Gutter guards in Pittsburgh

Choosing gutter guards

Pittsburgh's street trees decide this more than any brochure does. The right guard depends on what falls into the gutter.

• Silver and Norway maples — the most common trees in the older neighborhoods. Helicopter seeds in May and June slip through almost any screen and sprout in the gutter; big leaves in October. Micro-mesh is the only guard that stops the seeds.
• Pin and red oaks — Fox Chapel, Squirrel Hill, Mt. Lebanon. Small leaves, and pin oaks hold them into December and drop them onto a guard that's already covered in snow. Mesh or a good screen.
• Sycamores along the rivers and in Highland Park — huge leaves and bark flakes. A cheap aluminum screen handles them.
• Black locust and tree-of-heaven on the hillsides — small compound leaflets that go through screens. Mesh again.
• Hemlock and spruce on wooded lots — needles that lie flat on any mesh. Plan on a yearly brush-off no matter what you install.

The three types worth comparing

Stainless micro-mesh (about $10–$18 per foot installed): fine stainless screen on an aluminum frame, screwed to the gutter lip and tucked under the first course of shingles or set below the slate on older roofs. Stops maple seeds and locust leaflets, handles heavy rain without overshoot when it's sloped, and doesn't hold ice the way a solid hood does. The usual choice under maples.

Aluminum screen (about $5–$9 per foot): perforated panel that clips under the shingle and over the lip. Keeps out oak and sycamore leaves, lets maple seeds through. Fine where the trees are big-leaved; not worth it under maples.

Reverse-curve (about $18–$30 per foot): the solid hood that water follows around a lip. Works in moderate rain. Two problems here: water overshoots it in a hard summer downpour, and in winter the hood ices over and builds a shelf that makes ice dams worse. It suits some roofs, but it's rarely the first choice in this climate.

Guards on old gutters

Guards don't belong on gutters that leak, sag or are undersized — you'd be locking in the problem. If the gutters need work, the sensible order is the repair first, or guards folded into a replacement quote, where they're cheapest because the installer is already at every foot of the run. Guards on built-in box gutters are a special case; see the box gutter page.

What to expect afterwards

Even good leaf guards under maples need a brush-off from a ladder once a year, usually after the seeds drop in June, and a look after the November leaf drop. That replaces two or three full cleanings, which is where the money comes back — about six to eight years on a house under heavy trees, never on a house with two small ornamentals. The fall leaf-season post has the tree-by-tree calendar.

Hooded "leaf guard" gutters

Pittsburgh homeowners get offered these at the door, with a two-hour presentation, a "never clean again" promise and a price that halves when you hesitate. The product is usually a reverse-curve or a mesh that's perfectly good at $15 a foot and no better at $40. Ask for the price per foot, whether the mesh is stainless or polymer, how it attaches, and what happens when a maple seed sprouts on top of it. Then get a plain written quote from a local gutter contractor and compare. Requests from this site go to an independent local contractor partner, with no obligation to buy.

Guards and ice

No guard prevents an ice dam; that's attic heat melting snow on the roof. What a guard can do is make the ice worse or no worse. Sloped micro-mesh and flat screens add little. Solid hoods give the ice a shelf. If the north side of your house builds ice every February, factor that in before you choose.

How guards are installed

The install matters as much as the product. A good job starts with clean, sound gutters: every run cleared, downspouts flushed, loose hangers tightened and leaking corners resealed. The guard is then fastened to the front lip and set at the back either under the first course of shingles or onto the gutter itself, depending on the product and the roof. On slate, nothing should be pried under the slate. Ask how the guard attaches at the back, because fastening through shingles in the wrong spot can create a leak and can void a roof warranty.

What to ask before you buy

1. Is the mesh stainless steel or polymer?
2. How is it fastened at the front and at the back?
3. What is the price per foot, and does it include cleaning and repairs first?
4. How is it cleaned when it needs it, and how often?
5. How does it behave under ice and sliding snow?
6. What warranty comes with the product, and what does the installer cover in writing?

Common mistakes with guards

• Buying for the tree you don't have. A screen under maples, or premium mesh under two small ornamentals.
• Skipping the cleaning first. A season of leaves gets locked under the new guard.
• Expecting zero maintenance. Every guard needs a look once a year, and needles or pollen can coat even fine mesh.
• Forgetting the downspouts. A guard keeps leaves out of the trough, but a downspout that was already half blocked stays blocked.
• Covering undersized gutters. If a gutter overflows in a hard rain without a guard, it will still overflow with one.

Guards versus cleaning, in numbers

Take a two-story house with 160 feet of gutter under mature maples. Twice-yearly cleaning at $180–$300 a visit is roughly $360–$600 a year. Stainless micro-mesh at $10–$18 per foot is about $1,600–$2,900 installed, plus a yearly brush-off. On that house the mesh pays back in roughly the six to eight years mentioned above. On a single-story house with little tree cover, cleaning every other year stays cheaper for decades.