How To Maintain Your Gutters

The gutters on your home perform a critical task in order to maintain your home -- shuttling the heavy rainwater flow from your roof away from your home. This rainwater, if not re-directed away from the home via downspouts, can cause a plethora of catastrophic problems. These issues include:

1. Water backing up underneath the roof edge, possibly damaging shingles and the underlying roof structure.

2. Water pooling in the gutters and running through gapping in the guttering to damage fascia, soffits, and siding.

3. Water further invading the interior of the home and causing damage to interior ceilings and walls.

4. Water overflowing and not draining properly in one area and pooling around the foundation of the home in one area causing damage to concrete, cracking of foundation, and settling.

5. Water overflowing and draining improperly causing significant erosion of your flowerbeds, yard, and property.

These things occur from gutters clogged with debris that clumps together and blocks the downspouts. This can cause slower draining and even water overflow. This also prevents any debris from escaping the gutter via downspouts, which can lead to excessive weight in the gutter causing gapping away from the home, which in turn leads to excess pressure on the screws or trusses used to mount these gutters that are now in waterlogged, weakened wood or fascia. This can lead to gutters falling, potentially damaging other areas of your home. To ensure that your home does not have any of these issues you as a homeowner should take these steps:

Clean Your Gutters & Downspouts

Natural accumulation of shingle dust, leaves, twigs, pine needles, and other debris can quickly clog your gutters. To prevent damaging water overflows and added weight to your gutters you should clean your gutters out at least once a year. First, clean out as much of the debris as possible by hand using proper ladder safety to prevent any falls or damage to your exterior gutter surfaces. Following hand-cleaning, you should flush your gutters with your garden hose, or a pressure washer if needed. If this does not clear the downspouts, you should clean the gutters using a gutter snake in order to manually dislodge the debris clogging the downspouts. This will adequately flush the downspouts and gutters to allow proper drainage of water and debris down the spouts and away from the home.

Check gutter attachments

The weight of waterlogged debris and backed up water can pull your gutters loose from the wood or fascia that they are mounted in to over time. This causes the gutters to sag and become ineffective at completing their objective: to shuttle water away from the home. This means that they need to inspected periodically to ensure that they are not becoming loosened which would lead to them accelerating the rate at which other damage is created. Along with the mounting points, it also needs to be assured that the gutters have the proper slope in order to ensure that water and debris drain towards the downspouts.

Invest In Gutter Guards

If the prospect of climbing a creaky ladder a couple times a year does not sound like an appetizing proposition to you, gutter guards are potentially the answer for you! Gutter guards are installed to keep out debris but allow water to enter and drain down the downspouts. There are various types of gutter guards to choose from and choosing a reputable gutter company to assist in selecting and installing the proper guard for your needs!

What if I can't?

If these options sounds too tumultuous, you don't feel like you have the eyes to determine the structural integrity of your gutter system, let a trained professional take care of it for you! Here at Buell Pressure Washing our technicians are trained to spot gutters that are damaged or are not properly performing their duties to protect your home. Aside from spotting leaks, damage, or separation from the home Buell Pressure Washing techs also use the safest and most efficient methods to preserve the integrity of your gutter as well as keeping them squeaky clean! If you are interested in having your gutters cleaned out by the experts at Buell Pressure Washing you can seek an estimate here.