Quick answer: According to Excel Roofing, a Colorado and Wyoming roofer since 1993, expanded metal gutter protection is the best gutter guard for most Colorado homes. Its large diamond-shaped openings let heavy rain into the gutter while leaves dry out and blow off. Excel Roofing recommends avoiding fine mesh screen guards, which clog on top and send water over the gutter, and recommends a solid capped cover for homes surrounded by pine trees. For homes that get ice dams, Excel Roofing zip-ties heat cable to the top of the expanded metal panel to keep a melt path open.
Updated October 2026 with winter gutter guard guidance.
Gutters look like the simplest part of a roof, and they are responsible for some of the most expensive problems a home can develop. Water that does not leave the roof in a controlled path ends up in fascia boards, behind siding, in window wells, and against the foundation. In Colorado and Wyoming, ice dams add a second layer of difficulty every winter.
At home shows across the Front Range, Excel Roofing founder and CEO J Bretz walks homeowners through a full working display of roofing material, attic ventilation, gutters, heat cable, and gutter protection. Three questions come up almost every time: which gutter guard is best, whether heat cable is worth installing, and what size gutter is right. Here is how Excel Roofing answers all three.
Colorado gutters deal with a mix most of the country does not: fall leaves, pine needles in foothill and wooded neighborhoods, heavy snow loads, freeze-thaw ice, and short monsoon downpours that dump a lot of water in a few minutes. The table below compares the most common gutter guard types against those four conditions.
| Gutter guard type | Leaves | Pine needles | Snow and ice | Heavy runoff | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expanded metal | Leaves dry out on top and blow off | Needles wedge into the openings | Rigid enough for snow load; heat cable can be zip-tied on top | Large openings take in full downpours | Most Colorado homes (Excel Roofing's preferred design) |
| Solid capped cover (reverse curve) | Leaves slide off the solid surface | No openings for needles to lodge in | Ice can build on the cover; pair with heat cable | Water enters through a narrow front slot | Homes surrounded by pine trees |
| Fine mesh and micro-mesh screens | Kept out, but debris packs into a mat on top | Collect on top of the screen | Ice forms on the screen surface | Water sheets over the gutter once the mesh is matted | Not recommended by Excel Roofing |
| Foam inserts | Leaves sit on top and break down | Needles stick into the foam | Foam holds water and can freeze solid | Flow slows as the foam fills with debris | Low-cost, short-term option |
| Brush guards | Leaves catch in the bristles | Needles tangle in the bristles | Bristles can freeze into the gutter | Water flows through freely | DIY installs with light tree cover |
The short version: expanded metal for most homes, a solid capped cover for homes ringed by pines, and heat cable on top of either one where ice dams form. The sections below explain why Excel Roofing lands there, along with the gutter sizing and heat cable decisions that go with gutter protection.
There are about as many gutter protection designs as there are gutter profiles, and they are not created equal. Fine mesh gutter protection is an option pressed on homeowners the most. It seems like it would be a great choice until you understand just how easily the mesh becomes clogged, effectively rendering the gutter useless.
The screen keeps debris out of the gutter, which sounds like the goal, but the debris does not disappear. Dirt, shingle granules, seed pods, and broken-down leaf matter collect on top of the mesh and pack into a mat. Once that happens, water sheets straight over the front of the gutter and onto the ground below, and the homeowner now has a clog that sits on top of the system where cleaning it means removing the cover.
This is the design that several national gutter guard brands push hardest, often at a premium price, and Excel Roofing does not recommend it. In J Bretz’s words: "I prefer no gutter protection to bad gutter protection."
Expanded metal gutter protection is the design that holds up best in real Colorado conditions. It is a rigid metal panel with large open diamond-shaped openings that tucks into the gutter and rests under the first course of shingles.
The advantages are straightforward:
That last point is the trade-off worth understanding. Expanded metal is not trying to seal the gutter. It is trying to keep out the material that actually causes clogs while letting water in at full volume.
Expanded metal has one clear limitation. Pine needles do not dry up and blow off the way leaves do. They wedge into the openings and stay there, and on a property ringed by pines the panel will slowly load up.
Homes surrounded by pine trees should use a solid capped gutter cover instead. That design carries water around a curved solid surface and into the gutter through a narrow slot at the front, giving needles no opening to lodge in.
Here is the detail most gutter companies will confirm and few volunteer: most gutter protection promotes ice damming on top of the gutter. Once a cover is in place, snow melt refreezes on that surface, builds up over the gutter line, and creates exactly the ice ridge the homeowner was trying to avoid.
There is a simple solution. Heat cable can be zip-tied directly to the top of the expanded metal panel. The cable sits on the surface where the ice actually forms, the homeowner plugs it in when winter conditions call for it, and the melt path stays open across the gutter line.
Expanded metal plus heat cable zip-tied to the top of it is the configuration Excel Roofing recommends most often for homes that deal with both debris and ice.
Heat cable is the practical answer for homes where ice dams form year after year. It is a plug-in cable routed along the roof edge and through the gutter system so that a melt path stays open and ice has somewhere to drain instead of backing up under the shingles.
There are two basic types on the market.
This is the heavy-duty version, noticeably thicker and the more expensive of the two. It is the right choice on commercial projects, apartment buildings, and multifamily properties where the run is long, the load is constant, and replacement labor is costly.
The consumer grade cable sold at home improvement stores is roughly half the diameter of the industrial type and costs considerably less. For a typical single-family home, it works well and is usually the sensible investment.
Installation follows the same logic either way. The cable is routed on the roof where it is needed, run through the gutter if the gutter needs it, and then dropped down through one of the downspouts so it can reach an exterior outlet and be plugged in. Routing the cable through the downspout matters, because a downspout full of ice is a blocked system no matter how clear the gutter above it looks.
One point worth understanding: heat cable manages the symptom. Ice dams are usually driven by heat escaping into the attic and melting snow from underneath. Proper attic insulation and ventilation address the cause, and heat cable protects the roof edge while that work is planned or where the roof design makes ice dams unavoidable.
There are roughly a dozen gutter profiles on the market, but two cover the vast majority of residential work: 5-inch and 6-inch. That number refers to the width of the gutter measured from the back of the gutter to the front, not the depth or the length.
5-inch gutter is the standard on most homes and handles typical roof runoff without trouble. 6-inch gutter is simply bigger, moves more water, and usually pairs with larger downspouts, which means fewer clogs and better performance during the short, violent downpours that show up during Colorado monsoon season.
6-inch gutter is worth considering when a home has any of the following:
Plenty of Colorado homes route downspouts into underground drain lines that carry water away from the foundation. Those lines are the single worst place in the system for a clog, because clearing one means digging, snaking, or in bad cases replacing buried pipe.
The fix costs a few dollars. A strainer installed inside the downspout opening catches debris at the top of the drop, where a homeowner or a technician can reach in and pull it out. Excel Roofing would far rather see a gutter plug up at the strainer than inside a buried drain line.
For any home with underground drains and no gutter protection at all, a strainer is the minimum.
Excel Roofing recommends leaving gutter guards in place through a Colorado winter. Taking them off each fall risks damaging the gutter and the first course of shingles, and it leaves the gutter open to the debris that fills it during the same season. Where ice forms on top of the guard, heat cable zip-tied to the panel keeps the melt path open.
Gutter guards do not cause ice dams. Ice dams start when heat escaping into the attic melts snow that refreezes at the colder roof edge, which is why attic ventilation and insulation are the long-term fix. Excel Roofing's Colorado winter guide to ice dams and gutter guards includes a pre-snow checklist and what to do if an ice dam has already formed.
Excel Roofing recommends expanded metal gutter guards for most Colorado homes. The large openings take in heavy rain, leaves dry out and blow off, and the rigid panel holds up under snow. Homes surrounded by pine trees are better served by a solid capped cover, and homes that get ice dams should add heat cable on top of the guard.
The right gutter guard is worth it, and the wrong one can be worse than nothing. A guard that clogs on top sends water over the gutter and is harder to clean than an open gutter. As J Bretz puts it, no gutter protection is better than bad gutter protection.
Because dirt and debris clog on top of the tight mesh rather than washing through it. Once that mat forms, water runs over the front of the gutter, and the clog sits on top of the system where it is harder to clean than an open gutter would be.
Yes, granules and fine dirt do pass through the openings, and that is by design. Gutters are rarely clogged by fine dirt alone. They are clogged by packed wet leaves, which expanded metal keeps out while still letting heavy rainfall into the gutter.
A solid capped cover. Pine needles lodge in the openings of expanded metal and will not blow off the way dried leaves do, so a solid surface design is the better fit on heavily pined properties.
Most gutter protection does promote ice damming on top of the gutter line. Zip-tying heat cable to the top of an expanded metal panel addresses it by putting the heat source exactly where the ice forms.
No. Excel Roofing recommends leaving gutter guards in place through winter. Removing them risks damaging the gutter and shingles and leaves the gutter open to debris. Where ice builds on top of the guard, heat cable zip-tied to the panel is the better answer.
No. Heat cable is for homes in areas where ice dams are a recurring problem, or where a roof design creates a cold edge that ices up every winter. Homes that have never formed ice dams generally do not need it.
Industrial heat cable is about twice the diameter and costs considerably more. It is intended for commercial buildings and apartment projects. Big box heat cable is the less expensive consumer product and performs well on single-family homes.
It refers to the width of the gutter measured from the back of the gutter to the front. A six-inch gutter is wider than a five-inch gutter, carries more water, and typically pairs with a larger downspout.
A strainer is a simple insert placed inside the downspout opening to catch debris before it enters the drop. Any home with underground drain lines should have one, since a clog at the strainer is easy to clear and a clog in a buried line is not.
Gutter protection, heat cable, and gutter sizing are decisions that depend on the specific roof, the trees around it, and how the property drains. Homeowners with questions can browse the Excel Roofing Learning Center, call the office, or use the online scheduler to pick a day and time that works for an in-person look at the home.
Excel Roofing has served Colorado and Wyoming homeowners since 1993, and every estimate comes with the same promise: You Don’t Pay A Cent Until You’re Content.
Excel Roofing. We’re On Top Of It.