Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969

while Lowe's has some metal ones:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=


Paul

On 7/12/2014 9:47 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969

while Lowe's has some metal ones:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=


Paul


I've got the Home Depot ones on my lower hanging gutters where there is
a lot of falling leaves exposure.

They generally do a good job but leaves will break down to smaller
pieces which slip through and once a year I have to lift guard near
downspouts to remove clogging residue.

Sometimes have to remove other segments where debris has accumulated.

On 7/12/2014 9:47 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969

while Lowe's has some metal ones:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=


Paul

In the south western suburbs of Chicago I had the Home Depot ones.
There were maple trees on my lot and on the neighbor's lots. The single
wing spinner seeds would get stuck in each of the holes making it more
difficult to clean than just cleaning the gutters. You practically had
to remove them one at a time. I ripped them out and went with downspout
strainers .... much easier to clean. I used a leaf blower to clean the
gutters. Now, in western North Carolina, where there are trees
everywhere, I initially used the downspout strainers. But, after 3
years of leaf blowing several times each fall and me getting older, I
finally had Gutter Helmets installed and have never had to clean gutters
since. They're not cheap, but seem to work well. BTW, on the Lowe's
link, it's had to see what they actually are.

On Sunday, July 13, 2014 7:46:03 AM UTC-4, Art Todesco wrote:
On 7/12/2014 9:47 PM, Pavel314 wrote:

Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:



http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969



while Lowe's has some metal ones:



http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=





Paul



In the south western suburbs of Chicago I had the Home Depot ones.

There were maple trees on my lot and on the neighbor's lots. The single

wing spinner seeds would get stuck in each of the holes making it more

difficult to clean than just cleaning the gutters. You practically had

to remove them one at a time. I ripped them out and went with downspout

strainers .... much easier to clean. I used a leaf blower to clean the

gutters. Now, in western North Carolina, where there are trees

everywhere, I initially used the downspout strainers. But, after 3

years of leaf blowing several times each fall and me getting older, I

finally had Gutter Helmets installed and have never had to clean gutters

since. They're not cheap, but seem to work well. BTW, on the Lowe's

link, it's had to see what they actually are.

I had the gutter helmets but as others have noted, stuff does eventually get around them. I only had to clean every couple years but it was a real pain because the gutter helmets had to be removed. I got tired of it and took them off. I have some of the popular trees where I am now and their spinning seed pods will get stuck in the screen ones. AT present I have nothing but I have to clean the gutters multiple times a year :-(

I have heard, but do not have any first-hand experiance, that the larger sized gutters and downspouts are less likely to clog.

I had some of the screens with 1/2" holes combined with window screen sized covers in a single combined unit, but I took them out ater a couple of uears because they were continually clogging from the screens. Now I just have the snap-in plastic guards that have the 1/2" holes. Maple spinners do get in and partially clog the holes, but I noticed furing yesterdays rains that the spinners have pretty much rotted out and the holes are almost 100% open. Whatever went thru the holes has not clogged the gutters yet, and I will take a garden hose and point it thru the holes toward the downspouts sometime before winter to make sure the gutters are open before winter. That is the same that I did last year.

On Sat, 12 Jul 2014 18:47:17 -0700 (PDT), Pavel314
wrote:

Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969

while Lowe's has some metal ones:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=


Paul

Not exactly an ansewr.

I have a two-story townhouse which, despite being surrounded by trees
taller than the house, never had leaves in the gutters when I looked.

But last summer, the rear gutter started overflowing in the middle, I
think now it might be because of the cottonwood tree that fell over, a
years worth of "cotton" and most of it my yard and maybe my gutter.

I got at HD on J-shaped telescoping wand, also shapped like a candle
snuffer for chandeliers, that is meant to let you clean the gutters from
the ground, if you have a one-story house. But mine is 2-stories, plus
3 feet from the ground to the first floor in back. When it was raining
I reached out the bedroom window with the device and I was able to push
the clog to the right so that it overflowed to the right. I could push
it back again I thought about running the garden hose up to my
bedroom window, but since the window didnn't go all the way to the end
of the wall, this wasn't going to solve the problem.

BTW, the wand at HD is high-quality.

I have an 18' telescoping extension that I used with a paint roller to
pain the peak of my gable, and a squeegee will screw on the same coarse
threads. But the there were no threads on the want to attach it to
the extension. So I used some wide clear plastic tape (which I don't
think will leave clogging residue on the tubes that will make it hard to
colllapse) with duct tape over that, in two places, to attach the two.

Spent about two hours flushing the gutter, starting at the downspout and
moving to the right, then starting at the right and moving back to the
downspout.

I know I got some leaves. I saw little pieces coming out of the
downspout, and I think I saw pieces flying in the air (but by the time
they had fallen 10 feet, I couldn't tell if they were leaf or water
drops.

Now I'm eagerly anticipating a heavy rain, so I can see if I unclogged
my gutter.

I still may borrow a ladder, but I have no place to keep one permanently
so I hope my first method works.

micky wrote:

BTW, the wand at HD is high-quality.

I have an 18' telescoping extension that I used with a paint roller to
pain the peak of my gable, and a squeegee will screw on the same
coarse threads. But the there were no threads on the want to
attach it to the extension. So I used some wide clear plastic tape
(which I don't think will leave clogging residue on the tubes that
will make it hard to colllapse) with duct tape over that, in two
places, to attach the two.

Spent about two hours flushing the gutter, starting at the downspout
and moving to the right, then starting at the right and moving back
to the downspout.


Try a length or two of 2" pvc pipe, a couple 2" pvc conduit 90 degree bends and
a shop vac to clean them. The 2 bends make the loop of an upside down "J" to
reach into the gutter.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:07:09 -0700, "Bob F" wrote:

micky wrote:

BTW, the wand at HD is high-quality.

I have an 18' telescoping extension that I used with a paint roller to
paint the peak of my gable, and a squeegee will screw on the same
coarse threads. But the there were no threads on the wand to
attach it to the extension. So I used some wide clear plastic tape
(which I don't think will leave clogging residue on the tubes that
will make it hard to colllapse) with duct tape over that, in two
places, to attach the two.

Spent about two hours flushing the gutter, starting at the downspout
and moving to the right, then starting at the right and moving back
to the downspout.


Try a length or two of 2" pvc pipe, a couple 2" pvc conduit 90 degree bends and
a shop vac to clean them. The 2 bends make the loop of an upside down "J" to
reach into the gutter.

That's a good idea. I've got a good shop-vac already.

Would I be better off using four 45^ turns? The installation
instructions for the Saniflo upflush toilet said to do that, or better
yet, large radius curves, because 90^ corners slowed down flow.
Water and crud is not the same as leaves, but what do you think?


And I can make it so it comes apart. Right now, I don't want to untape
my gizmo until it rains and the gutter is working, so it's lying by the
side of the house. I guess that won't hurt it but I have to move it
every 2 or 3 days to not kill the grass.

On 2014-07-12 9:47 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
Any recommendations on gutter guards? Home Depot has these plastic ones:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Amerimax-...src=17588 969

while Lowe's has some metal ones:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_502138-35909...rds&facetInfo=


Paul

Gutter Guards are useless. Just clean the troughs. There are no
shortcuts in life.

micky wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:07:09 -0700, "Bob F"
wrote:

micky wrote:

BTW, the wand at HD is high-quality.

I have an 18' telescoping extension that I used with a paint roller
to paint the peak of my gable, and a squeegee will screw on the same
coarse threads. But the there were no threads on the wand to
attach it to the extension. So I used some wide clear plastic tape
(which I don't think will leave clogging residue on the tubes that
will make it hard to colllapse) with duct tape over that, in two
places, to attach the two.

Spent about two hours flushing the gutter, starting at the downspout
and moving to the right, then starting at the right and moving back
to the downspout.


Try a length or two of 2" pvc pipe, a couple 2" pvc conduit 90
degree bends and a shop vac to clean them. The 2 bends make the loop
of an upside down "J" to reach into the gutter.

That's a good idea. I've got a good shop-vac already.

Would I be better off using four 45^ turns? The installation
instructions for the Saniflo upflush toilet said to do that, or better
yet, large radius curves, because 90^ corners slowed down flow.
Water and crud is not the same as leaves, but what do you think?

PVC conduit bends are wide radius, for pulling wires easily.



And I can make it so it comes apart. Right now, I don't want to
untape my gizmo until it rains and the gutter is working, so it's
lying by the side of the house. I guess that won't hurt it but I
have to move it every 2 or 3 days to not kill the grass.

PVC conduit seems to come with expanded ends here, so that would do it. I am not
sure if white PVC might be stiffer in long lengths than grey conduit PVC.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 22:25:02 -0700, "Bob F"
wrote:

micky wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:07:09 -0700, "Bob F"
wrote:

micky wrote:

BTW, the wand at HD is high-quality.

I have an 18' telescoping extension that I used with a paint roller
to paint the peak of my gable, and a squeegee will screw on the same
coarse threads. But the there were no threads on the wand to
attach it to the extension. So I used some wide clear plastic tape
(which I don't think will leave clogging residue on the tubes that
will make it hard to colllapse) with duct tape over that, in two
places, to attach the two.

Spent about two hours flushing the gutter, starting at the downspout
and moving to the right, then starting at the right and moving back
to the downspout.


Try a length or two of 2" pvc pipe, a couple 2" pvc conduit 90
degree bends and a shop vac to clean them. The 2 bends make the loop
of an upside down "J" to reach into the gutter.

That's a good idea. I've got a good shop-vac already.

Would I be better off using four 45^ turns? The installation
instructions for the Saniflo upflush toilet said to do that, or better
yet, large radius curves, because 90^ corners slowed down flow.
Water and crud is not the same as leaves, but what do you think?

PVC conduit bends are wide radius, for pulling wires easily.

Great.



And I can make it so it comes apart. Right now, I don't want to
untape my gizmo until it rains and the gutter is working, so it's
lying by the side of the house. I guess that won't hurt it but I
have to move it every 2 or 3 days to not kill the grass.

PVC conduit seems to come with expanded ends here, so that would do it. I am not
sure if white PVC might be stiffer in long lengths than grey conduit PVC.

I'll bear the possibility in mind.

My J-shaped water sprayer also came with a one-hole sidewalk flusher,
which might work well to detach whatever is stuck to the bottom of the
gutter.

It would be good if I could actually see what is going on. Maybe I
should get myself a wireless camera, to mount on top of your gizmo or my
first one (when the water is not running), and actually see what's going
on up there. I could record it and play it back when I got inside.
Or maybe it can show up on my smart phone. I could hold the camera with
it's 20 foot extension arm, and someone else could hold the cell phone
in front of me.

It rained some last night, and nothing overflowed. I was getting
dressed to see how much water was coming out of the downspout, but by
the time I got to the front door, it had stopped raining.

Tonight the weather forecast said rain for the last two hours, but there
was none. Heavy rain was predicted for Wednesday, but they changed the
prediction!!