We recently received an inquiry from a homeowner in Ann Arbor, Michigan, who wanted to get a quote on gutter guards. As we often do, I reached out to him first to ask some questions.
One of the first questions I asked was, “Do you have or have you had gutter covers in the past.”
He said, “No.”
I asked him who had been cleaning his gutters. He told me that a handyman had been doing it for years, but is no longer cleaning gutters.
I then asked if he had looked at any other gutter guards to date. He said that he had received a quote from LeafGuard, but it was way too expensive.
I agree that a system like LeafGuard is expensive. After all, it’s a one-piece, extruded aluminum gutter guard that replaces your gutters and includes an integrated solid surface cover. Imagine a Play-Doh machine that squirts out stars, squares and circles from when we were kids or your kids were kids. This is what LeafGuard does for a combined gutter and guards system.
It’s probably the most expensive way to get a gutter guard installed today.
But his answer was deeper than just talking about what it was going to cost him for that system.
He then said to me, “You’re not that expensive, are you?”
I couldn’t really answer the question because he was asking a question within a question.
I delayed answering his question by asking my own question.
“How often do you clean your gutters?”
Keep in mind, this gentleman’s house is surrounded by trees that are in close proximity to the roof and gutters. Large pine trees prominently sit to the right of the house; maples, oaks and lots of leafy shrubs and ground cover wrap around the house.
From my vantage point, sitting in front of my desktop computer, peering at Google Maps on my 27” computer monitor, this was not a home where the gutters should be cleaned once a year. My estimate is that his gutters should have been cleaned 6-12 times a year.
Maybe not monthly, but there would be times during the spring and fall seasons where someone should have been scaling a ladder to blow out all of the offending debris several times in a season.
He answered my question matter of factly, “Once.”
“Once?” I questioned.
“Yes,” he said.
Immediately, I realized that virtually any price would be too much for this guy regardless of the value of his home, the prestige of his neighborhood, and the size of his bank account.
Why wouldn’t this guy buy gutter guards from us?
Because he lucked out. Somehow he had found a local handyman who was willing to show up once a year to clean out the gutters on this home. From the sounds of it, this handyman had been working for this homeowner for many years—perhaps even decades. They had grown up together, had kids and grandkids together, and had grown old together.
The homeowner never had the appreciation for grabbing a wooden ladder, and later an aluminum ladder, out of his shed; trudging it over to that one spot on his house where the likelihood of it and him falling over was lowest, and climbing up and down the ladder several times to place his tools and himself on the roof.
He lacked experience and, therefore, perspective.
The handyman, on the other hand, gained wisdom over those years. Perhaps he even became cynical and bitter because he knew what was involved in cleaning this gentleman’s gutters.
He had to load up his truck with tools and a long ladder and then drive it to this guy’s house. He had to unload his truck and carry the ladder to that one spot on the house where it was least likely that he was going to fall. He had to carry his tools up the ladder and place them securely on the roof before he carried himself up the ladder and onto the roof. He had to clean out gutters that were packed full of leaves, small pine needles and decaying organic matter.
And he had to contend with a homeowner who was going to pay him $50, $100, or maybe even $200 for his time and efforts.
The handyman knew that the gutters needed to be cleaned several times a year, but the homeowner wasn’t willing to do it. His annual budget to clean his gutters was $200. That’s it.
If the handyman wanted the $200, he had to play by the homeowner’s rules. Suggesting anything more was akin to the handyman losing his longstanding gig and the homeowner coming to the realization that no modern-day handyman, gutter cleaning service, or gutter guard dealer was going to step foot on his property for anything less than 10-times what this guy had been paying.
While these gentlemen grew up and grew old together, the handyman knew when it was time to quit. He wasn’t going to be able to turn his once-a-year gig into a 2, 6 or 10-times a year gig. He was getting old, too. Fuel was more expensive, the ladder was heavier, the risk was greater, and his time was more valuable than ever.
So when the homeowner called to get a quote, the conversation was doomed from the start.
Frankly, I didn’t want to waste my time, which is why I pulled his house up on my computer. He had actually scheduled the appointment online, so I reached out to him to learn more about his project.
After I got my questions out of the way, and he said that LeafGuard was way too expensive and that we couldn’t possibly be that expensive, I gave the guy a price over the phone.
He about fell off his chair. He said, “You mean for 100 feet of gutter, you’re going to charge me $3,000?”
I said, “Yes, that’s the system that you need for your home if you never want to clean your gutters again.” I went on to say that we offered cheaper systems, but he’d still have to find someone to clean off the tops of the gutters at least once a year.
He canceled the appointment.
I saved a lot of time and miles from driving to this guys house, and he’s got another year to figure out who he is going to hire to clean his gutters.
Are gutter guards right for you and worth the investment?
Let’s compare this to a homeowner who has a bit more of a DIY attitude. He lives in a 2-story home; he owns a 28-foot ladder, and he has been cleaning his gutters for 30-years.
He might be a retired professional, a business owner, a manager, a government employee or a school teacher. He and/or his spouse has been cleaning their gutters out since they built or purchased the house 30-years ago. The problem is they’re now in their early- to mid-seventies and they can’t or don’t want to do it anymore.
They understand what it takes to move the cars out of the garage so they can grab that giant extension ladder — whose only purpose is to be used to climb 25-feet in the air several times each year. They understand the time and energy it takes to either climb onto the roof with their cleaning tools or move the ladder in 5-foot increments around the perimeter of their home. They understand how precarious the ladder is and what happens if the ladder shifts or slips out from underneath them. They understand the value of their life and the fact that they don’t want to end up in the hospital or found on the ground gravely injured or dead. Heck, they may even know somebody who died from a ladder fall.
This is a homeowner who understands and appreciates what goes into this seasonal chore. This is a homeowner who realizes either through their own eyes or that of a loved one, friend or doctor, that they’re tempting fate each and every time they climb a ladder, and that time is not on their side. They understand the risks of doing what they’ve been doing for the past 3 decades are consequential, and there’s a point of diminishing returns.
Cleaning Gutters vs Buying Gutter Guards: What’s the actual cost of both?
Whether hiring out the work or doing it themselves, both types of homeowners have the money to pay someone to clean their gutters or install gutter guards. They’re essentially in the same boat, but they’ve lived two different experiences.
One has gotten away with paying a handyman $200 a year for 30-years, for a total of $6,000. It’s probably not even that much because he was paying the same handyman $50 and later $100 before it eventually rose to $200. Let’s say he’s paid the handyman roughly $4,000 over the last 30-years.
The DIY homeowner hasn’t paid anyone a dime in that same period of time. They know their gutters inside and out and certainly more than they’d care to at this point in their lives. Since they’re cleaning out their own gutters 4-6 times a year, they’ve saved $1,000 – $1,500 a year in gutter cleaning fees. Maybe even a couple of grand if they’re cleaning their gutters more than 6-times a year. That adds up to more than $30,000 in savings over 30-years.
We have a customer who said that she couldn’t afford to hire a gutter cleaner because her gutters needed cleaning before every rainstorm, but at the age of 74, her kids insisted that she stop climbing onto the roof before each rainstorm to clean off her roof shingles and gutters. She said that if she could find the right gutter guards for her home, she was willing to make that one-time investment in a gutter protection system that would keep her off the roof.
She’s not alone. Another recent customer, from Cincinnati, slipped on the roof while cleaning out his gutters. He didn’t fall off the roof, but when he got to the ground, he told his wife that, after 45-years, he couldn’t do it anymore. He was one month shy of turning 89-years old when he hired us to install micro mesh gutter covers.
Spending thousands of dollars to install new gutters and gutter guards is a sound investment. After all, these homeowners already were ahead of the game and appreciate what is required to keep their home in good working order.
For DIY homeowners and homeowners who have hired out their gutter cleaning work and understand that their gutters need to be cleaned several times a year, they are more likely to appreciate the value and worth of a proper gutter guard system.
If they now feel like they’re risking life and limb, and the potential for injury rises at the same rate as their age, the idea of investing in new gutters and/or gutter guards makes sense.
Once they understand that the costs of continuing to clean their gutters several times a year adds up to real money and they calculate how long they plan to live in that home, but factor in other things such as, is it time to upgrade to new gutters, then the clean vs buy discussion becomes real and the costs associated with installing gutters and gutter guards seem reasonable.
For the guy who got away with cleaning his gutters once-a-year in an environment that called for having them cleaned at least seasonally, it’s going to be a tougher leap moving away from the inexpensive handyman to buying a professionally installed gutter protection system.
Are gutter guards worth the money?
The answer is, “Yes,” but it depends on what you buy.
If you are at a point in your life where gutter guards seem like a good idea, we implore you to dig deep and understand that your mileage will vary based on the type of gutter guards you buy.
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer through and through, you have more options today than ever. Of course you can visit Lowe’s, Home Depot or your favorite hardware store to see what they offer. Your choices are more varied but limited. You can go to Costco or Sam’s Club where you can find DIY micro mesh systems from Gutterglove, and you can select from all of the options available at Amazon and other online gutter retailers.
If you’re done with DIY, which is the smartest choice for a variety of reasons, then you can look at offerings from dealers such as LeafGuard, LeafFilter, GutterHelmet and MasterShield.
In our opinion, looking at a variety of systems make sense, but only in as much that your environment warrants it. The more trees you have in your yard, the more likely you’ll want to seriously consider a micro mesh gutter guard system.
LeafGuard and GutterHelmet don’t offer micro mesh gutter guards, so you can essentially strike them from consideration unless you simply want to sit through their lengthy presentations and educate yourself about all the options and price points on the market.
If you have fewer trees that are located farther away from your home, then add LeafGuard and GutterHelmet back onto your list.
Most homeowners today are interested in gutter guards that will allow them to eliminate gutter cleaning altogether. This is definitely possible, but requires a true analysis of your environment.
If you see something that looks too-good-to-be-true, listen to your gut instincts. It probably is.
If you live in an environment with lots of trees, including something like oaks and maples and pines, and you’re being shown a solid gutter cover with a slot or channel across the front of it, think, ‘Will the types of leaves and debris I have enter into the gutter with the water?’
If your answer is, “Yes” or “Likely,” then keep looking.
If you are presented with a micro mesh gutter guard where the screen really isn’t micro — like you can see through it’s pores with your naked eye instead of with a magnifying glass — and you’ve got long-skinny pine needles that cover your roof and gutters, then keep looking.
If you are presented with a gutter cover option that installs flat or with only a modest slope (less than 20 degrees) inside your gutter, and the sales rep tells you that leaves and debris will easily blow off the top of that cover with only the slightest of breezes, either get clarity on what they really mean or keep looking.
If you find a gutter guard that meets your needs, has the ability to be installed at a slope that is consistent with your roof slope, and has the capability of taking in most water at a steeper angle because you live in a tough environment and want to check this seasonal chore off your to-do list, then you’re probably on to something that will work.
So, when asked the question, “Are gutter guards worth the money?,” the best answer that we can offer is, yes, they’re worth it when you find a system that will work well in your environment.
Price may or may not play a factor. A lot of companies sell gutter guards solely based on price. We find that buying a gutter guard solely based on price is a fool’s errand. Finding a gutter guard that will meet your objectives is money well spent and can likely be done fairly and reasonably, and can keep you off the ladder for good.
Now it’s your job to go out there and find it!
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If you live in Ohio, Southeast Michigan, greater Pittsburgh, Indiana, Kentucky, or Tennessee and are interested in receiving a free, no-cost gutter analysis, leverage our 30-years of experience by reaching out to Gutter Guards Direct online or by calling us at 1-800-750-2131.
