Gutters are one of the most significant parts of your home’s exterior, though it’s not as appealing as the other accessories. Besides playing an essential role in keeping your home’s natural beauty, gutters serve different functions to protect your home and household.
However, many homeowners tend to neglect their importance. They often consider cleaning their gutters as an unwelcome chore and put it off from time to time. But while gutter cleaning seems like a task that can wait, delaying it now and then may cause several problems in the future.
Maintaining your gutters is crucial to your home’s well-being. If you don’t want to spend costly home repairs often associated with problematic gutters, you must take gutter maintenance seriously. Thus, we’ve highlighted different ways for you to keep your home gutters clean and functional.
The Importance of Having Clean and Functional Gutters
Leaves, dirt, and debris are most likely to fill up your gutters, especially if your house is situated in a treed area. When they are left unattended for a long time, it may lead to several gutter failures and put your home at risk for water damage.
Note that the gutters’ primary purpose is to collect rainwater and redirect it away from your home’s foundation. But once they are clogged with debris, gutters may not function well and may fail to remove water from your roof. It will cause water to accumulate and enter your home sooner or later.
That’s why it’s essential to ensure that your gutters are clean, clear, and fully functioning. Because if they’re not, your home is vulnerable to rotting, rusting, and other damage that may cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Essential Ways To Maintain Your Gutters
Of course, having clean and functional gutters requires deliberate effort on your part. Gutter maintenance isn’t a one time deal, and every homeowner needs to be intentional in preserving their gutters. Else, you would end up encountering more costly damages.
There are many ways to maintain home gutters. But the following are the primary guides you can use to keep your gutters in good shape. You can go over each of them, but you have all the freedom to modify and take what is most applicable to you.
Schedule Regular Cleanings
Depending on your home, keeping the gutters clean and functional is one of the most vital maintenance tasks. Clogged gutters are the most common problem, and debris from roof shingles and trees are the main sources of such trouble. Once they fall into the gutters and are left neglected, they can build up and cause obstruction.
When your gutters are clogged, they are also prone to leaking, sagging away, and pulling apart. To avoid such problems, you need to schedule regular cleanings on your roof and gutter system. By doing this, you can keep your gutters free from clutter and debris.
It’s often recommended to clean your gutters twice a year. You can do the cleaning once in the spring and another one in the fall. But it would still depend on your location and its climate. If you live in areas with lots of trees, you might need to do gutter cleaning four times a year or as frequently as needed.
Use The Right Tools and Equipment
Safety should come first when trying to keep your gutters well-maintained. Thus, you need to have the right tools and equipment to ensure that your work is sufficient without compromising your safety.
Gutter cleaning most likely requires you to use a ladder. As a precaution, using any ladder won’t probably be a good idea. For most homes with one or two stories, a 20-foot or taller extension ladder is frequently the best option. You can reach into the gutters with the right extension ladder without struggling while keeping your feet steady on the rungs.
Other tools may also include the following: a trowel, garden hose with a nozzle, work gloves, two buckets with wire hooks, safety glasses, and many others. This equipment is essential to make your job easier and safer.
Do Inspection and Repairs
Tending your gutters only during the fall is one of the most significant errors about gutter maintenance. It should be noted that cleaning the gutters isn’t only a maintenance task you need to attend at certain times. Year-round gutter inspection and repairs are necessary if you want to lighten your workload.
Checking your gutters now and then can help you take notice of significant details that you missed out during the cleaning. Keep in mind that gutter problems often have warning signs before they become a danger to your home.
By doing a regular inspection, you can easily spot those early indicators and fix them before they incur damages. You can check whether your gutters are hanging low or the downspouts are banging on the side of the house. The more you pay attention to your gutters, the earlier you can take action on any problem.
Invest On Gutter Protection System
Another way to maintain your gutters is to invest in a gutter protection system, which can help reduce your gutter maintenance duties. There is nothing that will make your gutters invincible from any debris and clutter. However, gutter guards can lessen the amount of cleaning and service that your gutters need to function correctly.
With a gutter guard, the leaves, twigs, and other materials can be blocked out on your roof and minimize them from getting into your gutters. Thus, deterioration and congestion won’t be too much of a problem in your gutter system. There will be less time for cleaning since you can easily remove the debris piled up on top of your gutters.
When there is less debris getting into your gutters, the moisture that can cause corrosion and rust can also be prevented. Therefore, you can increase the lifespan of your gutter with a gutter guard.
Another Option To Consider
While gutter maintenance seems to be doable, it can also be daunting and dangerous. But the good news is you don’t have to do it on your own. For gutter cleaning, you can work with professional gutter cleaners. It can lessen your work and ensure that your gutters are properly cleaned and checked. Moreover, the results of professional cleaning will last far longer.
There are problems in your gutter that might be beyond your potential. In such cases, you would need the help of professional services, such as Storm Pros, to do the work for you. Also, having an expert inspect your gutters can be more reassuring because they exactly know what to do.
Takeaway
Overlooking the importance of maintaining gutters is a common difficulty for many homeowners until unavoidable damage arises. If you don’t want to encounter the same dilemma, you need to make gutter maintenance as part of your priority list. It wouldn’t only help you save a lot of time and money but spare you from unnecessary stress and worries as well.
Author’s Bio
Daniel Blake juggles his time working as a freelance writer and studying as a design student. His writing career is evident in many published articles on various websites and magazines. His forte lies in real estate, design, and tech. Daniel is also a confessed bookworm who binges on reading thrillers whenever his time permits.