Gutter Guard Test Results

Over ten years ago, I started testing gutter guards on my own home. Not only was I having issues with leaves and tree debris in the winter, spring and summer, but I was getting regular emails from people just like you about the frustration you were having. The good news is that I finally discovered a gutter guard that works. It works so well, I had it installed on my own home by professionals. I'm going to share the company with you in just a moment, because I feel you need to know the entire story. The most convincing evidence is in two videos on this page. You absolutely need to watch the two videos to see the final stages of my testing.

But I really feel you need to know how long and exhaustive the search was. I chronicled much of this is many past columns here at my website about gutter guards. I urge you to go type in these words into my search engine at the top of this page: gutter guards

In the search results, you'll discover nearly ten different columns that I wrote over the years about my experiences. On just about every one of those pages you'll discover a link to get you back here.

What you should take away from all of this is that my tests determined that over the years I discovered that gutter guard products allowed small debris to get inside the gutter. I found some that allowed you to somewhat easily clean the gunk out of the gutter, but that wasn't what you or I wanted. I wanted a product that didn't allow anything in the gutter and was almost always self-cleaning. Finally I discovered some products that had an ultra-fine micromesh screening that stopped the debris from getting into the gutter. I tested two products on the same roof under the same trees. One performed better than the other. You can see the visual proof in the videos on this page.

One of the key components, in my opinion, as to why the one micro-mesh product performed better was the fact that the manufacturer insists that the gutter guard be installed in the same plane as the roof. In many cases, this means you have to lower the gutters on the house. I did this exact thing in my test and it made all the difference. Lowering gutters is usually not a do-it-yourself project, so consider that when you are thinking about this job. Furthermore, you have to make sure that you don't break the wind seal on your existing shingles when installing the gutter guard. Professional installers know the tricks. Be sure you check the warranty on your roof to ensure you don't void it by making a mistake.

The company that I went with was MasterShield. You can click their name and go right to the site. It's a special link that tells them I sent you. Go to the MasterShield site now and fill out the form so you can get a pro out to your house just like I did. I can tell you that I'm so happy I don't have to get up on my roof again. My wife is thrilled as well. The last thing Kathy wants is to be taking care of me if I get hurt, and the last few times up on the roof I did notice that I'm not as nimble as I used to be. Master Shields' guarantee requires that their product must be installed by an authorized, certified dealer.

I took the time to explain this because you may be one of the many people out there that just want to know what products I use at my home. That makes sense because if I'm using something, I must feel it's a great product. If that's what you're thinking about these gutter guards, you're 100 percent correct.

If you do click the above link and subsequently ask the Mastershield company to give you a quote, they pay me a small referral fee for this. They do this instead of purchasing regular advertising on my website. If you have any issues with the Mastershield folks, please let me know. I'm pretty confident that you'll have nothing but praise for them if you decide to have the same gutter guards on your house that I do.

Tim Carter