Finally, effective gutter guards for pine needles!
Pine needles cause major problems for your gutters if you live under or near pine or fir trees.
The long and flexible needles fall in clumps.
The easy way to tell if a tree is pine and not any other type of conifer is by its needles.
If the tree has needles that form in bundles or clumps called fascicles, it is a pine tree. If they have single needles, it is not.
But who cares, right? Any tree that drops pine needles is a pain to have near your home.
And a lot of homes in every part of North America have a pine tree near them making them one of the top problems a gutter guard has to deal with.
Pine needles tend to clog gutters at a rapid pace because the first thing that they do that causes clogs is knit together over the opening that drains water to your downspout.
Even a few falling in these bundles causes the whole gutter to back up and overflow if the amount of water that flows out of your downspout is limited.
Homeowners without pine or fir trees really don’t understand how bad these trees make gutter cleaning and why finding effective gutter guards for pine needles solves so many problems.
Unlike other types of gutter guards with larger openings that let material in to clump in the gutter, MasterShield’s are constructed with a non-stick, 316 surgical grade stainless steel microfilter that features 99.9% pure copper threads woven throughout the filter. It does not allow the tips of pesky needles or other types of debris in. But it also helps deal with issues that pine trees tend to bring, like moss or lichen.
Copper, you see is a natural organic killer and literally bursts the cells of moss, algae and lichen pores. A stainless steel filter can’t do this on it’s own.
Stainless steel filters are actually used in fish tanks to grow organics on them.
According to TheSprucePets.com, “Filter media is an excellent seeding material. The easiest way to use this method is to place an extra filter on an established tank for a few weeks to allow nitrifying bacteria to grow on the filter media.”
While that may be great for your pet fish, it’s not what you want from a filter in a gutter guard.
Anyone saying stainless steel alone will stop moss, lichen and algae from growing on it, hasn’t put their product under a pine tree.
MasterShield will keep out your pine needles along with anything else trees around your home drop on your roof. It will also keep those organics from causing issues with your filter over time. Nothing protects a home like MasterShield!
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First, you’ll want a system design that slopes like your roof so it doesn’t create a surface where pine needles can build up.
Unlike other systems, MasterShield is not installed flat or virtually flat.
It is installed as close as possible to the pitch of the roof to minimize material build up and use wind or any natural airflow to blow the needles off your roof.
If the surface over your gutter is virtually the same as the rest of your roof, your gutter cover acts as if it’s a part of the roof itself.
If you live with the problem of needles, you’re well aware that gutters collect this kind of debris fast as pine needles blow into your gutter by rolling down the roof or flow into it by mixing with rainwater.
As wind or rain slowly pushes the needles down to the roof’s edge, the won’t find a place to build up like they can on other products.
Note the gutter guard won’t shed this debris any faster than the roof itself.
Water has a much better chance of flowing though a system pitched this way because it flows through any layers of pine needle build up that may exist.
Think of a book where water can get between all the pages from it’s side rather than dropping onto the solid surface of its cover.
Water can get through a system like this better than it can get through a system that sits flat and creates that solid surface like the book cover.
Gutter guards without much pitch create a shelf for needles to collect and build on.
Pitching the system also allows wind to take care of most of the maintenance.
It can blow off more material, resulting in less maintenance than other systems require.
Secondly, MasterShield maintains contact with the roof shingles.
Other systems that claim they don’t touch the shingles leave a gap between the shingle and the gutter guard. This causes a couple of issues:
A third feature of MasterShield is its fine mesh filter.
A fine mesh design means that needles can’t get stuck in the mesh.
When a filter that has larger openings is used, it’s common to see needles stuck in the mesh of the gutter guard.
A filter that has larger holes also creates a surface where debris catches on and gets stuck, meaning that it’s less likely to shed.
MasterShield’s filter surface is like Teflon, so it’s easy to brush clean of anything that sits on it
This means wind does the work so that you wind up with a gutter guard that requires occasional maintenance, typically where there’s no wind.
The fourth feature of MasterShield is its touch point structure.
This refers to the technology used to pull water into the gutter cover.
Think of being in a tent in the rain and how dry you can stay with only a piece of cloth over your head.
Then think of what happens when you touch the roof of the tent.
That touch point creates a whole new scenario where you’ve created a way for water to get through the tent and flow down your finger.
A single touch point doesn’t do much, but a lot of them can, especially if your goal is to get all the water hitting your tent to flow into the tent itself.
That’s what we’re trying to do with our gutter guard technology.
Touch points should be continuously placed underneath the filter, particularly if you add an angled pitch to the guard.
If you don’t have enough touch points or stagger them in any way (it changes the forward flow of water), they are just not as efficient at pulling water into the gutter below.
Oh, and if you’re concerned about pine tree sap, as the filter gets enough water on it, the sap will wash away, just like syrup does when you wash it off a dish.
Lastly, pine trees cast lots of shade.
And shady conditions can lead to the growth of moss and lichen which exist in most parts of the country.
Invisible spores from these organisms are everywhere looking for a place with enough moisture to grow.
And isn’t a gutter or the gutter guard that exact place?
The copper threads woven into our gutter guard systems are natural spore killers.
Copper ions are released in water creating a hostile environment for any spore and making sure a MasterShield filter remains free from organic build up for many years.
MasterShield will keep out all of the needles from common North American pines such as:
Not every conifer tree is actually a pine tree.
Other common trees that drop needles that are found around the homes we live in are Cypress, Cedar, Douglas Fir, Hemlock and Spruce trees.
Fir needles are sticky and will follow the guard curve to get into the gutter.
Look under the curve – every place where they have built up, water cannot easily flow into the gutter.
Fir needles often blanket your roof.
Wind will push most of them down towards your gutter, so consider a system that can shed lots of material.
Wet fir needles “glue” themselves to the surface they’re on.
For more information about the best covers for pine needles, or if you’re experiencing issues with Gutter Guards for Oak Trees or Gutter Guards for Maple Trees complete our free gutter guard estimate form and speak with a experienced MasterShield dealer.