For gutter guards, foam inserts— do they work? As an architect, my view is that the safest use of foam is for packaging materials or a bed of great quality, but not as a protection for the gutter.

You claim to be a blossom for a moment. You and thousands of your buddies are falling onto a gutter filled with a foam insert. Beautiful blossoms are both you and all your mates, but your time as a blossom is nearing an end. What’s the reason?

It’s because some vicious rain drops have thrown you off or your period has elapsed as a blossom. Point is you’re laying on top of a foam insert now— a kind of cushion. But because you’re so low in weight, you don’t really need a pillow.

What is in store for you now? Will you be blown away? Or are you going to be dislodged and falling to earth somehow? Or perhaps a raccoon, mouse, or pigeon stepped on?

Let’s remember making foam and a very strong bed. What about the wind, though? Will it take you off this luxurious mattress and render you born again with air? Think for a moment, how could that happen? Know you’re sitting on this cozy pillow right on top of the gutter. Every breeze that whips down the roof will just spill the gutter and go into space. The wind blowing into the gutter and roof will knock you back to the gutter’s back.

Wind blowing along the gutter will just push you to the other side of the gutter— maybe some of your friends will be born with rain, but I’m sure you’re trapped in the gutter. And if you’ve been wetted with a few drops of rain, there’s no fluff in you to sail away— you’re just a mess. And you were flattened on the cozy bed after you dried. What’s next for you in store? Answer: you’re going to clean, crack into a lot of small parts and pile on this soft mattress. Many of your buddies will come to your party in time and all of your friends will just shut down all the cracks and gaps in the concrete to keep rainwater from coming into the gutter.

So if you inquire for foam inserts from the engineer— forget about them. Is it possible for the leaves to behave differently in the fall? Don’t think that way. It’ll just be easier to generate more of you.

When you ask the engineer for a solution for blossoms and leaves to get into the gutter, I’m going to recommend a solid top guard sort.

Google “Niagara gutter guards” to find one of these types. Again, if you’re a floral, you’re going to fall on top of the gutter guard you’re a floral, you’re going to drop on top of the gutter cover. If you’re warm, a wind gust will blow you away— no cozy bed for you there. But if you’re wet and soggy, you’ll be laying flat on the guard of the leaf and not being blown away. However, as it passes you on its journey into the gutter, the rain water will gently tug on you. In fact, you will be softly washed along in a few minutes as you hug the leaf guard’s form. Then remember where you’re going to go?

Answer: Some of you go into the gutter with the rain water, and if there’s plenty of you from a real tall tree, you’ll get enough of it into the gutter to clog it. When you ask the expert, if your tree is at least one hundred feet away from the gutter and the prevailing winds are away from the house, the Niagara style gutter guard works fine.

When you google “Care Free vinyl gutter covers,” you’ll see a line of louvers instead of a large fin as the Niagara gutter shield. Immediately, it’s much simpler to get a blossom to the surface. The Niagara style of gutter guard is less apt to wash in the gutter than with the gutter.

But if you question the engineer for the right leaf guard, it’s a gutter guard with two lines of louvers that I’ll recommend to you. Hey, Mr, or Mrs Blossom, do you picture louvers being not one but two rows? Go ahead and “double line louvered gutter security” go to Google and you’ll find a bunch of articles written by me—wow I write a lot. To save you time reading them, Google’s “Waterloov Gutter Guard” or “The Number One Gutter Protector” and voila, you’ll see two examples of dual-row louvered systems.

So Mr. or Mrs. Blossom, what are your chances of getting into and causing mayhem in that gutter?The answer is zero if you ask the engineer. If you’re cold, you’re going to wash on the front louvers in the worst case scenario and cover several of them, so guess what?

Your tree owner— Mr. Homeowner, will see you resting there and help you with a telescopic pole and brush assembly on the ground to knock you free and send you to the ground to be with your buddies.

And ask the engineer who’s the better gutter guard or the best gutter cover to enable leaves and, of course, blossoms to hit their intended destination— the land I’ll bet you it’s the two-row gutter cover. And would you believe that most gutter guards sell for about the same dollars just a few dollars a foot?

Engineer and inventor of Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch. E. For more information on the best gutter guards