Installing Rain Gutters is Easy as Pie

All it takes to spoil that afternoon meal on your porch is a little bit of rain, especially when you don’t have good gutters installed. It’s hard to enjoy yourself when water is splashing down all around you, undirected by a gutter, so what else is there to do than have one installed? Here are a few tips.

Do research on building codes

Building codes are meant to keep every part of a building to a safe standard, and these include gutters, too. Make sure you aren’t breaking any laws with how you’re planning to install gutters, because it would be a big waste tearing them down when you find out they’re not up to par with the code.

Plan and measure.

Avoid wastefulness by taking the time to plan out your gutter system. Take careful measurements including the length of gutter runs and height of downspouts, and take note of where downspouts and extensions are going to be. This way, you won’t be doing any guesswork when buying materials.

Add gutter guards.

You don’t want your gutters clogging up with dirt in the first few months, so consider investing in gutter guards. Considering the amount you can save on repairs and cleaning, this is definitely an investment worth making.

It’s easy enough to install gutters when you or the person you’re hiring knows what to do; the important thing is that you do get gutters installed. Otherwise, you can’t enjoy that afternoon meal on your porch.

 

 

 

Tips for Maintaining and Cleaning Your Gutter

It is the duty of any homeowner to make sure that gutters are always functional. At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter who cleans the gutters as long as they work when heavy rains and bad weather come. Here are some tips for making sure of this.

Get the tools

There are a few tools made specifically for cleaning up gutters, but you don’t necessarily have to buy them to do a good job. You could have as little as work gloves and a ladder to get this job done, or you could get special gutter scoops for clearing up the debris. Remember to measure your gutter first to get the right scoop size.

Safety first

Whether you’re using a ladder or working on a scaffold, always put your safety first. One way to ensure this, if you are using a ladder, is not to lean your ladder on the gutter itself but on a solid, sturdy surface that would just give out suddenly.

Hire a professional.

If you want to take the dirty work and danger completely out of your hands, you could always get professional help. These companies would definitely have the tools for the job and can ensure that the job is done thoroughly and without causing damage.

Cleaning gutters is a messy, hazardous job, but someone has to do it. Whether you do it on your own or hire someone, just make sure that your gutters are always clear and clean.

Mosquitoes: Deadly Animals Breeding in Clogged Residential Home Gutters

By themselves, mosquitoes can merely be annoying to humans. However, their ability to play host to deadly parasites easily makes them the most dangerous insect on earth. According to the World Health Organization, more than a million people lose their lives to such mosquitoes every year.

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park has actually declared the female Anopheles mosquito as the deadliest animal in the world. An infected Anopheles mosquito carries a parasite called Plasmodium. In turn, this parasite is the cause of a deadly disease called malaria. As a disease, malaria has taken away countless lives across the world in epidemics.

Dengue fever, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis are some of the viruses that mosquitoes can also carry and transfer to humans which often poses potentially fatal health risks. Female mosquitoes are, for the most part, responsible for the transfer of diseases to humans and even animals.

With travel becoming much more convenient, viruses are also traveling through carrier mosquitoes and humans at a much faster rate and after an absence of nearly 50 years, dengue fever and malaria are back in the United States. To keep mosquitoes away from your home, make sure that there is no stagnant water around for mosquitoes to breed in. Check your gutters if they’re clogged with leaves and other debris as they tend to block the passage of water.

The Beautiful Colors of Autumn Should Be Banned on Roofing Gutters

The sight of lush greenery is something that relaxes many people. Yet, no matter how beautiful parks, forests, and countrysides are in summer, there’s just something about the dramatic reds and yellows of autumn that transform every outdoor scene into a breathtaking, picture-perfect location.

According to horticulturalist Bob Osbourne, the coloration of tree leaves is largely affected by temperature and the photo period, which is the length of daylight. When the number of hours the sun is up within a day gets shorter and shorter each day, the mechanisms within many trees are triggered to begin a shutdown.

During this period, a cork-like layer in the parts where a leaf stem and the branch meet forms to protect the tree from fungal or bacterial infection when the leaves fall. This formation blocks water and nutrients coming from other parts of the tree to reach the leaves, resulting in the death of chlorophyll, a component found in leaves that is responsible for their green coloration.

Osbourne says that the deep reds and fiery oranges that people witness during autumn are present in the leaves all along. It’s just that the green tint coming from chlorophyll is masking them all. Beautiful as they are, do not let them clog your gutter. Get gutter guards and minimize the maintenance that you have to do in preparation for winter.