Winter Leaf Guard Damaged by Ice

 We've had a unusually brutal winter in the Mid Atlantic states.

A customer called to tell us that her gutter had been pulled off her home along with the gutter guards from her slate roof. Another homeowner a few miles further north call with a similar problem.

If gutters aren't as secure as they should be, extreme snow or ice loads can pull gutters away from the facia even to a point where they fall off of the house.

Considering that many homeowners in the same area lost parts of their roofs and gutters to fallen trees, our service calls were pretty light.

One customer called to complain of icicles hanging from her gutters--easy solution--install heat tapes. They sell them in Home Depot and Lowe's. Ice and icicles can a problem for all homeowners--not just because they have gutter guards.

Because most gutter covers like Waterloov keep the ice from forming inside of your gutters, the ice that can form on the outside of the gutter and cover is a good indicator that your house has been loosing heat through the roof for years costing you money and wasting precious fuel.

It's well known that if the temperature is below freezing the snow that melts on the roof will refreeze when it reaches the eaves and can form ice dams or icicles. The solution is easy in theory but difficult in execution--keep the roof package cold by eliminating sources of heat and maintaining sufficient ventilation.

Sometimes gutter covers can be oversold with promises of miraculous results. Customer dissatisfaction tends to occur when customers weren't told upfront by the salesman how gutter covers work in the winter. Unrealistic expectations can cause bad feelings and unhappiness.