Why Do You Need Gutters for Your Home

Every home needs gutter protection because overflowing gutters and leaking water from your gutters can cause severe and costly damage to your home. Whether you have good gutters, bad gutters, or no gutters, the bottom line is this: water cannot stay around your house. It is easy to forget and assume your home is prepared for when steady rain and snow hit. That doesn’t make it the right decision. The right decision is to thoroughly inspect your house, contact a professional, and find out how protected your ground level is from water damage.

What Are Gutter Guards

Gutter guards are an essential investment to properly maintain the integrity of your home against harsh weather and water-related damages. Without a gutter guard protection system, your open gutters can collect leaves, twigs, and other types of debris, which: 

• Create leaks around windows and doors
• Cause rot to develop around and damage your roof, eaves, soffit, and fascia
• Damage your flower gardens and shrubbery
• Seep into the ground around your foundation, which eventually causes cracks and basement flooding
• Attract pests, critters, insects, and mold.

Gutter guards eliminate the above risks associated with clogged gutters. Gutter guards are designed to act as a filter to block debris from entering and clogging your gutters. When you choose the right gutter guard system that delivers on its promise, you can eliminate the worry of ever needing to clean your gutters again. Best of yet, gutter guards eliminate the severe and costly damage caused by clogged gutters.

Many guards aredesigned to sit on top of your existing gutter. Some claim to fit snug on the gutter, while others sit on top of the gutter and extend under your roof shingles. All of these types of filters are two pieces that are added to the existing gutter. And if your gutters already have issues like dents, seams, or improper slope, those issues won’t change. Their advertisements attempt to convince people that slight differences in products can save more time and money by eliminating maintenance. The problem with this type of gutter guard is that you cannot eliminate all maintenance which will likely cause you more frustration.

Gutter Guards Protect Your Foundation

Whether your house sits on a basement or a slab, excess water will cause damage. Slabs will crack, and foundations will leak and crack (flooding your basement). Kiss your property value goodbye. The water around the ground of your house can pose a severe threat to your foundation.

You might not think that the soil around your house is vulnerable to too much water. For house foundations and the surrounding soil, a healthy amount of water flow can quickly become excessive, and it’s up to the gutter system to control that balance. When the areas around your foundation become saturated, the soil is likely to expand, eventually putting pressure on the foundation of your house and pushing it inward. Too much water can also erode soil, changing the composition of the areas around your foundation and disrupting its sturdiness within the ground. This could lead to shifts in the foundation. In both cases, it’s caused by water, which will be detrimental to your home.

Gutter Guards Protect Your Attic

Are you aware of the animals that could be getting inside your house? And how could they get there? Gutters play a surprisingly important role in keeping away a variety of pests and critters from penetrating your house. The absence of gutters sets any house up for a potential invasion.

The problem starts with too much water. Too much water runs off the roof and splashes down the house onto the ground without gutters. Over time, too much water leads to issues like rotting fascia, rotting trim, erosion of soil, or damaged foundation. When the materials comprising are rotted or worn down from the water, they become an easier target for eager animals to break through and take up residence inside.

Ultimately, it's about fortifying your home's elements against water and debris. 53% of homeowners are concerned about pests. Based on how quickly they can get into a house, the other 47% should also be concerned. Each winter, rodents invade an estimated 21 million homes in the U.S.

Squirrels can chew through the fascia. What does that have to do with gutters? Gutters hang from the fascia board, creating a physical barrier between the squirrel and the point of entry. But without gutters, water and the elements can rot your fascia, soffit, and trim gradually over time. That will make those surfaces more vulnerable to squirrels chewing through to gain an access point. On average, they need only 2.5 inches of space to penetrate. You may find rodents taking up residence in your attic without that defense.

Not all critters are as persistent as squirrels, but if there is weakness in your fascia board or other areas near your roof, expect birds and bats to take an interest in what your attic offers.

Gutter Guards Protect from Basement Animal Intrusion

Your basement is also vulnerable to animal intrusion. Without gutters, water never makes it very far from your home. It will often land directly below where your roof ends and stand in pools unless there is a natural slope. That high volume of water can create problems. The first main issue around your foundation is erosion; water disrupts the soil and washes material away that would otherwise be solidly in place. The second issue is ice. If water remains stagnant around your house, it can freeze and put pressure on your foundation. In both cases, the structural integrity of your house is less than 100 percent and becomes more vulnerable to external intrusion. Raccoons, mice, and rats are all likely candidates for weaseling their way into a vulnerable basement.

Gutter Guards Protect Your Yard

Forgetting the attic or basement, homeowners without gutters could still have their hands full with standing pools of water around the home. Aside from the general eyesore, standing pools of water are a breeding ground for insects and bacteria. The most common inhabitants of stagnant water in a backyard are mosquitoes, and the threat of diseases comes with mosquitoes.

Protect With LeafGuard

You want the best protection for your home. So why choose LeafGuard^® over the competition? It’s simple:

• LeafGuard is the premier product in the market today. Our gutters are 20% stronger than the industry standard, and we have received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for the last 18 years straight.
• Our proprietary one-piece design utilizes the simple but powerful principle of liquid adhesion to draw rainwater into the gutter while leaves and other types of debris roll off. This prevents your gutters from clogging.
• LeafGuard gutters are manufactured on-site to the exact specifications to fit your home. Our installers are employees of the company, not subcontractors. They will complete the job and thoroughly clean up to your satisfaction.
• We back up our limited lifetime guarantee*. If you end up having a gutter clog, we will fix it at no charge. And this guarantee is for the product's life* – which is transferrable if you sell your home. This is a great selling feature for the homeowner and the homebuyer.

You will be happy you invested in protecting your home. We stand by our product, so you don’t have to worry. Which is why we say Leaf Guard: Get it. And forget it^®.

*Guaranteed not to clog for as long as you own your home, or we will clean your gutters for free.