Gutter guards in San Antonio

The honest version

Gutter guards keep the big stuff out and cut cleaning from twice a year to a rinse. They do not end maintenance, and the ones sold at the kitchen table for $30 a foot are not four times better than a good $9 micro-mesh. What decides it in San Antonio is what your trees drop and when.

• Live oak is the one that matters. It drops its leaves in March and April, then the catkins — the stringy yellow tassels — for another few weeks. The leaves are small and slip through wide screens; the catkins mat on top of reverse-curve hoods. Sloped micro-mesh handles both.
• Cedar elm drops small leaves in November and December. Fine on screen or mesh.
• Pecan, along the creeks and in the older neighborhoods, drops big leaves and husks in the fall. A basic screen keeps them out.
• Ashe juniper (mountain cedar) doesn't clog gutters; it dusts them with pollen in January. Nothing to do about it.
• Crape myrtle blossoms in summer get past almost everything. Plan on a rinse.

The three types we install

Stainless micro-mesh ($10–$18 per foot installed): fine stainless screen on an aluminum frame, screwed to the gutter lip and set at the roof pitch so water sheets through and catkins slide off. Our default under live oaks. We'll write up how it held through a full storm season next spring.

Aluminum screen ($5–$9 per foot): perforated panels that keep leaves and husks out and let small debris through. Right under pecans and cedar elms, wrong under live oaks.

Reverse-curve ($18–$30 per foot): the solid hood water is supposed to follow around a lip. Works in moderate rain; in a two-inch-an-hour storm the water overshoots and the catkins ride the curve. We install it when someone specifically wants it, and it's rarely our first pick here.

Guards on old gutters

We don't put guards on gutters that leak, sag or are undersized, because you'd be paying to seal in the problem. If the gutters need work, we do that first or fold the guards into a replacement quote, where they're cheapest per foot. A guard also can't help a run with one 2x3 downspout on 50 feet of roof; it'll overflow with clean water instead of dirty. See gutter repair for what usually needs fixing first, and the installation page if the whole system is due.

What to expect afterwards

Under live oaks, a hose-off from the ground once a year in May to clear catkins off the top of the mesh. Under pecans and cedar elms, a leaf blower along the roofline in December. That replaces two full cleanings a year, which is where the money comes back: leaf guard gutters San Antonio homeowners install under heavy trees pay for themselves in roughly six to eight years against gutter cleaning twice a year, and never under a yard with a couple of ornamentals.

The pitch you'll hear elsewhere

Gutter guards San Antonio homeowners get offered at the door come with a two-hour presentation, a lifetime no-clog promise and a price that halves when you hesitate. The product behind it is usually a reverse-curve or a mesh that's perfectly decent at $15 a foot and no better at $35. Ask for the price per foot, what the mesh is made of (stainless, not plastic), how it attaches (to the gutter lip, not under the shingles in a way that voids the roof warranty), and what "no clog" means in writing. Then compare it with a plain line item from one of the ordinary gutter contractors San Antonio has plenty of. A guard should be a row on a gutter estimate, not a reason for a sales visit.