What is the best rain gutter guard?

Good question. I have experience with only one kind – something like this. For some reason, they don’t seem to hold up to heavy rain. I have had to remove them because during heavy rains, the water just seems to run right over them and avoid the gutter altogether.

I believe the purpose of gutters are to prevent erosion of the soil directly under the eaves if the house, right?

My house is an old brick building (a small apartment building actually), and I don’t have gutters at all. Instead, there’s a lip of concrete all around the building, and I haven’t seen any sign or erosion that gutters are meant to prevent.

If you have a newer house in the country, that might look odd. But for an older brick building set back on a city street, it looks perfectly normal.

Well, yes, @tom_g, I have something like that and I agree it doesn’t work all that well. That’s why I’m searching for a better design.

@2davidc8 Right now, I don’t know of a better design.

Either you have the guards to prevent the leaves…but then have water flow every where. Or you leave the guards off, have the gutters collect leaves and you need to schedule a twice a year clean-out with yourself & the ladder.

There are a few other options like these downspout strainers.

I prefer to own one of these hose attachments—our is different and has a “flat” sprayer on the end. And with one of these trimmers, we keep the branches out of the way of the roof & the gutters.

We were smart with our landscape, as well. All of our deciduous trees other than two honey locusts are planted away from the house. For the most part, the locust leaves flush through the spouts…the leaf stems do collect in the gutters though, so that’s what we got the hose extender for.

I’ve been a property manager for some time. On most properties, we leave the gutters open. On buildings that are in heavily wooded locations, we use the guards, then heavily mulch the plant beds below for the occasional down pours the gutters can’t handle.