Gutter guards in St. Louis

Which gutter guards St. Louis trees call for

Guards keep large debris out of the gutter and can cut cleaning from twice a year to a rinse. They do not make a gutter maintenance-free, and the one sold at your kitchen table for $30 a foot is not four times better than a good stainless micro-mesh at $10. What decides it in St. Louis is what your trees drop.

• Sycamore is the big one here. Huge leaves in October that mat over any screen, plus bark and seed balls through the winter. Micro-mesh or a wide-perforation screen both handle the leaves; the seed balls sit on top of anything and blow off eventually.
• Pin oak and white oak drop leaves late — often into December — and then acorns and caps. Micro-mesh is the only guard that keeps the small stuff out.
• Silver maple drops helicopters in May by the thousand. They slide through screens and lodge in downspouts. Micro-mesh stops them; screens don't.
• Sweetgum balls sit on a reverse-curve guard and roll into the gutter behind a screen. Micro-mesh handles them.
• Cottonwood and elm along the river bottoms drop fluff and small leaves that a screen passes. Again, mesh.

The tree-by-tree guide covers screens vs. guards in more depth.

The three common types

Stainless micro-mesh (about $10–$18 per foot installed): fine stainless screen on an aluminum frame, fastened to the front lip and tucked under the first shingle course, sloped with the roof so water doesn't sheet over it. Handles helicopters, acorn caps and oak leaves, and sheds a heavy storm if it's installed at the right pitch. Usually the best choice under mature trees; micro-mesh after a season explains what to expect.

Aluminum screen (about $5–$9 per foot): a perforated or expanded-metal panel. Cheap, keeps sycamore and oak leaves out, lets helicopters and acorn caps through. Fine on a street of big-leaf trees; not under maples.

Reverse-curve (about $18–$30 per foot): the solid hood that water follows around a lip. Works in a steady rain, can overshoot in a Missouri downpour, and holds a film of ice on the nose in January. Why reverse-curve guards overshoot explains the physics.

Guards and ice

A guard doesn't cause an ice dam — heat escaping the attic does — but a solid or fine guard on a north-facing eave can grow icicles off its edge, and a gutter under it that's holding water because it lost its pitch will freeze solid. Guards belong on a run that drains. A good contractor resets the pitch first, or folds the guards into a replacement, where they're cheapest. Gutter guards that fail lists the usual causes.

Guards on old gutters

The door-to-door version is often sold as "leaf guard gutters." St. Louis homeowners who hear that pitch should know the guards are frequently fitted straight onto twenty-five-year-old sagging aluminum, which seals in the problem. If the gutters leak, sag or are undersized, that gets fixed first — see gutter repair. A guard can't fix a 2x3 downspout on a 50-foot run; it just overflows with clean water instead of leaves. The same goes for leaf guards in Maplewood, Webster Groves or Kirkwood: under big oaks they're worth it only on gutters that already work.

What to expect afterwards

Under oaks and sycamores, plan on a broom or leaf-blower pass along the top of the mesh once a year after the leaves are down, usually the first dry week of December. That replaces two full cleanings a year, which is where the money comes back — around year six or seven on a heavily treed lot compared with paying for gutter cleaning twice a year, and never on a lot with two young ornamentals. The 10-year cost comparison runs the numbers.

How a guard should be fitted

The guard is only as good as the way it goes on. A well-fitted micro-mesh panel clips or screws to the front lip of the gutter and slides under the first row of shingles without lifting them. It sits at roughly the same slope as the roof, so rain runs onto the mesh and drops through instead of skating off the front. Panels should overlap or join tightly, with no gaps at corners and end caps where leaves can get in.

Watch for three shortcuts. Screws or nails driven through the shingles can leave holes in the roof, so ask how the back edge is held. Guards laid flat on top of the gutter collect a mat of leaves in October. And panels cut short at the corners leave an open gap exactly where debris collects. Check your shingle warranty too, since some roof makers have rules about anything slipped under the first course.

What to check once guards are on

Once a year, from the ground with binoculars or from a short ladder on a single story, look for three things:

1. A layer of leaves or seed pods sitting on the mesh — a soft broom or leaf blower clears it.
2. Water sheeting over the front of the guard in a heavy rain, which means the pitch is off or the mesh is clogged with fine grit.
3. A panel lifted or shifted after a storm.

Flush each downspout from the top every year or two. Guards keep leaves out of the gutter, but fine grit from shingles and seed fluff still reach the outlet.

Questions to ask about a guard quote

• Is the mesh stainless steel, aluminum or plastic?
• How is it attached at the front and the back?
• Will the gutters be cleaned, re-pitched and checked before the guards go on?
• What is the price per foot, and does it include the corners?
• What does the written guarantee cover, and who honors it?

The sales pitch you'll hear

A two-hour kitchen-table presentation, a "never clean your gutters again" promise, and a price that falls by half when you hesitate. The product behind it is often a decent guard at three times the price. Ask for the price per foot, whether the mesh is stainless or polymer, how it attaches (to the gutter lip, not nailed through the shingles), and what the guarantee actually covers in writing. Then compare it with a plain quote from an ordinary local contractor. St. Louis gutter guards and other gutter protection should be one line on a gutter estimate, not a reason to sign something tonight.