Gutter Guards in Firestone Park, Akron

Harvey Firestone wanted his workers to live near the plant, and he wanted more than rows of identical houses. In 1915 about 1,000 acres were bought in South Akron for the purpose. He brought in Alling DeForest, the landscape architect who had designed the grounds of his own estate, to plan it.

DeForest put a public park at the center and gave it the outline of the Firestone shield emblem. Boulevards curve away from it. Schools, churches and shops were placed within walking distance, and the Aster Avenue business district grew up to serve them. Firestone also asked for houses at several price levels, so that families of different means would share the same streets.

Building moved quickly. Roughly 600 homes were finished in one year, a feat that drew praise at the time. Today the neighborhood runs from Archwood Avenue on the north to Waterloo Road on the south, east of Kenmore.

That mixed-income idea is still visible from the sidewalk. Solid brick two-story houses stand a short walk from much smaller frame ones. For gutter work they are two different jobs.

The brick two-stories have a high main roof and often a porch roof below it. Water from the upper gutter often drops through a downspout onto the porch roof and into a second gutter. That lower run handles two roofs' worth of rain and is the first place to look for overflow.

The frame houses are simpler and lower. Their runs are short, which keeps a guard job small, but short runs have little room for error. A single clogged outlet is enough to send water down the siding.

Either way the house is a century old. It has been reroofed several times, and each new roof sheds its own layer of grit into the gutters as it ages.

The boulevards are lined with street trees. The oldest have had about a hundred years to spread, and in summer their branches reach across the pavement.

For a homeowner that shade has a price. Leaves come down on the front roof from trees the city owns and on the back roof from trees in the yards. In spring the gutters take seeds and blossom litter. In fall they take the leaves themselves, and the fall here is long.

The supply is growing. When Akron set out to plant about 1,800 new street trees in 2025, it aimed first at the south and southwest sides of the city, where canopy was thinnest. The species it named were northern red oak, sugar maple and serviceberry. The post on what those street trees drop looks at each one.

A micro-mesh guard keeps the leaves, seeds and grit on top of the gutter, where they dry and blow off. The Leaf Solution guard does it without touching the roof. It screws to the fascia board and the front edge of the gutter, so shingles of any age stay as they are.

That puts the weight of the decision on the fascia. During the visit the owner tests it by hand along every run. On the brick houses he also checks where the gutter meets the masonry at each end, a spot where water likes to sneak behind.

Old spikes get the same scrutiny. If a run has sagged, hidden hangers go into the rafter tails before any mesh is laid. A guard is only as straight as the gutter under it. The page on gutter guards for older homes covers the cases where a gutter is too far gone and has to be replaced first.

Pricing is per linear foot, and low runs cost less per foot than tall or steep ones. A small frame house is all lower rate. A brick two-story is split: the main roof at the higher rate, the porch at the lower.

Both come as one written price after the owner has measured, and that price is good for a year. The details are on the Akron gutter guard cost page, along with the ranges national brands are commonly quoted at, for comparison.

Each fall the city collects loose leaves ward by ward. For 2026 it asked residents to pile them on the devil strip and keep them out of the street, with signs posted about two days ahead of the trucks. That clears the lawn. It does nothing for what landed on the roof.

A guard install includes a full cleaning, so it can be scheduled whenever the weather allows a ladder. Fitting guards involves no construction. For the record, building permits anywhere in Akron are issued by the Summit County Department of Building Standards.

If you are still deciding between guard types, start with micro-mesh compared with other gutter guards.