Hey I agree with you that gutter guards will never stop accumulation of debris, it will just slow it down. Selection of cell size might be a good way to optimize it depending on the type of leaves getting on roof.
BTW gutter cleaning robot is really impressive to me. It's a much cleaner solution to the problem. Only worry I have about that is financial viability considering the robot might have to be water resistant, shock resistant, etc. Of course that'll change depending on the country.
Ya as I mentioned in the post it's nothing new. But what's discussed in the latter half of the post is why it is not available half way around the world from USA.
I wish I could correct the architecture, as I would rewrite a code if something goes wrong of this nature in a software I write. But unfortunately, it's not feasible at this point.
Designing buildings is somewhat like software development without type checking, unit tests, and compiler warnings - and that's for professionals with good tools and a formal design process.
Looking at the pictures my advice would be to keep the roof free of debris as the first strategy. Second strategy is to make each drainage path independent, I.e. don't dump water from one roof/gutter onto/into another roof/gutter. Third strategy is use primary and secondary drains. secondary drains should do two things, handle excess load and make their use obvious to signal problems with the primary.
The screens on the lower gutter may make your problem worse due to a lack of scouring and creating a dam at the top of the gutter rather than the bottom. Better to reduce the volume this gutter handles.
Finally the goal is always water management not water proofing. Assume the first system leaks and handle those leaks with a backup. And of course never depend on water running uphill.
A "fix" I see with some regularity (especially for flat roofs on mobile homes) is to build an entirely new roof above the leaking roof, supported by long poles driven into the ground surrounding the structure. This may not be feasible for you, but it certainly seems to be for people around here. The additional roof is very simple sheet metal, and isn't even heavy enough to require trusses. In many cases it doesn't even require a peak, being sloped all in the same direction.
Yes that's the problem. It seems to be pretty common in developed countries. But such a simple thing is not common at all in this part of the world. That's why I think there is so much to do for entrepreneurs in this part of the world
Might the problem be wealth? I don't know how things work in Sri Lanka, but as a programmer, are you not making more money than many Sri Lankans? If gutter guards are more expensive compared to an average person's income then that could help explain it.
I don't know how expensive they are here, but I'd be surprised if they were very expensive. Maybe someone else has actual data.
In that case the entrepreneurial challenge is to bring the cost down enough that people will see gutter guards as worth buying.
Yup. Thanks for pointing that out. I couldn't find about the s-bend technology. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned in the blog post the lack of standards followed causes a great trouble adopting these technologies. Mostly used roof sheets in Sri Lanka are similar to what's there in my roof (~~~~ shaped)
Ya that's true, there is a design issue. The house was build around 20 years back. But it's not a great issue as it's supposed to get water from a small area of roof.
In my experience I tend to loose my productivity a lot when working from home for days. Going out 2-3 times a week helps me a lot to charge up, not necessary to work. But I think the idea of going out to work will only work for energy suckers, not for energy givers like my cofounder who loves working from home.
