Preparing Gutters for Installing Gutter Guards: 5 Pre-Installation Steps

When you have decided to install the gutter guards on your roof, you should ensure proper installation for optimal performance of the same. Though the guards cannot ensure that you will never have clogged gutters in your life, they will decrease the number of times it needs to be cleaned. Let us discuss the pre-install and installation steps for the gutter guards.

Pre-Install Steps

Preparing Your Gutters

Clean your Gutters- You should clean up the gutters properly and check whether any pine needles, leaves, and other debris are present in the downspouts or not.

Repairs To Be Done By Care- When your downspouts or gutters require any kind of repair, you should go for it.

Determining Pitch/ Roof slope

You should determine the roof slope and the pitch properly. When your roof is moderately pitched, you may install the gutter guards at the same slope. But if you have steep slopes, you will require one of the bending methods for achieving the slope of the installation.

Select Your Installation Method

There can be two installation methods- under the roof and below the roofline installation. When the roofing material has adhered to the underlayment, you should not apply it under the roof installation. Below the roofline installation method works in situations where you cannot directly install under the shingles.

Choose Your Securing Method

The securing methods are also of two types- taping or screwing. For taping, you need to give 12 hours for getting the full bond. For screwing, pre-drilling is not required and 3 self-taping screws are required in each section.

Installation Steps

Start In Corners

When you start to install the gutter guards, you may start with the corners. The Roofing World serving all of Birmingham will guide you with the exact steps for installing the gutter guards. When you do not have corners, you may start with the downspouts or may start the ends of the gutters.

Cut The Sections

For cutting the aluminum rail, you will use a freshly sharpened pair of tin snips. For cutting the mesh, you may also use commercial-grade scissors.

Join The Sections

One end of the mesh is to be held in such a way to the end of the other mesh, it should overlap properly over the other section.

Taping Or Screwing

When you are taping it, you should peel back the protective red layer from the adhesive foam tape and press it firmly for sealing the gutter guards. When you are screwing, you should follow the instructions on the cover pack of the screws. Each section will generally require 3 screws for fastening properly.

Create End Cap

To create an end cap, you may trim off from the back or the front rail. For sealing the place properly, you should push the mesh into the gutter.

Conclusion

All these steps clearly show that proper pre-installing and installing methods are required for the proper functioning of the gutter guards. When you have installed the gutter guards correctly, you would expect that the gutter cleanup schedule will be reduced to a huge number of times.