Should You Put Gutter Guard on a New Build?

It can be. A new house starts with clean gutters and young trees, so the mesh goes on before any leaf builds up. Whether it pays off comes down to what will grow around you. A block that stays under open sky may only need the odd clean. One that backs onto trees will fill.

We install premium aluminium gutter guard over your existing gutters, and every install starts with a free gutter clean. So even on a new home, the mesh goes on over a clear gutter.

Gutters under open sky fill far slower than gutters under gums or palms. Think about what's planted now, and what's going in next door and along the street. That's what your gutters will be catching in a few years.

After the builder hands over, in most cases. Our mesh goes over gutters that are already fitted, so the roof and gutters have to be finished. Waiting until after the handover walk-through keeps things simple too. Any problem with the roof or gutters is on the builder's list before anyone else works up there.

The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (opens in a new tab) (QBCC) says a home reaches practical completion, or is ready for handover, “when all the building work is done and the property owner can move in.” It also says “The contractor and property owners walk through the property and complete the defects document during the handover inspection.”

Look up while you walk through. If anything about the gutters, fascia or downpipes doesn't look right, get it written on that document. You don't have to do it alone, either. The QBCC says “A property owner can engage the services of a building inspector to go through the building work on their behalf.”

Problems that show up later still count for a while. The QBCC says “A contractor must repair any defects noticed at handover or within 12 months of when the work is finished.” You need to tell the builder within 12 months of noticing. Home warranty claims run on their own clock, so check the QBCC's time limits (opens in a new tab) as well.

Then book your free on-site quote. We look at your roof, gutters and the trees around the house, and recommend the mesh that suits.

We can't answer that for your roof, and nobody can except the builder or the roof maker. Warranty terms belong to whoever wrote them. So ask them before the mesh goes on, and keep their reply. While you wait, read the care guide that came with your roof. It tells you what the maker expects from you.

Here's the sort of thing a care guide says. BlueScope's maintenance page (opens in a new tab) for its painted steel says spots like “the underside of eave gutters are often not washed by rainwater, and so require some attention.” It asks for those spots to be hosed down at least every six months, and more often near the coast where there's salt spray.

The same page says to make sure there's no build-up of debris, such as soil and mulch, against the steel. Your roof may be a different product with different terms. Go by your own paperwork.

Your builder's cover is a separate thing again. Under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme (opens in a new tab), the QBCC says non-structural defects are covered if you notice them “within 6 months after the day the work is substantially complete”, and you claim within 7 months. Structural defects have a much longer window: 6 years 6 months from when cover starts.

Maybe not today. But the trees are coming. Street trees and backyard plantings in a new estate start small and get bigger every year, and so does the leaf they drop. Fit the mesh early and it's already there when the leaves start landing.

Councils plant streets too. On the Gold Coast, the council runs a street tree planting program (opens in a new tab). Residents can ask for a new tree on their street's verge, and the council's arboriculture officers pick a species that suits the spot. A bare street now may look very different in a few years.

We fit gutter guard right across the growth corridors. Each of these pages covers what's different about the area: the estates in Coomera, the new streets of Pimpama, and the estate homes of North Lakes.

Still under open sky, with nothing planned nearby? Then a clean now and then may be all you need for a while. Our guide to whether gutter guard is worth it weighs that up, downsides included.

Yes. We offer colour-matched options, so the mesh sits with your new roof and gutters instead of standing out. We check the match on site at your free quote, against the real roof colour rather than a screen. Our proprietary coating holds that colour, and it carries a 10-year guarantee against fading.

The mesh is aluminium, 1 mm thick, in two sizes. The 3 mm expanded mesh handles leaves and general debris on most homes. The finer 2 mm woven mesh suits streets on the bushland fringe. Our gutter guard suits tile and metal roofs.

Seen fine micro mesh online and wondering how it stacks up? We've put micro mesh vs aluminium mesh side by side.

Every install comes with four written guarantees: a 25-year full system guarantee, a 20-year workmanship guarantee, a 10-year no blocked gutter guarantee and a 10-year coating guarantee against fading. We've been family-owned for over 25 years, and we're fully insured.

Then the building rules for those areas apply to your home. Queensland has adopted the Australian Standard for building in bushfire prone areas (opens in a new tab), known as AS 3959. Check with your local council whether your block sits in a designated bushfire prone area, and ask your builder what that meant for the build.

The Queensland Government lists what new homes need in the most extreme fire risk areas. One item reads: “Metal rather than plastic external trimmings such as vents, guttering and down pipes.”

Our mesh is aluminium, and aluminium is non-combustible, which is what AS 3959 asks of gutter guard at every Bushfire Attack Level. Our ember guard page covers the woven 2 mm mesh, and where the standard treats vents and eave gaps differently.

Your council and your builder are the people to ask about your own home. At the quote, we'll tell you straight what our mesh covers and what it doesn't.