When I contacted the homeowner in Loveland, Ohio, to learn about her gutter needs, she was a bit tepid and standoffish. The first thing she said to me was, ‘I have a lot of experience with gutter guards. I want something that works because nothing we’ve installed before works.’
I’ve always liked a challenge. After all, installing gutters isn’t rocket science, but getting it right can be challenge, especially since most gutter installers don’t use a level when installing gutters, much less their imagination to improve a situation..
We listen – and we’re competent installers
I assured her that we are different from most gutter installers. We would actually take the time to understand what the problems were and figure out a solution to those problems.
Fair enough. She liked what I said and invited me to her home to review her current situation.
LeafGuard had failed in a big way
I asked, “What did you like about LeafGuard?” ‘Nothing,’ he responded. From the moment it was installed on the house, it didn’t work properly.
See the problem is, they have really tall, long needle pine trees at the rear of the home.
Long needle pines are notorious for shedding needles year round. The needles often fall in bundles of 2-3 needles, called “fascicles,” attached by a sheath at the base of the needles.
The needles are light enough that they also blow some distance from the tree. The fact that the tree is tall and somewhat overhanging the rear section of the house means that the needles easily blow to the front of the house, too.
LeafGuard is “pretty” but difficult to maintain
LeafGuard is a single-piece gutter and gutter guard system that is extruded on the job site. It’s the only all-in-one, combination gutter-gutter guard system on the market. While its uniform appearance may be aesthetically pleasing, that’s where the benefits of LeafGuard end. Because it’s an extruded system, there is no way to access the inside the gutter except from the end caps. Pop off end caps to access leaves and debris that have accumulated inside the gutter guards.
Since LeafGuard is a single-piece system, it installs against the fascia board in the same way gutters install. As you may know, gutters are pitched from high-to-low in order to allow water to move out of the gutters through downspouts.
Positioning can be off – rainwater has to drop too far
One of the problems with the single-piece system is that the top edge of the gutter guards generally sits a bit of a distance below the roof line, especially if there is a metal drip edge attached to the edge of the roof decking.
Because the gutters have to slope down towards the downspouts, this results in the gutter guard surface often sitting significantly below the roof shingles. Instead of water transitioning from the shingles onto the gutter guard surface in a seamless way, the water actually has to drop from the shingles onto the gutter guard cover.
Rainwater running off the roof may jump the gutters
In extreme circumstances, the top surface of the gutter guard may sit several inches below the roof’s edge, causing water to spatter onto and/or miss the gutter guards altogether.
LeafGuard has a 1” opening between the guards nose and the front lip of the gutter. This wide opening allows most leaves, pine needles and small debris to access the gutter. The fact that this home has many mature trees and a large pine tree overhanging the rear of the home was likely the downfall of LeafGuard on this home.
Why the homeowner originally disliked MasterShield
Excess debris caused the ground to be soaked
They said that while leaves, pine needles, and other debris didn’t get inside the gutter guard like it did with LeafGuard, a lot of the debris piled up on top of the gutter guard. As it piled up on top of the gutter guards surface, water would then flow off the gutter guards onto the ground below.
Too high maintenance
It became a maintenance issue that they didn’t want to deal with, especially since they travel several months each year.
I generally have a pretty good sense about which gutter guard would be the best choice for a home before I knock on the front door. As I was walking up the driveway for the first time, I remember thinking, MasterShield is the best gutter guard for this house.
MasterShield seemed to be the obvious choice
It was a no brainer, really. Pine needles, Oak tassels. Tall, mature trees overhanging and surrounding the house. Hip roof. Good roof pitch. 6” gutters. MasterShield was the answer for sure.
When I heard them say they ‘hated’ MasterShield, I had a decision to make. I could quickly make another recommendation. With 6 gutter guard systems in our arsenal, certainly I could come up with another option.
But they had uninstalled MasterShield before…
I remember thinking to myself, “How in the world can I recommend MasterShield when they paid a gutter contractor to uninstall MasterShield just a few months ago.”
Think about it. They paid good money to install the product. Then they had such a bad experience with it, rather than compelling the original installer to fix it, they paid another contractor to remove the gutter guard just to get rid of it.
These folks were having so many problems with MasterShield, apparently cleaning clogged gutters was easier to deal with than leaving a poorly performing gutter guard on their gutters.
They were fed up and over it. Goodbye MasterShield!
But then I showed up.
Here’s what happened next:
The consultation – expert gutter guard advice
They invited me inside their home. I showed them each gutter guard system we offer. I talked about the pros and cons of our offerings. I generally start with Gutter Rx and end with MasterShield. I answered their questions along the way. Once I finished talking about MasterShield, I did the big reveal: My recommendation!
MasterShield gutter protection was the best choice
“I know you just got done telling me that you paid a contractor to remove it and you don’t want it, but here’s why it’s the best gutter guard for your home. MasterShield has to be installed in a certain way. My belief is that your gutters are sitting too close to the roof edge, and the gutters weren’t providing enough slope for MasterShield to work effectively.
This was causing leaves and debris to sit on the gutter guard surface and allowed water to roll off the gutter guards. Also, the company that installed it didn’t use the foam adhesive tape on the front lip of the gutter that prevents water from seeping between the gutter guard and the gutter lip.”
Bad contractors made the homeowners wary
I thought they were going to shut me up, but they let me continue. They asked me questions and I gave them answers. I said, “I completely understand if you say, ‘no.’ I would understand, but, frankly, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I recommended another system simply because you had a bad experience before. It wasn’t a product issue. It was an installer issue. He had no clue what he was doing and, unfortunately, you paid the price for it.”
I remember the husband — a retired engineer — saying to me, ‘what you’re saying makes sense.’
The answer to their problem was reinstalling the very product they paid to install and remove. Yet, they didn’t have the product anymore, so they had to buy it again. However, this time, I told them, we’ll do the job right.
What about Valor? That’s cheaper, right?
It was at that point that they told me they were also seriously considering a product called Valor gutter guard. A micro mesh screen that’s not quite as fine as the screen on MasterShield. No interwoven copper like MasterShield. A solid product, but they were concerned that it would sit too flat in the gutter. I was unsure if the screen weave was tight enough to keep out the pine needles. But it was less expensive than MasterShield.
Honestly, I was convinced, but I could tell they weren’t yet sold. They told me they’d think about it. As they were walking me to the door, the wife said, “I didn’t think in a million years we’d ever contemplate buying MasterShield again. We’ll let you know what we decide.”
Several days later, the phone rang. She said that they had made their decision. MasterShield it was.
Now I couldn’t believe it.
Final decision: MasterShield is the winner
I was very pleased. Very pleased because they made the right decision. Very pleased because we had a chance to do something that very few companies get to do — a do over. But this time, we’d do it right from the start. No shortcuts. No BS. No empty promises.
What does “right” look like?
Project outcome – MasterShield gutter guard install
1. We lowered all the gutters
Besides cleaning the gutters and resealing the end caps and miters, we lowered the gutters. All the gutters. Every single inch of gutter on the house. That effort took one day by itself.
2. We repitched any gutters which were incorrect
Some of the gutters were pitched incorrectly, so we reset the gutters with levels, when we lowered them, to ensure all the water flowed to the downspouts.
3. We installed a color-matched MasterShield system
We then installed the gutter guards. Not white gutter guards like the last guys installed on their clay-colored gutters, but clay colored gutter guards on their clay gutters. A perfect match!
In the end, it worked out. The gutter guards worked the way they were intended. The homeowners were happy. And we solved another problem.
