Do You Need to Have Your Gutters Replaced?

Keeping your gutters in good condition throughout the cold weather is an efficient way to keep your roof and home protected from the dangers of frost in the winter. This is an excellent reason why it’s important that you have your gutters checked for repairs or replacement as early as autumn. Here are some tips on gutter inspection:

Walk around outside your home and inspect the gutters from your perspective on the ground. Look for signs of trouble like rust developing in galvanized steel gutters, or gaps between the seams. It’s highly recommended to check your gutters when it’s raining and see how well your gutters are doing.

If you’ve detected that there are indeed some damage to your gutters, the next step is to decide whether a part can be fixed with some simple repairs, or to have a gutter replaced in its entirety. Loose gutters and missing downspouts are often minor, but rust, cracks, and other more serious problems should be left to professional gutter repairmen.

Remember to take care of your gutters during the opportune time of early spring and late autumn, just before the onset of winter. You can also have a reliable gutter guard system installed to help minimize the frequency of your having to work on your roof.

Gutter Protection: How Gutter Guards Work

Although cleaning gutters isn’t a very complicated task, it could still take a lot of time, especially with all the foliage litter and gunk that have accumulated through the last season.

There’s no talking yourself out of the task, though; the consequences of clogged and overflowing gutters isn’t very appealing especially when you’re holed up inside your home in the cold of winter with a leak in your roof.

If you’re not up to working on your roof more days than you care to with a bucket, a trowel, and a hose in hand, there are ways to cut the frequency of having to do just that. Gutter cloggers like leaves, twigs, and dirt can be effectively filtered out by installing gutter guards. Gutter guards are protective systems that are designed to filter out foliage litter and other seasonal debris so that gutter channels can direct water away from seeping down the walls and into the structure’s foundations, which will eventually damage it.

Protective gutter systems are designed with brackets to hold a textured surface for water to cling easily as it pours along the channels. The surface leads to a slit so that only water can go through. Leaves, twigs, and other debris are directed to fall off the gutter’s edge, thus preventing blockages.

Benefits of Using Gutter Guards

Homeowners can weary of getting up on their roof to clean up their gutters more times than they care to. Many of them have resolved this issue by installing gutter guards. Gutter guards are made of special materials laid out and cut to fit gutter widths and length. They are designed to stop debris in their tracks to allow rainwater to drain through the downspouts. Here are the top benefits of installing gutter guards in your home:

Gutter guards filter out leaves and other common gutter cloggers from entering and obstructing the channels. Though some miniscule debris do manage to blow its way into the gutters, gutter guards help reduce the frequency of your roofing cleanup especially in the spring and tail end of autumn. This saves you money if you hire out a maintenance crew to do the regular roofing cleanup for you.

Gutter guards also help delay rusting as moisture released by the organic debris is minimized. The protective device which effectively filters out foliage and seasonal litter frees up water flow through the channels, thus preventing the longstanding abrasive effects of standing water. Without stagnant water anywhere, there is no breeding ground for disease-bearing mosquitoes. Clear gutter channels prevent water overflows that would otherwise cascade down walls, seeping into your property’s foundations, and devitalizing the structure.

Preparing for the Winter: Roof and Gutter Maintenance and Repair

Excessive snowfall entraps residents inside their homes, and unless your homes is built to protect and keep you warm in those biting days, it’s likely that a tiny crack in the ceiling or blocked vent or gutter in your roof will have created a bigger and more troublesome leak. When problems in out-of-the way parts, such as roofing tiles and gutters, are unaddressed, water eventually takes a toll on these parts and into the inner spaces as well.

To maintain the integrity of your home, like everything else, you cannot underestimate the importance of conducting proper roof and gutter inspection and maintenance. Your roof may have holes and cracks that required attention last year. But with the onset of harsh weather, these breaches will have worsened and cause full-blown leaks. The accumulation of moisture also leads to mold buildup, as well as to pest and insect infestations.

Unmaintained gutters become clogged with leafs, twigs, and other debris that block the passageway of water into downspouts that lead water away from the foundations. Excessive water or ice buildup along the gutters can also enter and damage the house.

Postponing repairs will only lead to worse consequences, especially once the spring rains and the winter snowfalls fully settle in and make it almost impossible to conduct repairs. Do the necessary maintenance and repair work on your own or have a professional contractor take a look as soon as possible. Ensure that your house is prepared and fortified once the winter season rolls around.

Avoid Major Headaches by Cleaning Your Gutters

People have a habit of ignoring little niggles in their body—like frequent headaches—until something serious pinches its way to the surface. It’s then they pay attention. The same seems to hold true about repairs your house might need, especially with out-of-the-way parts like roofing and gutters. For the most part, all it takes is a reminder to clean those parts at least twice a year to prevent the following major problems: :

ICE CLOGS

When your gutters are clogged with leaves and tiny debris, water pools in the area, damaging the material with constant moisture. Standing water in winter gets frozen into heavy blocks of ice whose weight can cause your gutters to crack or break away from the edges.

WATER DAMAGE

Moisture on roof shingles can form algae and moss that can weaken the roofing components, and ultimately cause leaky roofs. Water that pools in gutters also find its way down, seeping through siding, and concrete, as well as into your basement, which eventually creates molds on the walls. Water-damaged walls are common offshoots of neglected gutters. The excessive humidity within closed spaces invites mold infestations, which can seriously threaten your family’s health.

HOUSE FIRES

A choked gutter can be a fire hazard, as dried twigs and leaves become fuel for fire. Fores fires are especially prevalent in the summer and as embers are carried by the wind, they can land onto the pile of dried leaves and twigs in your gutter and start a house fire.

How the Gutters Over Your Home Keep Your Garden Safe

Rainwater needs a clear path to the ground the moment it hits your roof. A gutter system made up of the gutter, downspout, and gutter cover can provide one, helping keep your roof dry and the landscape a sight for sore eyes. Without a clear path, the rainwater will simply spill off the edge of the roof and drench everything below, including your prized petunias. Water may be good for plants, but too much of it is a different matter.

The soil can only hold so much water before it starts to erode and displace your beloved flowers and shrubs. Imagine what a steady stream of storm runoff can do if it’s directly in the path of the garden. This is why the downspout must be aimed at a channel or dedicated pathway; it can be a canal along the yard or an extended downspout that runs underground. Coordinate with your local contractor on how you want your gutter system to be.

Overall, the elements of a gutter system are essential to one another. The absence of just one can give way to potential disasters and costly repairs (repairing clogged gutters alone may cost between $3,000 and $100,000). A sound gutter system can protect the things that matter to you the most from even the strongest of storms. 

Gutter Covering Systems: Which One Works Best For You?

Setting up covering solutions for your gutters may help reduce the strain on your house’s roofing system. By definition, they are set up over the gutter troughs and screen out materials that may pass down to the trough. However, given the high emphasis on protection, it is important to know the kinds of gutter covering systems out on the market for you to determine which will work best for you.

Screens are the most common type of cover solutions; they are simply laid atop the troughs and secured with special clips. However, they face the danger of the clips getting blown off in strong winds and warping under the weight of snow. Bracketed gutter covers work by reinforcing the covering sheets, but also face the same problems as standard screens.

There are so-called “one-piece” gutter systems that integrate the protection and the trough itself, along with multiple downspouts. However, complete replacement is needed if they’re damaged at certain locations. Some gutter protection systems are marketed as “in-the-gutter” models, meaning they have a filtration mechanism right in the trough itself. Constant exposure to the elements, however, can encourage mold growth, therefore requiring frequent maintenance. Replacement for them may be required between five to ten years after installation.

Green Waste is Collected by Waste Management, Not by Your Gutters

The collection and disposal of green waste, or nitrogen-rich waste collected in yards, gardens, and parks. In many areas, it is collected by the local government’s waste management arm alongside other residential garbage with specific instructions. In some areas, private waste collection businesses handle residential green wastes for a fee.

Many homes with enough space for gardening add grass cuttings, leaves, and branches into their composting pit. Although backyard burning is hazardous to health immediately and in the long run, the practice remains common in many areas in the country. Unlike in municipal incinerators, gases from a burning pile of trash are not filtered before they are released.

One of the most common green waste produced by residential homes are leaves. While physically taxing, collecting them in the yard is a relatively easy task in comparison to getting rid of those that have accumulated in the gutters. For homeowners, buildup of debris in gutters poses many problematic scenarios such as insect infestation and damages to the roofing system.

When gutters become clogged, it impedes the smooth flow of rainwater coming from the roof to the ground. Loaded gutters may also become heavy enough to separate from the walls. To avoid these, it is important for homeowners to routinely empty their rain gutter systems. Other homes even install gutter covers to eliminate the need to clean all the time.

Why Roofs with Gutter Accessories Will Still Need Cleaning

Cleaning the roof is more than just a challenge to keep your balance. It’s a task that serves your patience too. Taking out the debris that litter and clog the gutter while standing on a sloped surface one or more storeys up isn’t something that anyone would look forward to doing.

You don’t need any further proof to support the claim that the task in question is tedious and hard. In fact, gutter accessories such as screens, leaf guards, and the like were designed to make the problem of a clogged duct more bearable. However, the installation of these elements does not in any way render cleaning unnecessary.

In other words, have them installed if you want to but don’t neglect the regular cleaning to protect not just the roof but your overall investment in a house as well. It would be best to ask for help from the pros who are more capable of handling the job than you.

Then again, even if someone else will be tasked to perform the cleaning, you still have to do your part in keeping the gutter properly maintained. Have your roof inspected on a regular basis and immediately address the problems you can spot no matter how seemingly minor they are. Also, if the roof is surrounded by a lot of trees, you would need to schedule cleaning tasks at a higher frequency than average.

A Quick Look at the Role of Gutters in Pop Culture

Rain gutters are pretty important to a home when the rainy season comes. These implements direct the flow of water neatly and efficiently, moving it away from areas of the house you don’t want getting wet. Gutters are so important that it simply common sense to install one when purchasing a home.

Gutters, however, rarely take the spotlight in popular culture due to their function (which, to be honest, isn’t as exciting as that of a car). There are several things in pop culture, however, that use gutters as part of the story:

1. The Tom and Jerry cartoon Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of Life had Tom climb a rain gutter to get to Jerry after falling 50 stories down a building. Tom’s attempt fails, however, as he falls down into a manhole.

2. The DreamWorks animated film Over the Hedge had the cast of animals connect a rain gutter to a tree in order to avoid a lawn booby-trapped for them.

3. David Gray used the gutter in his song Gutters in the Rain to symbolize the need to let go of the past and of the pain.

Like all the things in the world, the gutter can be used to tell a compelling story. All it needs is the right time and the right person who will utilize it.