Gutter Talk

There are scores of manufacturers of gutter and leaf protection systems, touting their products’capabilities and knocking competitive technologies. It seems that every week, a new invention for leaf protection finds its way into the marketplace.

We know of no one who has independently set standards and conducted tests of all the available systems to determine which systems actually work the best. Perhaps, there just isn’t enough money and/or interest in the consumer marketplace to mount an independent study large enough to analyze all the gadgets out there. Perhaps, leaf protection just isn’t high enough on the lists of gadgets that have already made their way into consumer guides.

Meanwhile, manufacturers and contractors have been known to monitor homeowners websites, joining web conversations and pretending to be “satisfied customers” of one kind of leaf protection device or another. May the web buyer beware. And when the rain stops and the dust settles, who even knows if half the complaints of disgruntled homeowners are even accurate—if in fact, the leaf protection system is even the real problem.

Choosing a leaf protection system is a very subjective activity. Everyone’s wallet is different. Everyone’s idea of what a clean gutter constitutes is different. Some people are do it yourselfers, others simply weren’t born with the DIY gene.

One thing does seem to be certain—no one has yet come up with the perfect solution to the leaf protection problem to satisfy everyone. If they had, no one would be grumbling about what is out there now.

There is a growing, legitimate concern in this country about our dwindling water resources, particularly as areas of the Southeast, Southwest and West continue to grow.

 While population is growing, water resources are finite and engineers and architects are being pressed to come up with new solutions to meet water demands despite limited supplies. In areas where water is scarce, architects and builders are already looking for ways to tap rain water for non-potable uses including landscape irrigation and non-potable household uses such as toilet flushing and laundry needs. And they know that the efficiency of doing so depends on such factors as roof material, gutters, diversion amounts and design retention.

One of the most effective ways of reclaiming rainwater is through the use of an integrated system that ties in a metal roof, a leaf protection system and a rainwater harvesting and collection unit. PVDF-coated roofs reportedly do not leach and leaf protection systems, particularly hoods and covers, can help eliminate much of the debris that channels into conventional gutter systems before it reaches the filtering systems and containment tanks included in surface and underground rainwater harvesting systems.

 Water conservation experts have known for some time that the smoother, cleaner, and more impervious the roof surface, the higher the water quality and the greater the amounts of water that can be collected. Pitched metal roofs lose negligible amounts of water, while a porous or rough roof surface may hold back some of the water that would otherwise make it into a recovery system. According to government numbers, concrete roofs can lose an average of about 10%, and built-up tar and gravel roofs can lose as much as 15%.