Keep Water from Overshooting at Roof Corners

When rain comes pouring down on your roof, you may notice water that’s supposed to be falling into your gutters missing it entirely at the corners where two perpendicular roof surfaces meet to form a valley. This effect is caused by the increased amount of water that gathers inside the valley, causing it to run faster and overshoot the gutter.

Don’t Ignore Ice Dams and Excess Snow Your Roof

Winter is not only the season for holidays, it’s also the season for ice dams and snow-burdened roofs. While they may seem harmless enough, these two can actually cause major headaches for your home and family.

Aside from potential water damage and the threat of a potential roof collapse, icicles that form on the roof can suddenly fall off and cause serious injuries. Icicles also drip water regularly, with the resulting puddle turning into a slipping hazard before long, especially if it forms along sidewalks or pathways.

It is acceptably far safer to simply take preemptive measures and install specific home additions that can control or eliminate the ice and snow that accumulates on the rooftop, rather than risk life and limb to remove them manually. One such option is to install a product like Heated Helmet by Gutter Helmet® that melts snow or ice so that they drain through the gutters like rainwater. Such a product can also be used in tandem with gutter guard systems.

Though you can use a shovel and a ladder to take care of this bothersome duo, you must exercise utmost caution if you wish to remove snow and ice chunks from the roof yourself. Along with a sensible gutter guard, it may be a wiser decision to install a reliable gutter splash guard system on every roof valley to prevent overflows.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.