Most guards on the shelf are sized for leaves. Under longleaf pine that is the wrong product.
Gutter guards are sold as a single idea and they are not one. The mesh aperture is the whole product, and the aperture that stops oak leaves does nothing whatsoever about longleaf pine straw, which is a needle a few millimetres across and eight inches long.
This matters more in Dothan than almost anywhere we work, because so much of the older canopy here is pine. We have pulled off plenty of guards installed by somebody else that are doing their job perfectly - the leaves are out - while the gutter underneath is packed with straw that went through the mesh and cannot get out again.
Under heavy pine the aperture has to be fine enough that straw sits on top rather than threading through, which in practice means a micro-mesh product rather than a screen, a louvre or a foam insert. Those are more expensive. That is the honest trade: the cheap guard is not a cheaper version of the same thing, it is a product for a different tree.
Foam inserts in particular we will not fit in this climate. They hold moisture against the inside of the trough in a place that gets 56 inches of rain a year, and pine straw roots into them. We have removed more of those than we could count.
They do not end maintenance. Under pine, expect to rinse the top surface once or twice a year - fine straw and pollen build a film on any mesh, and Dothan's spring pollen load is substantial. What guards genuinely deliver is the end of the two-storey ladder job and a system that stays clear between visits rather than plugging in October.
Pricing runs $6-$10 per linear foot on a single-storey standard run, $8-$13 two-storey, and $12-$18 and up on steep or awkward access. We measure your actual run and give a firm total before anything is ordered.
Only the right ones. Screens and louvres stop leaves and pass straw straight through, which leaves you with a packed gutter you can no longer reach. Micro-mesh works. It costs more, and under pine it is the only version worth fitting.
No, and anyone saying otherwise is selling. Expect a rinse of the top surface once or twice a year here, mostly for pollen film and fine straw. The ladder work and the annual clear-out is what goes away.
Between $6 and $18 per linear foot depending on the guard and your gutter profile. We measure the run and quote a firm total, not a per-foot estimate that moves on the day.
Tell us a bit about your home and we'll follow up with a straightforward price - usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call (334) 845-8127.
Tell us what is overhanging the roof - pine, oak or nothing much. That decides the product before anything else does.
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