This home in North York had nothing really wrong with the gutters.
They were OK, but they were installed with spikes. They had been done by the construction company. (New construction installers of gutters are a total different breed.) At True North Eavestroughing, we do not install our gutters with spikes, but use screw brackets.
They wanted to have a leafguard system installed in their gutters. So we cleaned the gutters and installed the Alu-Rex 5300 as you will see in this picture. This product is specifically made for already installed gutters. It is clipped in the front and screwed down and pushed towards the back. It also has a rubber strip along the back that pushes up against the fascia and gutter as you see in the picture. This product is okay if you have existing gutters, but I prefer to install the Alu-Rex 5200 right from the start.
Interestingly, as we’re cleaning the gutters we found traces of the original workers. As you can see in the following picture, this bundle of step flashing was left on the roof! Right on the edge next to the front door! I don’t have to tell you what would’ve happened if these flew off. And the previous workers had left pop cans and other garbage in the gutters. As I said earlier, this was a newly built home, and you can never tell what’s in your gutters.
Take my advice. If you’re going to have new gutters installed on your custom home at least ask for screw brackets or a leaf guard system before you spend the money on something that’s not going to last.
