Do Gutter Guards Go Under Your Shingles?

This is a better question than most people asking it realize, and it is worth answering before you let anyone put a guard on your house.

There are two fundamentally different ways a gutter guard attaches, and which one you get decides whether the install ever touches your roof at all.

The two ways a guard attaches

Under the shingles. A lot of guards, including several of the national mesh and reverse-curve hood systems, are designed to slide up under the first course of shingles at the roof edge, with the other end resting on or clipping to the gutter. The idea is a continuous surface from roof to gutter. To fit them, somebody has to lift the bottom row of shingles.

Fastened to the gutter. The other approach fastens the guard to the gutter itself, gripping the front lip and the back edge of the trough, and never goes near the roofing. The shingles are not lifted, disturbed, or touched.

From the ground you cannot tell which kind you are looking at. It matters more than almost anything else about the guard.

Why under-the-shingle is a problem on an older roof

Shingles get brittle with age. A ten or fifteen year old asphalt shingle that was flexible when it went down has dried out, and lifting it to slide something underneath is how it cracks, tears, or breaks the seal that holds it flat.

This is the exact reason we default to a guard that fastens to the gutter. On an older roof, prying up the shingle course to seat a guard is asking for damage, and the damage is to the part of the house that keeps the water out in the first place. A gutter upgrade should not cost you shingles.

On a brand new roof it is less of a risk, because the shingles are still pliable. But even then you are relying on whoever installs the guard to reseat every shingle they lifted, correctly, and you will not know if they did until a wind-driven rain finds the one they did not.

The roof warranty question

Here is the part the guard salesperson usually does not lead with.

Some roofing manufacturers take a dim view of anyone but a licensed roofer working under the shingle line, and a few word their warranties so that outside work at the roof edge can affect coverage. If your roof is still under a manufacturer warranty, a guard that tucks under the shingles is worth a specific question before you sign: does installing this affect my roof warranty, and can you put the answer in writing?

A guard that fastens to the gutter sidesteps the question entirely, because nothing goes under the shingles. That is the same reason drip edge and gutter apron work is worth checking on a warrantied roof: anything at the shingle line is roofing territory.

What about when you replace the roof?

This is the flip side, and people re-roofing ask it a lot: do the gutters or guards have to come off?

The gutters themselves usually stay. They hang below the roof edge, so a roofer can replace shingles and the eave flashing without removing the trough. What does have to come off is anything tucked under the shingles, which includes under-shingle gutter guards. They get pulled so the roofer can work, then reinstalled after, which is extra labor and another chance to disturb the new shingles.

A guard fastened to the gutter does not interfere with a re-roof at all. It stays on the gutter, out of the roofer’s way.

What we install

The guard we install is Gutter RX, a perforated aluminum panel that fastens to the gutter, gripping the front lip and the back edge. It does not tuck under your shingles. That is a deliberate choice, and it is the main reason we reach for it on the older roofs that make up a lot of the Omaha metro, where lifting brittle shingles is the last thing you want to do for a gutter upgrade. Details are on our gutter guards page, and the broader comparison of guard types is in our guide to what actually works.

What to ask before you buy

Two questions sort this out completely:

1. Does this attach under my shingles, or to the gutter? If the answer is vague, ask them to show you exactly where it fastens.
2. If it goes under the shingles, what does that do to my roof warranty, and will you put the answer in writing?

If you want somebody to look at your roofline and tell you straight what fits, ask us for a free estimate. Estimates are free, with a $250 minimum on any job.