Waterloov

August 2013 Waterloov Gutter Guards Press Release

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:53:00 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Waterloov® Gutter Guard Co. Provides Homeowners Important Information Regarding Gutters and Gutter Guards With the Release of 2013 Buyers Guide for Gutter Guards OAKHURST, NJ, Aug 1, 2013 With heavy rain falls though out most of the country the importance of getting water away from foundations of homes is of foremost concern. Two main factors contribute to foundations being deluged with water: 1, Poor landscaping resulting in rain water draining to the foundation. 2. Poorly operating gutters caused generally by clogging from leaf and tree debris. To correct the first is to employ a professional landscaper. To correct the second is to have the gutters cleaned and protected with gutter guards to keep gutters and leaders free flowing. With over one hundred different gutter covers and gutter guards from which to choose, many homeowners are overwhelmed Waterloov® Gutter Protection, the nation's leading gutter protection company, has released the 2013 Buyers Guide for Gutter Guards to provide homeowners the important questions to ask any contractor who may install gutter protection on their homes. With release of The 2013 Buyers Guide for Gutter Guards, Waterloov® Gutter Cover Company has provided homeowners with a guide that contains vital question every homeowner should ask of any potential contractor. Homeowners will now have a resource to aid in understanding how to choose the most effective gutter guard system. There are four basic designs from which to choose when selecting a gutter guard system. Most work well in light debris conditions, but are not a good fit for heavy debris conditions. “With over a hundred different gutter guards from which to choose, it can be very overwhelming to choose the right to get the job done. The good news is that 98% of them fit into four basic design types,” states Richard Kuhns, President of R.K. Industries, manufacturer of the Waterloov Gutter Guard. “We compiled a list of questions every homeowner should ask of any company representing gutter protection.” The 2013 Buyers Guide for Gutter Guard provides the eight most important questions to ask, which are: • Everyone says you get a Life-Time Warranty, but what does that actually mean? • Are there any hidden fees later down the road? • Will this system work in all kind of conditions? • Will this system fit any kind of roof? • Will this system actually collect my valley water or will it fall onto my head as I go in my home? • Is my roof warranty void once you put your system on my roof? • Does your product guarantee that I will never have to climb a ladder again? • If for any reason the gutter cover itself gets clogged, will you come out to clean it and how much do you charge? • What maintenance should I expect with gutter guards and who does it? The 2013 Buyers Guide for Gutter Guards can be easily downloaded by going to the Waterloov.com website. To discover the differences between the four basic designs a detailed analysis of each is at www.leafguards.com About Waterloov Gutter Cover Co, Div of R. K. Industries Inc. The Waterloov Gutter Guard system is one of the top rated gutter guards by a Consumer Reports. The Waterloov Gutter Protection system is one of two systems available with two rows of louvers in the front vertical surface. The size and amount if debris that can get into the gutter is limited to the size of the openings. Whereas most gutter guards have openings in the horizontal surface that actually attracts debris, the openings in the Waterloov design are in the vertical surface so gravity works for you instead of against you. Twenty four years of service has demonstrated that gutters protected by the double row louvered system never clog inside and any maintenance that may be required in heavy heavy debris conditions is done by the homeowner with a telescopic pole and brush—never a need to call for servicing. Hundreds of thousands of homes have been installed through out the country with Waterloov. For more information about Waterloov Gutter Guards visit the website or call (800) 841-RAIN (7246). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact: Michael Nicolosi Waterloov® Gutter Cover Co. div of R. K. Industries Oakhurst, NJ 07755 USA 732-531-1123 michael@Waterloov.com http://www.waterloov.com

What to do before and after getting a new roof on your home!

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 17:59:00 +0000

Getting A New Roof Can Cost Thousands in Gutter Guard Damage!

Can Your Roofer Destroy Your Gutter Guards and Cost You Thousands of Dollars

Like they say oil and water don't mix, often times roofers and gutter guards don't mix either. In fact, roofers can do thousands of dollars of damage to gutter guard systems.

Many gutter guard systems such as the Waterloov Gutter Cover system can cost several thousand dollars to protect gutters from clogging with tree debris.

Often when the homeowner asks the roofing contractor about what to do about the gutter protection system on their home, the roofer will say, “Don't worry about it, we'll take care of it—we know what to do.”

What they are really saying is, “If you don't call your gutter guard contractor, you're taking a crap shoot with us because we don't know diddles about how to replace the system so it will work properly.”

What kind of mistakes can roofers make? The better question is, “What mistake will they make?

“With over twenty years of experience, I've seen all types of mistakes, says Richard Kuhns, President of R.K. Industries manufacturer of the Waterloov Gutter Guard.

Some mistakes are made because roofing is laborious heavy work. A pack of shingles weighs nearly seventy pounds per bundle. Sometimes, the shingles are lifted onto the roof with a spider (special fork lift). Sometimes a conveyor belt is used to get them onto the roof and the sometimes they have to be carried up a ladder which is leaned against the gutter.

When they are carried up by hand, gutters and gutter guards suffer. The gutters get dented and the gutter guards can easily get squashed.

If the roofer is not removing an old roof and simply going over the first roof, a mistake often made is that the roofer nails the under course of the roof through the shingle, gutter guard and into the roof. Of course if no damage or crushing of the gutter guards occur, there's no problem, but if the gutter guards are crushed or the gutters damaged, the gutter protectors won't work—tree debris will enter through the flattened louvers and clog the gutter. Additionally crushed gutters covers are rather ugly with a new roof.

Result: Depending on how the gutter covers were nailed into the roofing, the gutter guards have to be sheared in order to remove them. In this case, the gutter guards are totally destroyed and complete replacement is necessary at a cost of over $20 per foot. Often times the roofer has already been paid and getting reimbursement for the destroyed gutter covers is a challenge.

Sometimes, using a pry bar, the nails can be removed from the shingle and gutter guard in order to remove it and fix it or replace it. While not cheap, it's a better alternative to replacing the entire gutter guard.

Typically roofers will install the under course of the new roof at the same position the roof being covered is. However, in a rare case the roofer installed the under course of the new roof at the top edge of the gutter guard leaving the old roof and gutter guard to protect the first ten inches of roofing above the gutter.

Result: Water got under the gutter guards and old shingles and rotted out the entire fascia board. The rotted fascia boards had to be removed—very laborious since the rotted wood had no integrity making its removal very time consuming. A full width of gutter coil has to be installed beneath the new roof as flashing as an option to feathering in roofing shingles. The homeowner had a major expense to replace fascia, install flashing, new gutters and new gutter guards simply because of an ignorant roofing contractor.

In many cases, the old roofing has to be removed in order to install a new roof. In this case, roofers often remove the gutter guards. Sometimes they don't have the right tools and simply rip them out—not easy to do and it totally destroys the gutter guards.

Often times a lot of roofing debris gets into the gutter and instead of cleaning out the roofing debris, the roofer re installs the gutter guards. Again, sometimes the nail the gutter guards to the roof making it very laborious to remove them and clean the gutters of roofing debris. If the homeowner is lucky, the gutter covers are not nailed into the roofing and removing the debris left in the gutter is fast and simple with a small trip charge and a half hour or so of labor.

Another mistake roofers make when reinstalling the gutter guards is that they don't install the end-caps correctly.

Result: the following spring gutters are overflowing because birds have gotten through the end-cap and built a nest. Again, if the gutter protection system is nailed into the roofing, it can be very laborious and expensive to have the bird nests removed. Other wise, it's a small trip charge plus a half hour or so of labor.

Another mistake roofers make is that when they reinstall the gutter guards, they overlap them too much and end up short a few feet. One roofer, rather than purchasing more gutter guards, wanted to finish the job and get paid right away so what he did was to bend a piece of aluminum to look like the gutter guard. And where there were supposed to be louvers to collect the water, he took a permanent black magic marker and drew in louvers. The homeowner had no idea as to why water was not being collected in that section of gutter.

Another mistake roofers make is the same mistake that Consumers Report made when they first tested the Waterloov gutter guard and that is they install the front lip of the gutter guard on top of the lip of the gutter instead of under the front lip of the gutter. This causes massive overflow of water.

Again, if the gutter guards are nailed into the roofing, it's laborious and expensive to fix. Otherwise, it's a trip charge and up to about 5 hours of labor to remove and reinstall the gutter guards.

Another mistake roofers make is that when they reinstall the gutter guards, if the home has valleys, they don't reinstall the water diverters or install them incorrectly. Usually this isn't a big problem and at most it's a small trip charge plus a half hour of labor to install diverters.

Yes, just as oil and water don't mix, roofers and gutter guards rarely mix. The best advice for the homeowner is to call the gutter guard contractor to remove and reinstall the gutter guards.

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E. Engineer and inventor of good gutter guards at http://www.niagaraguttercover.com better gutter guards at http://www.carefreegutters.com/ and the best gutter guards at http://www.waterloov.com and http://www.NumberOneGutterProtector.com

The Truth About Gutter Protectors and Leaf Guards

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:31:00 +0000

All leaf guards and gutter guards are not created equal. A gutter cover or gutter protector has to do three basic tasks:
1. Catch all the water.
2. Keep leaves and debris out of the gutter.
3. Be able to be maintained easily by the homeowner.

In mild-to-heavy debris conditions all gutter covers except one fail to do all three tasks effectively.

The principal of surface adhesion is what makes all gutter solid top gutter protectors work. There all have a solid top and a curved front surface that leads the water downward and into the gutter.

Before investing in gutter guards it makes sense to do some research. After all a product that really does its job can cost thousands of dollars. However when it comes to gutter guards, more money doesn't necessarily mean a better performing product. Remember that salesmen are good at telling you what they think you want to hear.

Yet choosing the wrong product can be a night mare; you could end up with birds and animals living in your gutters and if they clog, you’ll have no way of getting into your gutters to clean them; or worse yet your roof could start leaking. And worse yet overflowing gutters could leak into your basement providing a fertile environment for toxic mold.

Basically there are six different types of gutter protection devices:
1. Screens-the basic ones are flat and made of plastic, metal or wire with square openings, round holes, and louvered openings. More sophisticated screens have steps, rounded tops, or troughs. Debris lays on the top of the screen, dries, and is then pummeled by rain through the openings to clog the gutter inside; or the debris clogs the screening device keeping water from getting into the gutter. Basically they work if the homeowner is willing to go up the ladder to clean them and replace the ones blown out by storms or hijacked by squirrels.

2. Membranes, filters, and brushes installed in or on existing gutters. One of them has a solid top with a filter strip in it. It requires replacement every few years (sometimes the squirrels help with the job). Others are basically brushes or meshes installed in the gutter. Essentially they clog like screens. One manufacturer advertises that the benefit is that the brush can be removed and cleaned. Can you imagine removing a brush full of mucky debris and shaking it out? You'll need to wear a rain coat and then power wash your home.

3. Flat solid top with rounded front nose--fin type. It's one longitudinal fin along the entire length of the gutter-more about them later.

4. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a trough--fin type with trough.

5. Rain dispersal and flipping type of gutters. Leaves lay on top of the rain dispersal system and it also fails to disperse slow rain fall. The flipping gutter seems a good idea until you realize that gutter may be full of putrid debris and water being flipped on top of you and that the gutters warp rendering the locking mechanism ineffective and what about downspouts—they still clog?

6. Flat solid top with rounded front nose and a double row louvered front vertical surface such as the Waterloov Gutter Protection System.

Which gutter covers may not collect all the water—the first task? Answer: Those that have a series of bends on the nose of the gutter guard or have a very tight radius. The larger the radius and the smoother the radius, the more water that the gutter cover will collect, otherwise the water just flies off onto the ground in heavy rainfall conditions.

More importantly, if your roof has a valley there is little likely hood that rain water can be collected unless you use gutter screens (the first type) or the sixth type of gutter guard--more later.

The next job a gutter cover has to do is keep the gutters clean. Most any leaf guard will keep gutters clean in a light debris environment. However, in mild-to-heavy debris conditions—especially in the spring time--debris will adhere to the rounded front surface of the third type (fin) and fourth type (fin with trough) of gutter guards and go into the gutter and or the trough.

The last concern is about the ease of maintenance of the gutter leaf guard. Truth is that most manufacturers will either tell you out right that no maintenance will ever be required or they will infer that none will be required. But think about this a moment. If you need to clean your gutters several times during the fall, would you honestly believe that you'll never have to do anything to maintain your gutter guards? Asking a homeowner to believe that there is no maintenance required is like asking him to believe in Santa Claus.

The reality is that all six types of gutter protectors will clog in mild-to-heavy debris conditions. The important question is, "Where"?

The third and fourth types of products require the gutter to be cleaned inside. Another downfall of one of them is that it’s held in place with clips that work loose causing the cover to collapse into the gutter. Because patents have expired, you'll also notice that many of third type are very similar in design and appearance. One of them actually has sieve type openings on the top of it. But isn’t that a screen and won’t it clog just like screens? Of course it will.

To maintain all the system so far mentioned means that someone has to climb a ladder and clean the gutter and or the gutter cover. Also some fin types are nailed into the roofing which means that nails need to be removed from the roofing to remove the product which could contribute to roofing leaks.

All products thus far mentioned have to be maintained by having someone climb a ladder and clean the gutter or the openings in the gutter cover. With some of the fin type products, nails need to be removed from the roofing to remove the product which could contribute to roofing leaks.

Yet there is one gutter protector that does live up to all its promises--the Waterloov^® Gutter Protection System, manufactured by R. K. Industries of Neptune NJ., which uses two rows of interspersed louvers in the front vertical surface to collect rain water and limit the size of the debris that can enter the gutter. R. K. Industries also is the only company that manufactures the patented ValleyFall™ product for collecting water in valley configurations.

Fortunately the Waterloov^® Gutter Protector (with a twenty year track record since 1989) in heavy debris conditions has been found that gutters never clog inside; and when the front vertical louvers clog, the debris can be easily brushed away with a telescopic pole and brush by the home owner. They call this "Suit and Tie" maintenance because the homeowner can literally wear a suit and tie while doing it as it's not a dirty job. In fact 85% of homeowners never need to perform any maintenance and of the other 15% many only need to brush their systems every year or two.

Local Service Call

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:36:00 +0000

We were called for a service call in Atlantic Highlands NJ. The customer told us the covers were raised and the gutter was overflowing. We would expect that if the Waterloov Gutter Guards are disturbed, debris would get in in sufficient quantity to clog the gutter.

The few times this has happened, it's the back edge of the Waterloov Gutter Guard lifting up from the shingle, but this is not what we found. Instead we found two gutter guards (six feet) of the front lower lip of the gutter guard raised above the front gutter lip. And when we lifted them another inch to peek inside we saw evidence of a bird's nest.

Yes, just the inch or so that the gutter guards were raised up above the gutter lip was enough space for the bird to enter. Fortunately there were no eggs or baby birds and five minutes later, the nest was removed and the Waterloov Gutter covers reinstalled.

A thousand dollar cup of coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:52:00 +0000

A thousand dollar cup of coffee

While driving the box truck, two of my guys decided to stop in at McDonalds for their coffee special. The driver of the box truck made a drive-way mistake and turned into Hertz Rental Car instead. Being a bit anxious about turning around in a tight space with a big truck he forgot how high the truck is and backed into the corner of the Hertz building.

He damaged the corner of the gutter, fascia, aluminum wrap and even part of the rafter. Close inspection of the corner showed that it was a regular target for large trucks as the gutter had a two foot piece that was replaced sometime before and a section of the aluminum wrap was white instead of the dark gray that every thing else was.

Of course the manager of Hertz was concerned when he was notified of the damage. He was thinking it would be a big problem to file insurance claims and then get a company to do the repairs. Fortunately for him and us, we do this kind of work routinely.

Any one else would have done a piece meal repair as had been done before. Technically all that was necessary was to replace 5 feet of gutter which could have been any color sprayed with dark gray paint, replace 3 feet of aluminum wrap and reinstall the fascia and he could have been on our way.

But no, Jeff, manager of our Mark of Perfection Co, decided to send a helper for a half hour ride to the warehouse and get not ten feet but sixty feet of the right color of coil. Jeff ripped off the entire 60 feet of gutter—not just six feet and replace it with seamless gutter. Not only that, he removed a section of the fascia board and repaired the rafter beneath it all. He did a class A job using 12 man hours where a 4 hour job was necessary and the our company didn't get a dime and most likely the manager will never remember who we are, but Jeff will remember that the job was done right.

Jeff is that kind of guy, for instance, where others would reuse stainless steel screws on a job that never ever wear out, he will not—his reponse is that, “the customer paid for 'new' materials.”

So you can imagine what kind of installation a customer gets when he installs our Waterloov® Gutter Guards. He always goes the extra mile to make it right which is why our customers of Waterloov® Gutter Covers are satisfied customers.

So how much did that cup of coffee really cost? When we add up all the work, materials, and labor it was nearly a thousand dollars of work—the thousand dollar cup of coffee.

Waterloov service call

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:35:00 +0000

We arrived at our customer's home in Fair Haven NJ to do a routine servicing of the Waterloov gutter guard. The advantage Waterloov has over all other systems is that it can be serviced from the ground.

While some manufacturers of gutter guards would have you believe that no servicing is ever necessary, the truth is that in heavy debris conditions all gutter guards require servicing. The benefit with the Waterloov Gutter Guard, is that it's easy to see where servicing is required. With this customer the entire 40' run of second story gutters requires brushing once a year to keep them functioning.

While we were there we noticed that the last foot or so of gutter and Waterloov Gutter Guards had been somewhat smashed by hurricane Sandy. The last two feet of the Waterloov gutter guards directly over the downspout were not collecting water.

It took us fifteen minutes to put up a ladder and take a closer look. It also gave us a perfect opportunity to look inside and see how the gutters were doing after fifteen years of service. Photo attached showing nothing inside the gutter but a dead spider. That itsy bitsy spider didn't make it down the spout.

Five minutes of working on the gutter and resealing the end-cap that had been knocked loose had it once again ready for the next rain. Technically, the homeowner would qualify for a new gutter from her homeowner's insurance. Problem is that her deductible is higher than what the cost of replacement would be. So since this gutter is high and basically out of sight (no esthetic concerns) the repair will do fine.

Another two minutes of reforming the bent Waterloov gutter covers to make them functioning were all that was necessary. Two minutes later and they were installed on the repaired gutter for a total cost to the homeowner of just $20.

Again, if this damage were on a lower more visible gutter, replacement of the gutter as well as the damaged two feet of Waterloov panels would have made sense. However, in this case, the only concern was to have the system function and keep the gutters clean inside.

With a system like Leaf Guard, this would not have been an option--the entire gutter would have had to have been replace at a cost of about $500. That would have been out of pocket for the homeowner as the deductible is $500.

Askthe Engineer about copper and aluminum reactivity

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 13:51:00 +0000

Question: I have copper gutters on my home. They were installed by the previous homeowner. I'd like to get gutter covers installed but don't want the extra expense of copper. Being two dissimilar metals, how do you insulate the aluminum gutter guards from my copper gutters.

Answer: In spite of the very low chemical reactivity of copper and aluminum we did initially (21 years ago) insulate the aluminum gutter guards (then it was unpainted) from copper.

A couple years later when we inspected these jobs we found that the insulation we chose had deteriorated. Nevertheless, just as the reactivity tables suggest, there was no visible signs of interaction between the copper and aluminum. There was however major reactivity between the plated steel screws and copper.

We switched to a 410 grade magnetic stainless screw and stopped insulating between the copper and aluminum. Now, nearly twenty years later, we have not observed any reactivity between the aluminum (we now use painted aluminum) and copper. The stainless screws are also nonreactive.

Mr Marker

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:09:00 +0000

It's been a quite spring. With over two thousand Waterloov^® installations locally, we've only had two service calls. I feel like the Maytag Repair man. I wonder if this is really a dream or if our customers have lost our phone number.

But then a week ago, a lady whom we installed in 1999 called to inform us that she was having water overflow from her gutters covered with Waterloov^®. It was the first time we heard from her in all that time. When customers call with this issue, we've learned to ask a couple basic questions: The first question being--"Have you had a new roof installed recently?"

Sure enough she had a new roof installed just a couple years ago which is a big red flag. The biggest threat to the Waterloov system working is a bad roofer.

Here is a list of some of things careless or just plain bad roofers have done to Waterloov^®.

1. Remove the product and reinstall it incorrectly. They reinstall the panels with the lip of the panel on top of the gutter lip causing over shoot.

2. Get shingle scraps, roof grit and other construction debris inside the gutters.

3. They beat them up and dent the panels and then nail them into the roof making it impossible to remove them and install them correctly.

4. They step on the panels and flatten them or drag the shingle bundles of them and scrape off the paint.

5. They don't overlap the panels and leave space between the panels or they overlap them too much and don't have enough to cover all the gutters.

( I remember one roofer who did #5. He ended up being about six feet short and rather than contact us, he took a piece of metal and bent it to match the contour of the Waterloov panel and where there are supposed to be louvers in the front vertical surface, he used a black permanent magic marker to draw louvers. He installed this fake cover on an upper gutter where customer could not see the difference between real louvers and fake louvers. Of course the rain water overshot the gutters and the homeowner called us to fix it.)

Fortunately for this customer, the roofing contractor was a fairly good one and did not make any of the above mistakes he just didn’t clean the gutter adequately before reinstalling the Waterloov panels.

Her problem turned out to involve a direct pipe. Above her garage, she had an upper long gutter with a leader dropping down and into the top of a Waterloov panel on the first level above her garage. We call that a "direct pipe." And right there at that point the water was coming over the gutter.

There was no debris collecting on the louvers and looking at it from the ground, we could see no reason for the overflow. To investigate we removed the Waterloov gutter guard right at the point the leader dumped into it and what we saw inside was a build up--a dam--of heavy shingle grit that had washed down from the upper gutter and deposited inside the gutter at the outlet tube which was slightly raised creating a dam.

While grit that normally washes through the louvers is easily flushed through the system, this was just too much grit. Not to worry though, with a few hand scoops the grit was removed and the panel reinstalled to finish the service call. The good news is that the service call was a minor charge as opposed to what might have happened if the roofer had committed some of the thing I listed above.

With a new fifty year roof installed, I doubt that we'll ever hear from this homeowner again unless a falling tree limb does some damage.

Waterloov Gutter Protection

Landscaper Causes Gutter Overflow

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:46:00 +0000

My last entry ended with a customer who complained that all her gutters were clogged and she needed us to clean out the gutters. She also had a new bay window installed and it was leaking. She thought the gutters had something to do with it. When we arrived there, we found that she just had new landscaping and the landscaper closed off all her underground drainage outlets so the downspouts were backing up and overflowing the gutters. At the customers request we removed a gutter cover near a downspout and found the gutters to be completely open and very clean. The customers Waterloov gutter guards didn't fail her, the landscaper did because he left her with gutters that were not functional. Her problem was fixed by cutting the downspouts. and installing elbows at the bottom to drain the water away from the house. The source of the leak in the bay window was easily found to be caused by the roofing having separated from the rake board where two roofs join. Rain water was being blown in against the rake board where it entered through the roof and into the bay window below.

A section of flashing was installed to redirect any water being blown against the rake board back onto the roofing. Caulking was also used to facilitate a seal at the juncture where there was too little distance to install flashing.

Our Gutters Are Clogged And I Have Gutter Guards.

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:51:00 +0000

From Eavestrough

Service Call: A customer called and stated, "Our gutters are clogged."
"How do you know?" "No water is coming out of two downspouts."

We arrived and the homeowner identified the two gutters that were clogged and one where water was coming over the gutter.

Even though there were trees close by, none could be a possible threat to the Waterloov System and once up the ladder a quick visual inspection confirmed that initial assessment. The quick visual inspection showed that the customer had a new roof--only a few years old--and gutter covers that were manufactured approximately twenty years ago mixed in with gutter covers manufactured fifteen years ago--something no experienced installer would do.

The gutter covers were also not attached correctly to the gutter. It was obvious that the roofing contractor not familiar with the Waterloov System removed the gutter covers to install the new roof and then reinstalled the Waterloov covers but not quite right.

Fortunately the Waterloov Gutter Covers were not nailed into the roof--as some roofers do--and could be easily removed from the gutter. Inside there was an accumulation of debris about two inches deep along about six feet leading to the downspout. Under all the debris at the downspout were pieces of rotted wood covering the opening in the downspout. The wood was from part of the old rotted roof that was replaced.

The other clogged gutter was likewise clogged with remnants of tar paper at the downspout from the reroof job. The place where the gutter overflowed was from an upper gutter discharging on the roof and overwhelming a section of the Waterloov gutter guard. When the roofing contractor reinstalled the Waterloov system, he neglected to install a diverter system to spread out the water.

Once again, the blemish free track record of Waterloov is untarnished.
"When debris meets it's Waterloov, the war of clogged gutters is Over!"

Tomorrow, we'll be visiting a customer who claims that all of her gutters are clogged and that water is leaking in near a newly installed bay window. She claims that no new roofing has been installed.

Will this home be an exception to the rule and have clogged gutters?

Ever wonder why foam gutter inserts are so inexpensive?

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:01:00 +0000

Did you ever wonder why foam gutter inserts are so inexpensive?

Probably because you can't charge a lot of money for a gutter protection product that doesn't work much better than the cheapest gutter screen.

Foam gutter inserts are suppose to keep the leaves and debris out of your gutter. Consumers are drawn to them because of the perceived low cost and they convince themselves that foam inserts will work as well as the more expensive solid top gutters.

Well that's a physical impossibility.

Foam inserts are porous allowing the water to flow through but not the debris which is fine as long as you don't mind getting the ladder out and cleaning the debris off of the top of the foam. How easy do you think that will be especially if you have to deal with pine needles.

Solid type gutter guards will never have to be cleaned as often as foam, brush, screen or mesh products. Although they may cost more the solid gutter covers real value is that they perform a whole lot better. The best of the solid gutter covers may never have to be cleaned.

Failing to keep up with cleaning the foam can be embarrassing.

After spending the money for having foam inserts installed or after purchasing the foam and installing it yourself, you don't want your house to look like it has no gutter protection at all.

Cisterns Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:24:00 +0000

A homeowner called from Alaska to order an additional 100 feet of Waterloov for his home.About 10 years ago he had a contractor install Waterloov gutter guards his home. He had recently added an addition to his home and he wanted to extend the gutter protection to the new section of his home.

He said that on the island where he lives, rain water is collected from the gutters and stored in cisterns. His neighbors but not him typically have to clean a foot of muck from their cisterns and are amazed at how clean and pristine his cistern is.

He said that if he wanted to go into business, Waterloov would be an easy business for him as all his neighbors would be excellent prospects.

Storm Damaged the Gutter Guards.

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:20:00 +0000

A homeowner calls and reports, "A tree fell on my roof and destroyed the gutters. The roofing company hired a gutter company to replace the gutter and the Waterloov system, but did it wrong, we need you to fix the problem."

When the gutter guy was here, the homeowner told him how to install the gutter covers but he was a "know-it-all" and did it his way. He didn't give the homeowner valley-fall which they had before, but instead used useless diverters and even though there was a gutter cover installed correctly on one length of gutter, he chose to reinstall them his way which was the wrong way so the lip of the gutter guard is on top of the gutter lip instead of under it."

Sure enough, he installed two runs of the Waterloov Gutter Guard wrong and his valley treatment was nothing more that solid splash block that actually directed water into the valley instead of away from the valley.

Two hours later--it was high and required a 40ft. ladder--the Valley Fall System was installed and the two runs of gutter removed and reinstalled correctly.

Shame on contractors who don't heed basic instructions or at least look at what's already installed and simply repeat it.

I Was Happy With Waterloov on the Back of My House.

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:00:00 +0000

A Waterloov Customer called in recently to ask for a quote to have Waterloov Gutter Covers installed on the front and back of her home. She said that she had it on the back of her home which gave me the impression that she had moved and now wanted it on her new home.

I measured her home and while talking with her I learned that she had had Waterloov on the back of the home that I was measuring. I asked, "What happened to your original Waterloov?"

"I had a new roof installed a couple years ago and the roofer tried to reinstall the Waterloov gutter guard but he messed it up when they took the shovels to rip off the roofing and couldn't reinstall it. So he gave me another gutter cover and it has never really worked."

I looked closely at it and found it to be the WaterFall gutter cover. I told her, "The product he gave you can be very difficult to remove from your gutters. In fact some people when removing it end up destroying the gutter. I'm going to have to charge you $2 per foot to remove it."

This was an insult on top of another insult. The first insult was that she had purchased her first Waterloov in the early 90's for about a third of what it now costs and then she'd have to pay $2 per foot to have her roofer's mistake (installing a product that didn't work) removed.

But there was no question in her mind, she knew what worked (the Waterloov Gutter Covers) and what didn't work and was hoping she could get her roofer to remove his mistake and hopefully save her $2 per foot.

My gutters are overflowing

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:35:00 +0000

The customer's phone call went something like this.
"All my gutter around my home are over flowing with your Waterloov Gutter Covers."

We asked, "Did you have a new roof installed lately?"

She replied "Yes, just a couple months ago. The roofer took off the gutter guards and reinstalled them."

Seems obvious as to what the problem is--roofing debris got into the gutter and wasn't cleaned out before the Waterloov was reinstalled. Cutting corners and not taking the time to do a job right is never a good idea, the roofer and customer blamed the gutter covers when the real culprit was an employee of the roofing company who either didn't care or was too rushed to make sure the gutters were free of debris from the roofing job.

Sure enough, in each gutter a few small pieces of tar paper and shingle had drained to the downspout and clogged them up. It would have only taken twenty minutes to service the entire home except for the fact when the roofer reinstalled the gutter guards, he nailed the rear edge of the panel into the roofing which required extra time to pop the nails in order to remove the panels over the downspouts.

Another service call the same day resulted in finding roofing debris from a roof that was replaced two years ago finally making its way to the downspout.

Once again, the Waterloov Gutter Protection System retains it's impeccable no clog history.

Spaldeens and Gutter Covers

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:12:00 +0000

I ran across a great column in the Albert Lea Tribune by Al Batt that shows how important it is to have gutter covers if you play with Spaldeens.

We were playing a baseball game called 500.
In this game, one batter hits the baseball and everyone else attempts to field it. If a fielder catches a ball on the fly, he is awarded 100 points. If he snags it on one hop, it’s worth 50 points. A ground ball is 25 points, as long as it is still rolling when corralled. If a fielder errs, he receives corresponding negative points. When a fielder accumulates 500 points, he becomes the batter. The game works best if you have plentiful players.
The problem was that there were only two of us. We were a couple of skinny boys, one from the city and one from the farm. He was the son of a doctor. I was the son of a farmer. We were so thin that no one ever suggested we should eat more salads. When I wore a red necktie to church, I looked like a thermometer. Fortunately, the two of us were problem-solvers. We came up with a workable solution.
My friend had a Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball. It was pink in color. He called it a “Spaldeen.” It had more bounciness than the typical rubber ball. We came up with a plan where one of us would toss the ball against the outside of the second floor of our farmhouse and then we would compete to see who could catch the ball. The one who controlled the Spaldeen would be the next to throw it against the siding. We figured a game to 5,000 would be appropriate. That way we could work on our baseball skills and our math skills at the same time.

Al Batt

Few houses were constructed for this type of activity. I don’t know what the builders were thinking. Our house was built to be not quite as nice as the barn because jealous dairy cows don’t give as much milk as haughty ones.
We were tied at 1175 each when it began to rain. We didn’t mind the rain. We weren’t going to rust.
We kept playing and then it happened. The Spaldeen became stuck in the rain gutter. It’s always something. That wasn’t an insurmountable predicament. It had happened before. I had climbed onto the roof many times to retrieve balls. I had the home field advantage, so I didn’t think of asking my friend to get the hidden Spaldeen — even though it was his ball and I could have presented a reasonable argument that it was his duty to do so.
I had experience. I had climbed on the roof before when it was raining. The wooden shingles became very slippery when wet, so it was good that a Spaldeen seeker had some familiarity with placing shoes on slick shingles.
I had fallen off the roof a year earlier on a similar rainy day. I was seeking a ball lodged in an eaves trough that day. I had hit the sidewalk wrong. It’s difficult to hit a sidewalk right. I broke a foot. I heard my father moving about inside the house and, not wanting to bother him with my problems, I’d tried to run, but I couldn’t. A broken foot reduces mobility. I remember when Doc Olds told me that my foot had healed enough that I could climb the stairs to my upstairs bedroom. What a relief that was. I was getting tired of having to clamber up and down the drainpipe.
I was thinking about that fall when I fell again. I did a tuck and roll when I hit the ground. I pretended that I had meant to fall. I jumped up and said, “Ta-da!”
My friend laughed. My father, who had just entered the yard, did not.
My father had been a little crabby. He was worried about the price of soybeans and had taken to biting his fingernails. That is not a good practice for a farmer who works with animal exhaust. In order to cure him of the habit, my mother had hidden his false teeth. That left Dad a wee bit cantankerous.
He checked me over and finding me to be unbroken, began to lecture me.
“How many times do you have to fall off a roof before you learn to stay off it? We just got your broken foot paid for! I know why you didn’t send your friend up there. He wouldn’t have gone. That’s because a doctor’s kid knows better than that. You know why, don’t you? Because a doctor keeps the best children for himself. Didn’t you learn anything from last year’s fall?”
I replied, “I must have learned something, Dad. I got three feet closer to the ball than I did last year.”
Hartland resident Al Batt’s columns appear every Wednesday and Sunday.

Waterloov gutter cover would have kept the Spaldeen out of the gutter and saved Al a trip to the hospital.

Gutters Clogged with Gutter Guards on Them?

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:57:00 +0000

The phone call this week went something like this:

"We've had your Waterloov Gutter system since the mid 1990's and are having a problem. Water is overflowing from the gutters in the front of the house and the back of the house. With all the rain, we've gotten some rain in our basement. Please come and fix the problem."

When asked if there was any visible debris on the louvers of the gutter covers the answer was, "No."
Uh oh, is this the first house to have it's gutters clogged? Both front and rear--that would be a rarity.

When we arrived, the homeowner pointed to downspout on the front lower gutter that had become dislodged from the bottom of the gutter. He asked if it could be repaired and thought the gutters would be due for a flushing since this was our first visit in over ten years when he had tree limb damage.

Just to check things out, the endcap was removed and what was revealed was a thirty foot length of gutter that was completely clear and open. Ten minutes later, the endcap was reinstalled, the gutter discharge elbow fastened to the gutter and one problem was taken care of.

Inspection of the short gutter on the rear of the home likewise resulted in an open clean gutter, but there was one area in the center of the gutter where the louvers on the outside of the gutter cover had become blocked.
Because of a trellis they weren't easily visible. Five minutes later and the end cap replaced and the louvers were cleaned.

For peace of mind, upper gutters were also inspected and found to be totally clear and open. Two minutes of instruction on how to brush his lower rear gutter by the trellis and the service call was complete in less than a total of twenty minutes.

Waterloov's reputation for clog free gutters remains unblemished and our 75 yr old customer now knows he can easily maintain them.

Do Gutters covered by Gutter Covers ever clog?

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Please read this post in it's entirety.

I was speaking with one of our installing dealers just this morning who informed me that he had inspected a home where the gutter was found to be clogged inside. He said, "This is a job we installed three years ago, and this is the first gutter in twelve years that I've found was clogged and overflowing. It was clogged with pine needles. I don't think it was the fault of the Waterloov system--I think it wasn't cleaned properly in the first place. My parents have had the gutter covers on their home for ten years and they live in a pine forest and there's never been a problem."

Now if this fellow had only installed ten homes in twelve years, it wouldn't be much of a testimony. No, not at all. But considering he installs 500 homes a year for the last twelve years, (over 6,000 homes) that's quite a track record.

I replied that his experience is typical and that out of the thousands of jobs I'm personally familiar with, I can count on one hand the number of gutters I've found clogged.

"And to think," he added, "the other so called gutter cover companies have full time crews just cleaning out gutters that get clogged. Waterloov really is the best gutter cover in the world"

Can't get a better testimonial than that, right?

Winter Leaf Guard Damaged by Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:13:00 +0000

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.

Gutter Covers And Steep Roofs

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Will gutter covers work on a Mansard (very steep) roof?

Maybe, many gutter guards are not recommended for very steep or very shallow roof pitches greater than 12 on 12 or lower that 3 on 12.

How about your gutter covers, can they be installed on a mansard roof and how is it done?

Yes, the Waterloov Gutter Guards have been installed successfully for twenty years on Mansard roofs.

The Waterloov leaf guards can be installed on any pitch of roof even almost vertical. The gutter protectors are installed either by bending the back of the waterloov gutter guards to match the near vertical roof and slid in under the roofing shingle or a ledge can be installed against the roofing with the rear edge of the Waterloov leaf guards laid on top of the ledge.

The Waterloov panels can be manipulated in the field or modified during production to fit any roof pitch and just about any gutter location.

Contact the manufacturer for specifics at 1-800-841-RAIN or by e-mail www.waterloov.com

Removing Your Waterloov and Regretting it Later.

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Received a call from a customer in Maryland (my old stomping grounds). He's had Waterloov for several years but been having a problem with a valley and had never called us to fix the problem.

A gutter guard company making their rounds in his neighborhood had convinced him their system would work better. It made sense to him at the time and he had them remove Waterloov from the gutters connected to the valley and install their system.

Guess What?

A year later he called us because he was disappointed with the other guys product which not only didn't fix the valley problem but now his gutter is clogged. He's very sorry that he hadn't called us to find out about our Valley Fall treatment for valleys.

His gutters that are still covered with Waterloov are not clogged, only the gutter with the different product is clogged.

This is the second person within a year that has made the mistake of having his Waterloov removed only to deeply regret it later on.

The Valley Fall valley treatment was designed to control water in roof valleys without compromising the gutter covers ability to keep the gutter free flowing

Icicles and Ice Dams with Gutter Guards

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:19:00 +0000

I received a call from a customer with icicles. She was not very happy and blamed it on the Waterloov gutter covers she's had since 1994.
I don't really know what the big deal is about. I've had icicles on my home even before I installed the Waterloov gutter guard nearly twenty years ago. And I have ice dams too. My home is a ranch and the icicles have at times gone all the way to the ground.
But I understand why I have icicles--I literally have no ventilation in my attic space which is used as a living space.
Click here for the technical explanation.
The only good news is that icicles are not limited to the Waterloov system--they happen with all gutter covers. The best way to deal with them is by installing heat tapes.
For me personally I'd rather knock off a few icicles a couple times a year than clean my gutters three or four times a year. But actually I'm so lazy that I rarely bother knocking off the icicles.
I did notice that because of an ice dam, a short portion of my gutter is being pushed away from the house. It's actually the gutter covers that are keeping the water from flowing in behind my gutters. I had new gutters installed about fifteen years ago, so I guess I really can't complain.
That gutter has handled quite a few ice dams since then.

Ask the Engineer about Keeping Downspouts Clear

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:17:00 +0000

I received the following email today.

"I’ve read your excellent article on each type of rain gutter cover and their pros and cons. Good gutter covers, usually professionally installed, do work well but none are perfect in terms of keeping everything out and/or needing some sort of maintenance from time-to-time.

I have been in the rain gutter business for over 17 years and have come to the following conclusion: As long as the outlet in a rain gutter is clear, water will ALWAYS flow out of that gutter. Conversely, a gutter can be pristine clean but if the outlet is clogged water will NEVER flow out of that gutter. It’s all about the outlet.

I have also concluded that good gutter covers combined with the ability to check and/or clean an outlet quickly, easily and safely creates “the best of both worlds” for the homeowner. You see, if a homeowner has good covers, then the ONLY area in the gutter they need to be concerned with is the outlet.

To that end I have developed, manufactured and presently sell a product that enables users to check and clean their outlets – 1, 2 even 3 story – in less than 1 minute from the safety of the ground. The SpoutOff makes good covers better. Functionally the covers are better because the outlets can actually be checked (looked into) so the user knows FOR SURE that their covers are working.

From a sales point of view, The SpoutOff overcomes the objection (often not stated) of “How do I know FOR SURE the covers are working? An intelligent user understands that if their outlet becomes clogged, damage will occur but they will not know until the damage manifests itself, and then it is too late… all because they cannot “see into” their covered gutters. Bee hives are the best example here… bees get into covered gutters, build a hive, the bees leave, the hive stays and eventually works its way down and clogs the outlet – not good!

Although we approach making gutters work (meaning always moving water away from a building) differently from covers, The SpoutOff does not compete with covers but rather complements covers making the covers better and providing the user with the best “system” for moving water away and knowing their gutters are working.

I truly appreciate your clear and objective view on covers and welcome your thoughts on The SpoutOff… the good, the bad and the ugly – you can’t hurt my feelings as this is how I continue to learn."

*****

Go check out his product. It seems that no matter how much I write about Waterloov or how many videos I take of the product after even 15 years experience, people just don't believe that gutters and downspouts remain totally free and open with Waterloov Gutter Covers installed, but they do remain clean and free flowing.

*****

This was my answer:

"Thank you for your reply. I'm glad that someone is reading the articles. If you knew how truly effective the Waterloov leaf guards are, you'd never waste your time or money patenting anything else. Who in the hell living in a million dollar home wants to have to wonder about his downspouts? See it's all about removing any uncertainty about clogging inside and being truthful about what might happen to the gutter cover itself, i.e. they all clog preventing water from getting into the gutter.

I'm sorry to offend you but your invention is like inventing umbrellas for fleas as far as Waterloov gutter guards are concerned--I'm sure the Gutter Helmets and Gutter Toppers might need it. If you truly want to solve clogged rain gutter problems, you'll use the best gutter cover--Waterloov gutter guards--and never have to wonder about downspouts.

If I had to tell my customers that in addition to the Waterloov gutter covers in heavy debris needing occassional maintenance on the outside that they also should check the downspouts, then I might as well sell them any one of the useless hooded products that claim to never clog inside and never even mention to them that they will need to service the gutter cover itself.

Be energized, healthy, and well,

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E."

Ask the Engineer about Using a Brush System to Keep Gutters Clean

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:31:00 +0000

After over twenty years I'm amazed that there are still people trying to invent a better gutter guards than the Waterloov Gutter Protection System.

The video below shows a new gutter brush product.

Can you imagine what this product will look like after a year of service? After collecting a year's worth of tree debris? Yes, someone will have to go up a ladder (I thought the idea of quality gutter protection was to keep people off ladders), pull out the brush and clean it off. Now can you imagine cleaning off a brush full of putrid yuck?

I don't think this inventions is an intelligent choice for the homeowner wants to eliminate climbing a ladder to clean his/her gutters.

Never Clog Gutter Guarantee

noreply@blogger.com (Waterloov Gutter Guards ) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Don't let the never clog gutter guarantee confuse you. The micro mesh screen gutter covers advertise that they have never had a gutter clog inside. Of course this is every homeowner's dream and is exactly what any homeowner would want from their leaf guards. But what else could clog?

What they fail to mention is that in heavy debris conditions the micro mesh gutter guards will clog and where is the clog? It's on top of the gutter where it can't be seen--only suspected when water streams over the gutter.
Take a look at this YouTube video to see for yourself in a light debris situation.

Has anyone else had any with this type of gutter protection product?