Been there myself... first time I tackled gutter guards, thought I'd nailed it until leaves piled up worse than before. Did your roofing guys mention if reversing the elbows was enough, or did they have to swap out parts completely?
"first time I tackled gutter guards, thought I'd nailed it until leaves piled up worse than before."
Ha, sounds familiar. I went through something similar last fall—thought reversing the elbows would do the trick, but nope... ended up swapping out for wider downspouts altogether. Roofing guys said sometimes the original elbows just aren't angled enough to handle heavy leaf buildup. Honestly, upgrading parts was worth the hassle; haven't had a clog since.
Been there myself with the gutter guards...thought I was being smart going for those mesh ones, but turns out they just created a leaf hammock. Roofing guy told me sometimes simpler is better—ended up ditching the fancy guards altogether and just widened the downspouts like you did. Honestly, no regrets. Sometimes these companies push all sorts of pricey extras when basic upgrades do the trick just fine. Live and learn, right?
Had a similar run-in myself a few years ago. Got talked into those fancy gutter helmets—sales guy made it sound like they'd magically repel leaves or something. Well, turns out Mother Nature had other plans...ended up with a mini compost heap right above my porch. Eventually ripped them out, widened the downspouts, and haven't looked back since. Funny how the simplest solutions often beat out all the high-tech gimmicks. Guess we all gotta learn the hard way sometimes, huh?
- Seen plenty of those gutter helmets in action—usually more hype than help.
- Simple mesh guards or wider downspouts usually do the trick just fine.
- Funny how the "latest tech" often just means pricier headaches down the road...
