Every autumn we are called out to homes across Evesham and the north Cotswolds where the gutters are overflowing, and a good number of those homes already have gutter hedgehogs fitted. More often than not the hedgehog is thick with moss and rotting leaves, and it is the very reason the water has nowhere to go.
Gutter hedgehogs, gutter guards and gutter brushes are all sold on the same promise. Fit them once, the story goes, and your gutters will look after themselves. It is an appealing idea, and we understand entirely why homeowners are drawn to it. The honest answer is that these products do some things well and other things rather poorly. Here is what we see on real roofs, and what we would suggest instead.
What are gutter hedgehogs, guards and brushes?
A gutter hedgehog is a long bristled brush that sits inside the gutter, rather like a giant pipe cleaner. A gutter brush is much the same product under a different name. Gutter guards work the other way round. Rather than filling the gutter, they cover it with a mesh, a grille or a solid hood.
All three are designed to do the same job. They allow rainwater through while holding back leaves, twigs and anything else that lands on the roof.
What they genuinely do well
It would be unfair to dismiss them altogether, so let us give them their due.
- They hold back the larger debris. Whole leaves, twigs and windblown litter are kept out of the channel, which is where the worst blockages usually begin.
- They are simple to fit. A hedgehog needs no special tools. It is pushed into place along the run of the gutter.
- They discourage nesting. Birds, rodents and insects find an open gutter a very comfortable place to settle. A filled or covered gutter is far less inviting.
Where they fall short
The small material still gets through
Pine needles, seeds, roof grit and fine moss are all small enough to pass a hedgehog or slip through a mesh. They settle in the bottom of the gutter exactly as they would have done anyway, and over a season or two they build into a firm silt that holds water rather than carrying it away.
The debris simply moves to the top
This is the failure we are called to most often. Leaves are kept out of the gutter, quite true, but they are not kept off the property. They sit on the bristles or on the mesh, they take in rain, and they rot down into a sludge that caps the whole run. Water then travels along the top of the hedgehog and over the front edge of the gutter instead of down the pipe.
Heavy rain can overwhelm them
A gutter is designed to take a certain volume of water in a certain time. Fill it with bristles or cover it with a screen and you have added something for the water to negotiate. In a sharp downpour, and we see a good many of those, water can run over the lip rather than through the system.
They reduce the cleaning, they do not remove it
This is the point most often missed at the moment of purchase. A gutter with a hedgehog in it still has to be cleared, and clearing it now means lifting the hedgehog out first, cleaning underneath, and putting it back. That is a longer job than clearing an open gutter, not a shorter one.
Fitting them correctly matters more than it appears
Guards and hedgehogs are marketed as a job any homeowner can manage, and in principle they are. In practice a length that is too narrow leaves a gap along one side, and a guard that does not sit properly on the gutter lip creates an opening that funnels debris in rather than keeping it out. A product fitted almost correctly can be worse than no product at all.
Why this matters more than a blocked gutter sounds
A gutter has one purpose, which is to carry water away from the building. When it stops doing that, the water does not disappear. It runs down the wall, it soaks into the render or the stone, and it finds its way to timber and plaster.
Historic England makes the same point in its guidance on rainwater systems. Clearing gutters and gullies regularly is what keeps them working as they were intended to, and when they are blocked the building loses its ability to shed water away from itself, which allows water to get in and damage to follow. Historic England also notes that the right frequency needs reviewing from time to time rather than being set once and forgotten.
There is a second consideration too. Neglected maintenance can affect how a home insurance claim is treated, which we have written about separately in how neglecting your gutters could affect your home insurance.
What we would suggest instead
Our view, formed over a good many years on Cotswold roofs, is that a regular clearance does everything a hedgehog promises and does it properly. There is nothing left in the gutter to rot, nothing sitting on top to cap the run, and nothing to lift out next time.
A residential gutter clearance from Cannins is carried out with no need for ladders, so there is no disturbance to your borders and no risk taken on your behalf. It includes a camera inspection so that you can see the state of your own gutters rather than take our word for it, the removal of all waste from site, and a hot and cold reach and wash clean of the gutter faces, fascias and soffits if you would like the outside brought back to match.
On timing, autumn is when the work matters most, and we have set out the reasoning in why autumn is the ideal time to have your gutters cleared. Homes standing under mature trees are often better served by a look in the spring as well, once the worst of the winter has passed through.
So are they ever worth fitting?
On a property with one or two overhanging trees and easy access, a guard or a hedgehog may buy you a little time between visits. We would not tell you otherwise. What we would say is that it will not remove the need for maintenance, it will not cope with a season of heavy leaf fall, and on the properties we attend it is more often the cause of the overflow than the cure for it.
If your gutters are overflowing, if there are plants growing out of them, or if you have a hedgehog fitted and are no longer sure what is underneath it, we would be delighted to take a look. Request a quote here and we will arrange a convenient time to visit.
Trust in the detail.