Gutters help prevent property damage by driving water away from your home and its foundation. However, when leaves, nuts, branches, and other pieces of debris wind up in your drainage system, you can’t count on gravity to push them through. Luckily, Alcoa® Leaf Relief™ Gutter Guards can help with that. The following guide explains more about these innovative tools.

What Are Alcoa Leaf Relief Gutter Guards?

Gutter guards work like kitchen strainers—essentially, a flat strip of hard material to catch debris, and small holes to allow water and other liquids through. Alcoa Leaf Relief Gutter Guards differ from other models because of their patented design, which is mounted directly to your gutters without any shingle displacement. Once installed, this guard is virtually invisible to those standing on the ground.

Once the system captures leaves, twigs, and other debris, a breeze can clear the mess away. Six-mile-per-hour gusts can lift away dry items, and winds of 23 mph can clear away wet debris. However, the wind won’t damage your Leaf Relief Gutter Guards—their aluminum construction is designed to withstand winds of up to 110 mph.

What Are the Benefits of Installing Them?

Without a gutter guard in place, pests and wildlife can crawl into your gutters looking for a home, building nests out of twigs and other debris. These structures can clog your drainage system, causing water to pool in the gutters and spill over the sides. This saturates the ground around your home, increasing the risk of foundation damage and basement flooding. It could also flood your landscape, drowning your plants.

During the warmer months, pooling water in your gutters also entices insects like mosquitoes to breed around your home. It may also leave the drainage system vulnerable to mold growth and rusting. You also reap the benefits of free time. Since the wind clears away the debris on its own, you won’t have to waste hours on the weekend cleaning out your gutters.

If you’ve been living without gutter guards, contact Ford & Son Roofing today. This team has been serving property owners in Cincinnati, OH, and the Tri-State area since 1945, and they are proud to remain family-owned and -operated. With a 20- to 30-year labor warranty, you can preserve your investment. To learn more about their roofing services, visit the website, or call (513) 231-1600 to ask for a free estimate.