This Overlooked Spring Task Can Lead to Expensive Home Damage
With weather warming up, most homeowners turn their attention to getting their lawn in good shape, planting the garden, and cleaning the house. While those parts of your home and yard certainly need attention, there’s one outdoor task you don’t want to ignore. If you haven’t inspected your gutters yet, now’s the time. Fall and winter dump a lot of debris on your roof, all of which fills up your gutters. With the arrival of spring also comes spring rains that will expose those clogs with overflows. It’s an issue that can quickly get expensive if not addressed right away.
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Why Gutters Matter
Gutters play a crucial role in your home, moving water away from your roof and foundation. When they can’t perform their job because they’re clogged with debris, it can create a host of problems:
- Water damage: When gutters clog, water backs up. It has to go somewhere, and often it ends up spilling over the sides of gutters and down the siding where it pools around your foundation. From there, water can begin leaking into your crawlspaces or basement.
- Pest Problems: Clogged gutters also cause pooling in the guggers, which can then serve as breeding ground for mosquitos and attract termites and rodents as the weather warms up.
- Roof damage: A clogged gutter can also cause water to back up under the shingles, leading to rotted fascia boards and roof leaks.
- Gutter damage: All of that build-up in your gutters can get heavy, especially as it absorbs water. Gutters aren’t designed to support that additional weight and can begin to bow or even pull away from the house, leading to a costly repair or replacement.
- Landscaping damage: Water pouring over the edge of your gutters can also damage plants, erode mulch and spoil in any landscaping below the gutter.
Signs Your Gutters Need Cleaning
Since gutters can be 10 feet to 20 feet off the ground, it can be difficult to tell just how clogged they really are from ground level. However, there are some telltale signs that they need attention:
- Overflowing water: Water spilling over the sides of the gutter during a heavy rain is a clear sign that all is not right with your gutters.
- Visible debris: If you can see leaves, twigs and other debris overflowing out of your gutters, it’s time to get them cleaned.
- Sagging Gutters: Properly installed gutters should angle slightly downwards toward each downspout. If your gutters are sagging or pulling away from the fascia board, they need cleaning and likely repair.
How to Clean Your Gutters
Cleaning gutters isn’t a difficult task. It involves getting in there and scooping the debris and muck out:
- Step 1: Remove the leaves by hand using a scoop or donning some gloves and digging them out with your hand.
- Step 2: Use a garden hose to flush out the smaller particles in the gutter.
- Step 3: Check the downspouts as you're flushing the gutters to make sure water is running freely through them.
- Step 4: Watch where the water goes when it exits the downspout. It should flow away from your home’s foundation.
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When to Call A Professional
You can take on the task of cleaning gutters yourself if you have the right tools for the job. If you’re not comfortable cleaning your own gutters or have a home with multiple stories, it makes sense to hire a gutter cleaning service to handle this job.
Bottom Line
While cleaning gutters ranks somewhere just below unclogging a toilet in the list of homeowner’s maintenance tasks, it’s a necessary spring task to avoid a bigger maintenance cost down the road. By taking the time to clean out your gutters today, you can avoid pest problems, water damage, and a gutter repair bill.