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Shingle Cost Increase
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Call it what you want… K-Guard, gutterguard, helmets, toppers, louvers, leafguards and so on… OR call it Gutterman Gutter!
We have been your neighborhood provider of quality home exterior improvements like gutter cleaning, repairs, K-Guard Leaf-Free gutter systems, metal roofs, shingles, replacement windows, siding and trim. You name it, we’ve done it - from minor repairs to full home make-overs. We are the pros that know how to get it done... the first time!
We don’t like to brag but:
- Still here since 1986 proudly serving our neighbors and friends.
- NO hard sales tactics, just friendly, good expert advice on how to maintain your most valuable asset.
- Family owned, raised and run from right here in NOVA since 1986
- No pushy, overbearing sales tactics
- Quality BBB rating and good standing with ALL local business jurisdictions
- We keep our promises
- We are here to answer your questions - call us and see for yourself
- We can communicate on your terms
- Our job process is explained BEFORE we start your job
- We provide annual inspections of all warranted work
- We are convenient: opening design show room in early ‘06 in Sterling, VA
- We are consistent in our work: very low employee turnover
- We are a family-oriented company
- We provide the best clean up and final inspection in our industry
- We offer the best referral benefit - we are sure we have done a job for one of your friends, relatives or neighbors!
- Our team continues on-going education and training to ensure we keep our edge
- Our job pricing is very competitive, just because we are bigger and been here longer doesn’t always mean it will cost you more to hire us
- AND most of all... WE ARE HONEST!
Chris Pauly,
President,
Gutterman Services, Inc.
While you are educating yourself on gutter protection
products, you will no doubt be "pitched" by our competition.
Tactics like "Keep America Working" and "Why Cover
Your Gutters" are all efforts seeking "one time closes."
Simply put many of these companies are merely professional
sales operations with very little or no insight to
the very industry we all represent. If they can get
both parties to a "sit" statistically, they have a
much better chance to "close you" watch out!
If all these catchy phrases sound like pushy sales
tactics, that is exactly what they are. Many of these
companies put most of their emphasis on getting both
consumers at home for a lengthy presentation. These
companies "close" or play a "numbers game" by inflating
their price only to reduce it (sometimes by hundreds
if not thousands of dollars) all in an effort to get
you to buy on the spot. Do not be fooled.
Simply put, many of these companies are merely professional
sales operations with very little or no insight to
the covered gutter industry. If these sales people
can get both parties to a "sit” that is
where both heads of household attend, statistically,
they have a much better chance to "close”
you- watch out!
Chris Pauly
President
Gutterman Services, Inc.
Please note that KGuard gutters were not mentioned in this article. All facts are fairly well described from a homeowners perspective. With every negative point the writer makes about covered gutters a positive one can be made about KGuard gutters.
New Guards Or Dammed Nuisances?
Don't let your guard down when the gutter guards go up.
Like many folks, I bought into the idea that I could eliminate the tedious task of climbing a ladder to clean my gutters once a gutter protection system was installed on my 1930s Cape Cod.
I was wrong.
When a good imitation of Niagara Falls cascaded over the doorway during a recent downpour, it was obvious something was amiss. A visual examination from an upstairs dormer window showed the gutter guards appeared to be clear of debris. But a trek up the ladder to look under the guards revealed they were hiding a very big problem.
Water was never going to find its way to the downspouts because the entire 25-foot span of guttering across the front of the house was crammed with a four-inch layer of soggy pine needles.
Once gutters become loaded with debris, water flows over the gutter's edge, potentially soaking basements, damaging landscaping, rotting fascia boards, saturating insulation and fostering the growth of mold and algae.
While gutters are designed to carry water to the downspouts, gutter guards are supposedly designed to deflect debris away from the gutters. They don't always work.
It wasn't that the rather affordable, simple gutter guards I chose were worthless. They were just the wrong style for my house and its setting underneath a towering white pine.
"The bigger stuff -- leaves -- are not the culprit," said Randy Spears, vice president of Action Sheet Metal Co., a gutter company in Alexandria. Most of the gutter protection systems on the market are effective in keeping those out. It's the small stuff -- shingle granules, pine needles, berries, nuts and seedpods -- that can build up over time and clog downspouts.
"Pine needles are the number one problem," Spears said.
Gutter protection system manufacturers have proliferated in the past 20 years, but there are still no established industry standards. While products may look the same, installation techniques, durability of materials and quality of warranties vary widely.
"There are a lot of similar styles with different names," said George Krilis of Annandale, who has 25 years' experience installing roofs and gutters.
Most gutter guard systems attach to existing gutters, but some, such as LeafGuard by Englert Inc., are one-piece styles that combine gutter and cover.
Broadly, there are two types of gutter protection systems, open and closed.
Open gutter guards are those where water enters the gutter through small holes in the top that filter out debris. While leaves may accumulate on top of the screenlike panels, manufacturers say that wind and rain will eventually wash them off.
Such gutter screening, which costs anywhere from 30 cents to several dollars a foot, is often sold in three- to four-foot-long panels at home improvement stores. The screening is made of vinyl, aluminum or another metal. Some varieties have large circular or diamond-shaped holes; others have a finer mesh.
Panels must be rigid enough to avoid sagging under the weight of wet leaves. The panels must also be anchored sufficiently that it won't blow away in the wind.
Closed gutter protection systems such as Gutter Helmet, GutterTopper and LeafGuard have solid tops. Often professionally installed, closed systems can range from $8 to $20 or more a foot.
Closed gutter guards are designed on the principle of surface tension, also called liquid adhesion. Rainwater adheres to the guard's surface as it flows over a curved "nose" into a narrow slot, while leaves and debris continue over the edge to the ground. If any small particles follow the water into the gutter, manufacturers say, they will just flow on out the downspout.
To visualize how surface tension works, hold a glass horizontally underneath your kitchen faucet. Regardless of the rate of flow, water clings to the glass until it gets underneath the curvature. On your gutters, water would curve over the nose of the gutter guard and be deposited into the gutter's channel.
However, Tim Carter, author of the nationally syndicated newspaper column Ask the Builder, tested a closed system at a home show by dropping small pieces of paper, simulating leaves, on the top. "The gutter cover deflected the large 'leaves,' " he wrote. "However, my small 'leaves' were sucked into the gutter."
Several factors beyond the sales pitches should influence your choice of a gutter protection system. No one system is right for every situation.
- Do you have trees on your property? If your home is out in the open, then gutter protectors are not critical, although Krilis cautions that even stray tennis balls or dead birds have been known to clog downspouts. While installing new gutters on 200 feet of roof line unsheltered by trees in McLean, Krilis's crew retrieved a full bag of debris that had accumulated in the old ones over the years.
- What kind of trees are on your property? No pine trees? You still may have a problem. Carter said, "Over time, all deciduous trees drop debris . . . and it becomes like a paste. It takes no time at all for [small] openings to get clogged."
- Are your gutters in good shape? It doesn't make sense to put new guards over gutters that are sagging or leaking. Nor does it make sense to pull down perfectly good gutters to put up an all-in-one system.
- Roof design is a factor. The roof's surface area and steepness, whether there are valleys where two parts of the roof join, or whether there are several levels of roofing that feed into the same downspouts, should all be considered in choosing a gutter protection system. Rich Cutaio, branch manager of LeafGuard of Maryland, said that systems that depend upon water flow over a solid top, such as his company's product, are not suitable for flat-roofed buildings.
- Consider the roof's exposure. A gutter system with northern exposure sheltered by heavy tree growth may be prone to algae or moss buildup, which could either thwart the water adhesion required for closed systems to work properly or clog up holes in open systems.
- Will the installer's or manufacturer's warranty cover necessary cleaning? Many systems are permanently attached to the gutters and roof, making it very difficult for homeowners to clean out debris. The gutter covers that hid my pine needle stash so well were anchored with what are now rusty screws that were almost impossible to remove.
You need to have confidence that the manufacturer will be around years later to fix any problems "All gutter protection systems will eventually fail," Carter said. He prefers gutter guards that are easy to remove and reinstall, or ones that can be flushed with water by the homeowner.
Some products, such as the two-decades-old Gutter Helmet and 10-year-old GutterTopper, offer lifetime cleaning services as part of their contracts. Sandy Smith, a Falls Church resident who had the Gutter Helmet system installed two years ago, said, "If I ever feel like something is in there, they'll come and flush it out."
A warranty would not have helped me much -- both the manufacturer and installer of my gutter guards are out of business.
While styles may appear similar, different manufacturers offer different features. Gutter Topper (www.guttertopper.com) has a patented bird-block to keep birds from seeking shelter under the top. The Gutter Helmet (www.gutterhelmet.com ) system has a strip of sticky caulking on the underside to seal openings made by screws used to secure the unit to the roof. Leaf Master (www.leaffilter.com ) has a fine steel mesh over the water entry holes.
Regardless of features, no gutter protection system available will absolutely prevent the build up of ice, said Ray Casario, sales manager of Gutter Covers of Maryland and Virginia, which sells GutterTopper. "It only helps to prevent ice dams," he said, with the emphasis on "helps."
Not everyone sees the need for gutter guards. Ann and Dan Beam of Alexandria contemplated them years ago, but were convinced that paying someone to clean the gutters twice a year -- at what was then $30 a pop -- was more economical. Today, fees for gutter cleaning can range from $75 to $200 or more for each job.
Spears of Action Sheet Metal, whose family has been installing gutters since 1974, said that at the request of customers, his company has taken down numerous fancy gutter protection systems over the years.
He said, "I would rather go to a larger gutter with no guards."
When customers ask him about gutter protection systems, Spears tells them, "If you have them, you probably only have to clean your gutters every one or two years, rather than three or four times a year, because it takes that long for stuff to build up."
In other words, don't install and forget. Every now and then, you still have to climb that ladder.
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