Raptor Gutter Guard – 48 FT. (Nominal) Contractor Grade Stainless Steel Micro-Mesh Gutter Guard Kit with Screws Included. Fits 5 in. Gutters and Smaller. DIY-Friendly. (5.625 in. x 47.625 in.)

Truly great product in its simplicity and quality.(I'm rating against my own experience of installing "gutter guard" and "foam wedges" on separate houses)I feel the gauze-like stainless steel mesh is finer and superior to the laser-perforated sheets.More importantly, the mesh can be crimped longitudinally, which allowed me to reduce the span of 5" sections down to 4" spans for 20ft of custom gutter.Beware, however, what you take upon yourself with this "project". Which in turn will depend on whether you're a home owner or a contractor. And will depend on whether you have clear level ground below your gutter eaves. If not, due to bushes, shrubs, staked plants, rocks, etc. then be prepared for a tedious project. Moving a ladder continually along the gutter, having to stabalize the footings each time, makes this a slow process. In contrast, up the ladder, installing the spans takes about 5 min each.Step 1. Clear gutters to ensure proper flow in gutters. This might include the distraction of re-attaching gutter braces as you work along.Step 2. Make note of any crew-heads appearing along the length of edge tiles. You may need to back-off these screws to facilitate inserting of Raptor's narrow edge spans.Step 3. When having to cut the spans (hopefully rarely) I resorted to using a metal-cutting disk/tool that was mains connected (RotoZip). I found that battery cutting tools depleted the battery very quickly and, IMHO, dremel tools are slow and average durability.Rule 1. Don't try installing Raptor while using a ladder that leans against the gutter. The ladder plus your weight against the protruding gutter edge will compress the gutter channel making it very difficult to install standard 5" spans.Rule 2. Assuming you will drill screw holes through the span's aluminum edge, whilst fitting the spans in place one by one, avoid screwing down the furtherest end of the span; You will need flexibility at this juncture where you will present the next span's mesh edge for overlapping or underlapping. Only after merging the two spans' edges should you then screw down the end that you skipped.Rule 3. Get a painter's Stand-off bracket to a) stabilize your ladder, and b) to allow the ladder to be propped further from the eaves. A good quality folding ladder would be a great substitute, if you don't mind lugging it around in step-ladder form. Make sure the folding ladder allows for multiple height settings.Good Luck and be prepared for cut fingers (from the sharp mesh) if you don't wear gloves.

deja plusieurs années

The Pros: The Raptor gutter gaurds are easy to install. They do handle torential amounts or rain without any overflow. The instructions provided give all the information necessary for installation.The Cons: As others have mentioned the packaging leaves a little to be desired. The mesh ends get bent and require straightening before using or you will not get the overlap necessary on installation. Some of the Aluminum attach strips get bent in shipping also. Those problems can be resolved with a little extra time and patience. What really was upsetting was if you follow the instructions there were not enough screws in the kit. The instructrions say to attach each section with 3 screws to the fascia and 3 screws to the gutter. There are twelve sections to a box so with six screws per section at the least there should be 72 screws. The kits I received came with 43 screws. Not enough to do 4 screws per section yet alone the 6 as the instruction state. Luckily I ordered an extra kit and was able to complete the installation.Besides that they work great and are worth the money spent. Even if you have to buy extra screws.

I ordered two boxes (96') of the 5" raptor gutter guards to try out before committing to do all of the gutters. They arrived in good condition, came with installation instructions and more than enough screws. Installation was pretty straight forward as far as the steps required, but working aloft and getting the rear edge of the guard under the shingles and at the back of the gutter against the fascia was a little more challenging, but not something that the average DIY'er couldn't do.You don't need a vise and two straight edges to fold the guard as it says in the instructions, just use any straight 5' surface like a table or work bench to fold the fascia facing end over to almost 90°. I used our 4' brick sill around the perimeter of the house, it was perfect no measurement required. See photos.Although they tell you to wear gloves, probably because of liability, I found it more useful to just use bare hands carefully. The gloves would get caught and became cumbersome. The cut mesh is the thing to be most careful of.I would've given the gutter guards 5 stars, but for the cost. I can't believe that the raptor gutter guards, as well as the other recommended brands out there, cost a great deal to make. I guess they can charge alot because in the end the cost of going up and down a ladder twice a year and the risk associated with it, which gets worse as you age, ultimately costs more. I still think the margin is too high.I've included a photo of an installed section and it's already doing the job. I've ordered another 4 boxes to finish the job.Overall I would recommend this product due to its relative ease of installation and lower cost compared to the more expensive options like Waterlock and Leaf Filter.

The quality of these gutter guards is exceptional. I have no doubt that the ones I've installed will last well beyond the time I will move on from this home. I also got really lucky with my purchase and got these at about 25% off with an Amazon "deal of the day." There were a few things that I ran into with my installation which are probably not typical:1) my gutters are steel, not aluminum. Therefore, the self-tapping screws, which are a great idea, were not self-tapping for me. I was forced to pre-drill all of the holes and then drive the included screws. This worked fine. I just needed a dedicated drill on my ladder along with my driver.2) the straps which support my gutters attach very near the top of the rim at the front of the gutters where the frame of the Raptor Guards is also supposed to lay. Because of this I ended up with bumps everywhere there was strap attachment since there was a screw already there attaching the strap. If I had had more time, I could have notched each front frame of the guards to fit around/over these attachments with a hacksaw. I didn't really see any additional benefit other than how they look looking down the line, which cannot be seen from the ground, lol. You can see the bumps in my second attached pic.A recommendation that I would make to the manufacturer would be to fabricate the guards with a built in overlap of mesh only, about 3/8" or so, on every guard. Also trim the front and back frames square. I could see no point in the rear frame being shorter than the front, on every piece. I ended up trimming every piece to be square and with the same mesh overlap on the right-side end. This only took me about 15-20 minutes with a good pair of snips and my hacksaw. After pre-trimming all pieces, and then realizing I needed to pre-drill the holes, installation went very fast. First pic attached provides a nice view down the line.Finally, my biggest concern with any gutter guard at my current home will be how they perform under the incredible onslaught of debris produced by the cottonwood trees all around our house. They not only produce copious cotton in mid summer, but huge pollen stems early summer, and prior to that, some sticky husks which I believe the pollen stems sprout from. So they are a mess. And that's not even thinking about all the leaves they produce. But the leaves are easy. Only time will tell if these guards will not foul with fine (cotton) or sticky debris and be difficult to clean. I plan to keep on top of them with a quick brush off on a regular basis. This is a simple maintenance task compared to the previous job of scooping out fetid mush from the gutters every three or four weeks. And I know I don't have to worry about these guards disintegrating after a couple of years in the sun like the cheap ones I last bought at a popular home improvement warehouse.Bottom line: I have high expectations of these guards. They are made to last, high quality, and with a little work on the installer's part, can be put in place relatively quickly. With my experience to date, I definitely recommend. If I remember to, I will try to update again in a year after a full season of cottonwood debris!