be the case for every situation. A common maintenance practice that may need to occur after installing guards is a quick brush off of the top of the gutter covers.
If you’re like most consumers in this day and age, when you consider a medium to large project for your home you typically research online reviews. When searching, do gutter guards work, or best gutter guards, or even gutter guard reviews, things can quickly spiral out of control with an overwhelming amount of information on both sides of the spectrum. You’ll see anything from “this is the best investment I have ever made” to “a total waste of money, did not function as advertised”. So, who do you believe and what is the answer to this burning question of do gutter guards work and/or why are my gutter guards failing?
Gutter Guard Choices
In the world of gutter guards, there are many different product choices to choose from as well as installers. This is great, because there are many different circumstances they will be needed for. The unique qualities of a home can dictate the best type of guard to solve your issues. When sourcing your negative reviews, it is important to really breakdown the substance of it. Do the reviews say “these are not maintenance free” or “these did not work as promised and required more maintenance than I had hoped”? Because if that is the case, these reviews aren’t inherently bad. It goes back to the above statement referring to what was promised at sale.
If a 100% maintenance free experience was promised, then it would be easy to assume that these reviews make sense based on their expectations. A promise to “never have to clean your gutters again” should be a red flag. Sometimes, when something sounds too good to be true, it is. Sort of like a wrinkle-free shirt. While it will have less wrinkles than a cotton shirt, there is still likely to be a wrinkle or two.
Do Gutter Guards Work?
So, the answer to the burning question of do gutter guards work, is yes. The answer is gutter guards maintenance free is possible. This separation of these two questions makes all the difference. In determining if you feel that your gutter guards failed you, or if indeed you feel satisfied with the results.