I have cleaned out the GF's garage gutter twice in a month. Each time it was filled with white pine needles, no leaves. Has anyone found a reasonable priced gutter top that works with pine needles?
I feel your pain, I have a maple tree that fills my gutters multiple times in the fall. Do any of your neighbors have a solution that is working? Or find out what they tried and it did not work.
My problem is the dead flowers from the oak and hickory trees. They come about 2 weeks behind each other and will clog up the entrance to the down spouts.
Yep, this is what my parents used on their cottage with 6 mature pine trees surrounding it. You need the mesh to keep the small needles out of the gutters, although the ones we installed has the mesh on top. Maybe these are installed upside down?
Then just blast them with the leaf blower once in a while to clear the accumulation.
If you want to try these, I'd go with the ones with the screening in them like Warstud's.
I made the mistake of using the "Frost King" version that are basically just like these without the screen. Smaller whirlybirds and whatnot fall right through and plug the downspouts anyway.
I recently had to get out my 24' extension ladder in the pouring rain to pull the end 'gutter guards' so I could unplug the downspout ends. Good times and a waste of resources for me.
Id imagine that some junk can still get caught up in these things, and when it does, then its next to impossible to get into the gutters to clean, no?
I installed some of the ones with screens where the silver maples drop whirlybirds, they work well for that, but even still, they get caught in other places and Id imagine that when they decompose, they leave some organic behind that can ultimately clog gutters anyway.
Pine needles would be tough to keep out, except with a very fine screen. Rain Handler might be one option. However, some people really need gutters due to poor drainage issues.
OK, it would seem the easiest and best gutter guards for pine needs especially (and leaves also) are Leafsout. They have a fine SS mesh rather than holes drilled in aluminum. I think the mesh is 1200 holes per square inch. Too fine to a pine needle to get stuck in. They are on Amazon and for under $4 you can get a 6" (long) sample which I did to see if it fits.