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Gutters don’t just create a clean edge around the roofline of your home. The primary purpose of your gutter system is to divert stormwater off the roof and keep it away from your home’s foundation.

Clogged gutters can damage your foundation, create structural issues, and cause basement flooding. Gutter guards can help improve the way your existing gutters perform.  

In this article, you’ll learn some basic information about gutter guards. You’ll also enjoy tips on choosing the best gutter guards to fit your roof.

If you’re considering adding an extra layer of protection to your gutter system, you’ll want to take a minute and read this post.

Benefits of Gutter Guards

Installing gutter guards should reduce the amount of time you spend maintaining your gutter system. Here are a few other advantages of gutter guards you may not know about:

• Discourage rodent and insect infestations
• Help alleviate ice dams
• Prevent rust and corrosion 
• Prevent mold and mildew development
• Fire protection

If you use a rain barrel, gutter guards help it refill more quickly when it rains. You’ll also enjoy cleaner water because gutter guards filter contaminants and debris.

Types of Gutter Guards

When you research gutter protection, you’ll see gutter guards come in different types of materials. Each material offers a different strength and different features.

The guards you choose can optimize your gutter system and help extend the life of your roof. In most areas, you can choose from these five types of gutter guards:

• Mesh
• Bottle brush
• Screen
• Foam
• Reverse curve

Most homeowners prefer mesh guards. Mesh gutter guards have a reputation for being durable. They also work with a wide variety of gutter systems and roof types and sizes. 

Best Gutter Guards for Your Roof

Keeping in mind the different types of gutter guards, which one will work best on your roof? You’re lucky if you have an asphalt roof—the most common roofing material. Mesh gutter guards perform well with asphalt roofs.

Other top roofing materials include metal, wood, clay, concrete, and slate. Some roofs today are made from synthetic materials like rubber, plastic, and polymer. 

A qualified gutter installer can even fit them to one of the more challenging types of roofing materials: terracotta or Spanish tiles. These tiles often overhang the fascia. Gutters on these roofs sometimes sit too high to install gutter guards.

If manufactured from the highest-quality materials and installed by a professional, micromesh gutter guards work on every type of roof system.  

Time to Talk to the Experts

Now that you know more about gutter guards and feel confident they’ll work on your specific type of roof, it’s an excellent time to consult a professional gutter installation contractor.

Gutter Empire has installed and maintained residential gutter systems in Washington and Oregon since 2016. We specialize in the installation of micromesh gutter guards. 

Contact us today for more information on gutter guards. Let us help you protect your home from the inconvenience of clogged gutters.

Rain and snow, hail and sleet. Your gutters handle them all. Without gutters, you’d run into some serious problems.

But can they handle ice dams?

High-quality gutters can withstand intense weather, but they’re sometimes prone to obstruction. In cold temperatures, the gutters might then freeze over and cause ice dams. 

Gutter guards may be the solution. The question is whether gutter guards may cause ice dams as well.

In this article, we’ll discuss if gutter guards can really protect your gutters.

What Causes Ice Dams?

Gutters are prone to obstruction. Without regular gutter maintenance, leaves and dirt may begin to build up inside them. This blocks them up, limiting or cutting off water flow.

Gutters in winter can then freeze over. Even though water and ice weigh the same, the water at least has a chance to filter out through the blockage. The ice stays there, putting weight on your gutters.

Gutters don’t exist only to redirect the water. They’re there to prevent water damage, in addition to other things. But ice ruins their effectiveness and proves hard to remove later on.

Over time, this ice can build up to a weight that your gutters cannot support. The result could be a catastrophic failure where your gutter detaches from the roof and walls. This presents a serious safety hazard to you and your family and may damage your home.

Using Gutter Guards to Prevent Ice Dams

Gutter guards serve as a filter so only water sits in your gutters. They keep out leaves, sediment, and living creatures. But do they potentially lead to ice dams?

What tends to happen to gutters in winter is that the house heating melts the ice on the roof. This ice water trickles down into the gutters, where the cold temperatures freeze it again. This builds up over time, leading to that catastrophic failure.

The problem is, these gutter guards can cause the same blockages they’re trying to prevent. Rather than stopping the leaves from blocking up at a junction, they block them off at the source.

Can You Install Gutter Guards that Don’t Cause Blockages?

The short answer is yes.

Not all gutter guards are equal. Your roofers may have had little experience, or done the job as quickly as possible. They may have only installed gutter guards at a single point along the gutters, increasing the risk of a blockage.

There are a couple of options for gutter guards. You can install a single, long filter over the top of the gutters. This keeps any and all contaminants out, reducing the chance of ice dams.

Or, you can install a fine mesh filter. This keeps anything from the roof making it to the gutters in the first place. If ice dams form, they’ll melt off the room before leading to more serious problems. 

Whatever the case, you need to get in contact with the experts. They’ll know how to solve your gutter problems no matter the case.

Prevent Ice Dams in Your Gutters

Gutter guards are a great way to reduce blockages and keep your gutters clear. However, they may lead to ice dams, which could exacerbate a simple blockage and lead to serious damage. Regular gutter maintenance is essential, and you can contact professionals to do it safely.

Looking for gutter experts in your area? Look no further. Contact Gutter Empire today, and ensure ice dams don’t give you a headache tomorrow.

Vancouver, WA sure has a great climate in the summer, but when the fall arrives it brings a lot of rain. From October to May, there’s a 32% chance of precipitation on any given day. And when the rain starts to fall, you want to be sure that your gutters are working correctly.

Clogged gutters can quickly lead to fascia, roof, wall, and window damage. And as we get older, cleaning them out gets more and more treacherous. That’s why you need gutter guards for peace of mind and to reduce gutter maintenance.

Join us as we take a quick look at everything you need to know about gutter guards for your home.

What Are Gutter Guards?

A gutter guard forms a permeable barrier over your gutters. Simply put, rain and melting snow can get through and drain away. But leaves, twigs, and other junk can’t. 

They’re made of various materials including vinyl, steel, and PVC. Your gutter guard installation professional will be able to advise you which type is best for your home.

Valor Gutter Guards are the top-rated brand in the US. Some of their innovative solutions include:

• Valor Moss-Away – the zinc insert prevents moss from growing over the gutter guard and blocking it
• Valor Melt-Away – includes a heated element to prevent ice dams and keep gutters working year-round

Valor and Evelyn’s Leaf Solution gutter guards can also protect against:

• Asphalt grit
• Pollen
• Pine needles

Range of Colors

Gutter guards aren’t just functional, they’re also attractive. They now come in a wide range of colors, including bronze, copper, almond, brown, and white. This makes it easier to find a color that matches your existing gutters, blending in with your current facade.

Benefits of Gutter Guards

When professionally fitted, gutter leaf guards reduce the amount of gutter maintenance you need to perform.

Rather than needing to be laboriously scooped out and cleaned, gutter guards can simply be brushed off. You can usually reduce your need for gutter cleaning from twice to once a year.

You also prevent water from spilling onto your roof. When water starts pooling in clogged gutters, it can quickly start to rot the fascia boards. You’ll soon have water entering your home and causing lots of other costly issues.

Clogged gutters are also pest magnets. They love the fact that the nesting material is already there, plus a water source. When you create a barrier, you stop rodents and birds from taking up residence.

When heavy rains or snowfall comes in the winter, gutter splash guards can help to channel the water in the right direction. 

Choose Gutter Empire for the Best Gutter Guards in Vancouver, WA

At Gutter Empire, we specialize in everything to do with gutter systems.

We stock and install a range of gutter guards to help you keep your gutters flowing uninterrupted throughout the year. When correctly installed they can last for years and prevent many expensive problems.

To schedule an appointment, call our office at (971) 777-9899 or submit a request online today!

Are you a homeowner?

If so, then you understand the importance of basic maintenance around the house. These chores might seem like a major headache sometimes, and yet they are also the best way to keep your home looking great and help reduce wear and tear.

Basic home maintenance includes the need to keep an eye on gutter damage. After all, your gutters are something you probably take for granted until there’s a problem. Fortunately, this article can help.

Here we discuss a list of the most common causes of broken gutters so that you can reduce the potential for expensive repairs. Keep reading to learn more.

1. Improper Gutter Installation

Let’s start by talking about the importance of proper installation. After all, poor installation is one of the leading causes of gutter failure. 

Have you noticed that the gutters on your home have begun to sag? There’s a high likelihood that this type of sagging is due to poor workmanship. That’s because poorly-installed gutters aren’t strong enough to withstand year after year of rainwater, snow, ice, fallen leaves, bird nests, or high winds.

Thus it’s important to choose a gutter installation company with years of experience in the industry and a long list of satisfied customers.

2. Poorly Pitched Gutters

What do we mean by poorly pitched gutters? Pitch is a term used to describe the downward angle of the gutter. This angle allows rainwater to flow smoothly to the downspout.

An improperly pitched gutter is another example of poor installation. Most gutter installation companies recommend at least a quarter-inch of slope for every 10 feet of guttering to reduce the potential for trapped water.

Before you hire an installation company in your area, be sure to ask them how much pitch they typically include to prevent debris from building up.

3. An Insufficient Number of Pipes 

Another important factor in reducing damage to guttering is the number of pipes used to channel water away from the roof.

For example, each rainwater pipe should never be responsible for supporting more than 15 meters of gutter. Keep in mind that the number of pipes will be determined by the overall size of your home.

4. Joints That Have Become Dislodged

When gutter joints become dislodged, it will lead to additional damage to your gutter as well as damage to your roof.

The best strategy for minimizing this type of damage is to keep an eye on the condition of your gutters and make repairs as needed.

5. Clogged Gutters

Here is another common cause of damage to gutters. Clogged gutters from bird nests and fallen leaves are notorious for causing rainwater overflow, which can lead to water damage to your roof.

Use This Guide to Common Causes of Gutter Damage

It’s no secret that your house is a major investment. In fact, it’s probably the biggest investment you’ll ever make.

That’s why it’s so important to take good care of it. Fortunately, this guide to the most common causes of gutter damage will help prevent small problems from getting worse.

Please contact us today to learn about gutter guards, gutter installation, and our gutter services.

Sometimes, it is the simplest inventions that provide the most value for society. Inventions like gutters have become so common that people don’t even appreciate how successful they must be in order for practically every home to have one. This incredible success explains why the market for rain gutters around the world is worth more than $7 billion every single year!

Of course, the magnitude of that number means that there are many different gutter guard installer services to choose between. And the best installers out there are very different from the average or the worst installers out there.

So how can you make sure that you choose the right gutter guard installer for your situation? Read on to learn all about the most important things to keep in mind when choosing a gutter guard installer!

Find a Gutter Contractor With the Right Experience

Different gutter services may specialize in different jobs. They might specialize in gutter protection, gutter repair, or gutter installation.

You want to find someone with the right kind of experience. That means experience doing the kinds of jobs that you would like them to do for you.

If you need a great installation job done, then you should find an installer with as much experience in installation as possible.

One of the questions to ask a gutter contractor before you hire them is what they have the most experience in. You might want to ask them this before you tell them what you are looking for. That way you will know that they are not just telling you what you want to hear.

Spent Some Time Looking at Reviews and Ratings

These days, it is easy to get the inside scoop on all kinds of businesses. Past customers leave detailed reviews and ratings to help you choose between gutter installation services.

Check out all the gutter installation services you can find on Google. You might want to only look at the ones who have sufficiently high ratings. But you should also spend time reading through the reviews.

The reviews provide extra information that will help you to place the ratings of each business in the proper context.

Look at Past Success

A company might look for it on paper, but a picture is worth 1000 words. If possible, ask to see images of past work.

Companies will generally show you the best examples of their work. If their best examples are not impressive, then you might want to find another service.

Understand How to Choose the Right Gutter Guard Installer 

We hope that some of the ideas in this brief article about how to choose the right gutter guard installer have been helpful for you. Many people end up looking for gutter experts in emergency situations. Unfortunately, in their rush, they often fail to do their due diligence in finding the best gutter guard installer for their situation.

Figuring out the right gutter guard installer can mean not having to hire somebody else to fix a job done poorly. To learn more about the benefits of working with a quality gutter guard installer or where to find experts, feel free to reach out and get in touch with us here at any time!

Are you tired of your gutters being blocked and overflowing with water and debris? Perhaps you’ve had enough of climbing up a ladder to remove dirty materials from your drains? If either of these scenarios sounds familiar, you could benefit from installing Valor gutter guards. 

But why choose Valor gutter guards? After all, if you’re going to invest in a product, you’ll want to know how it can benefit your home. The good news is there are several excellent reasons to install these industry-leading gutter guards that can save you hassle and protect your property. 

Let’s dive in and find out why Valor gutter guards are an essential addition to your home.

1. Suitable for Use In Extreme Weather Conditions

Not all gutter guards are created equal, and some may lose their shape and become less effective in extreme weather conditions. But, there are countless Valor gutter guard reviews confirming the robust materials can withstand harsh conditions and keep your gutters protected.

2. Prevents Moss and Algae Build-Up

It can be challenging to clean gutters when there is a build-up of moss and algae, and a high-quality gutter guard is a vital tool to prevent an accumulation of unwanted substances. This means you won’t have to spend extra money on cleaning materials as your gutters will remain in superb condition. 

3. Superior Health and Safety

Working at heights can be treacherous, and a fall could lead to severe injury or death. While you can take precautions to reduce the risk of falling from a ladder, it’s better not to put yourself in danger in the first place. This is especially true in the colder winter months when you are more likely to slip. 

Fortunately, there is no need to be up a ladder cleaning gutters at any time of the year. You can easily search for ‘Valor gutter guard installers near me’ and find a top-class company to fit your protective coverings.

4. Protects Against Ice Dams

When considering the cost of Valor gutter guards, you may find the price is very reasonable in comparison to the expense of replacing gutters that have been torn off due to ice dams. You can choose a Melt-Away option for your Valor gutter guard, preventing the build-up of ice or snow in your gutters during winter. 

5. No Bug or Pest Infestations

If you allow bugs and pests to gather in your gutters, they can cause blockages, and critters may at some point decide to enter your property. But, a Valor gutter guard can reduce the risk of this occurring, keeping both your gutters and your home cleaner and more hygienic. 

Find Your Valor Gutter Guards at Gutter Empire

If you’re asking where can I buy Valor gutter guards, look no further than Gutter Empire. Our professional team can provide you with expert advice and supply and fit your Valor gutter guards at a cost-effective price. We enjoy building relationships with our customers and can service your guttering when required for many years to come.

To learn more and receive a free quote, contact the Gutter Empire team today.