Which Roof Gutter Guard Is Best for Your Part of the Country?

Posted on: 8 July 2015

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How essential are roof gutter guards? For homeowners in areas prone to bushfires, they are arguably a vital added protection for your home. In other areas, they're just darn handy since your gutters will no longer be clogged with leaves. This means that your gutter drainage pipes will not become blocked, which is something you really want to avoid.

You don't want a blocked pipe or drain to cause excess water to flow back towards your roof, where it has the potential to find a way inside your ceiling cavity where it can cause significant (and expensive) damage. So what is the best roof gutter guard for your home?

Plastic Gutter Guards

This is the least expensive option, and the product is a plastic mesh that can be cut to size and slotted into place in your gutters. Rainwater can still enter and flow freely towards the drainage pipes, whereas leaves simply can't get inside. These plastic guards are available in a wide variety of colours to match your roof and pipes, and once they're in there, they're practically impossible to see.

Metal Gutter Guards

If you live in a particularly sunny area, or an area prone to bushfires, you are better off with a metal gutter guard. Like their plastic counterparts, they're very effective in keeping leaves and debris out of your gutters and can be trimmed to size before being slotted into place. While plastic guards are made from weather treated materials, they can still degrade over time. Metal guards are more of a permanent solution and can withstand many years of extreme temperatures.

Brush Style Guards

If you don't live in an area with excessive rain or sun, then a brush style guard will be perfectly sufficient. Also called a hedgehog guard, it looks like a long brush that is placed inside the gutter. It's the easiest roof gutter guard to fit, since you just drop it into the gutter after cutting it to the right length. Unlike the mesh style of the plastic or metal guards (where the leaves are blown off with the wind, rather than being caught), the brush style guard can catch some leaves.

You will probably need to get up on your roof twice a year to shake any dead leaves off the guard, but this is very easy to do. If you don't want this type of ongoing maintenance, you are probably better off with a plastic guard.

Having a gutter guard in place prolongs the life of your gutters and drainage pipes, and they're really easy to install. It's a little bit of work now that can prevent a lot of work later. Try contacting a company such as Guttercraft Melbourne for more information.