Every home owner is proud to have a well-cleaned property. It’s important to regularly clean our gutters and downspouts of our home or commercial building. This is probably not one of our most favourite tasks.
Although this chore cannot directly improve the appearance of our building, it surely helps to its “health”. Rain gutters cannot function properly if they are full of leaves and debris. When we neglect cleaning the gutters of our commercial building or home, drains will get clogged
Blocked gutters can cause a serious damage to our property that can cause us more money for repair than the money we are going to spend to get our gutters cleaned. Therefore experts recommend us to get our gutters cleaned at least twice a year.
What things regular gutter cleaning can save us from
Structural damage
The role of the gutters is to channel rain water off the roof and away from the building and its foundation. Blocked gutter lines compromises the integrity of our building. When our gutters are clogged they not only pose risk to our the foundation of our home, but they also can lead to the appearance of roof leaks. When roof leaks appears this often brings further problems.
The water damage can spread itself to the floor, to the fascia board and other parts of our home building. Even just a small leak hat goes unnoticed can bring a pile of other problems with itself.
When water damage is not handled properly on time, this can bring a risk to the stability of our building. By compromising the structure of our home building, we therefore reduce its value. That is why cleaning our gutters on time is essential for keeping our home in top shape and saving ourselves money for costly repairs in the future.
If our gutters are full with debris and leaves, this can damage the roofing and the fascia (the boards standing behind the gutters).When the gutters are full, the water cannot smoothly go down the gutters but it will pour over the gutters instead. Water damage brings with itself inevitably structural damage.
This allows it to reach the foundation of our building and possibly enter our crawlspace or basement. This on the other hand enhances the growth of mildew and mold. As mold develops its spores can cause allergic reactions and also respiratory problems. Floodings in basements can do damage to our interior décor and also electronics, furniture and other valuable stuff we can keep in our basements. This can lead to a serious water damage in the future. The water flow can do damage to your garden too, if you have flower beds close to your gutters as they will be flooded.
Risk of pests
Regular gutter clean up lowers the risk of the appearance of pests. Gutters become a nesting places for a variety of pests like insects (some of which mosquitoes), birds, that can do damage to our building. They are attracted by the accumulated leaves and debris inside the gutters. Gutters can even become breeding places to animals like rats and mice that can spread deadly diseases.
The collected debris in the gutters when it’s left uncleaned for a long time can decompose to an organic matter that enhances the growth of different fungi, tree seeds and other plants that thrive in such conditions.
Tree seeds for example can be dangerous to our roof and also give our home building a bad look. Consequently we can conclude that regular gutter cleaning saves not only our health but also future appearance of our home.
Landscape destruction
Landscaping is really important when it comes to improving the appeal of a home building. It makes it more appealing and enhances its value, it helps with the temperature regulation and also adds up to the home’s comfort and total livability.
The water coming from the blocked gutters can lead to soil erosion and destroy some of your favourite flowers. A clever tip is to purposefully channel the water into the water beds and gardens to save the need of watering.
Long roof life
The reason for this is because ice is trapped inside the gutters in the winter season, it puts undesirable weight and stress to our roof. This increased weight can make slowly destroy the roofing materials.
Furthermore, when water is not drained properly by the clogged gutters, it freezes in the cold and moves the shingles apart. This fact creates an opportunity for roof leaks. When we maintain our gutter facilities in a proper manner we can be sure that water and ice won’t collect inside and lead to further damage.
Long gutter life
This one can be no wonder to anyone. When gutter lines are clogged, this can add unnecessary weight to them and make them detach from their fascia boards and eventually fall off. If there is organic matter collected in your gutters, this may lead to rusting and corrosion. So don’t wait too much to get your gutters full of twigs, leaves and other stuff. Just clean them regularly to prolong their life and make them durable to the influence of the seasons.
Can we clean our gutters on our own?
The answer is yes. Gutter cleaning is not a hard task. Just remember that the end-result may not be the same as this professional cleaning companies can achieve. If you plan to clean your gutters on your own you should keep a couple of factors in mind such as these below:
Location
If there are many trees in the area you live you may need to clean your gutters more often than it’s recommended since the leaves will clutter our gutters. After a rain the leaves get wet and if they are left to stay too long they can do further damage to the structure of property. You should check your home gutters after a rain storm or a long period of rains.
Cleaning supplies
Preparation is key here. If we want to clean our gutters on our own, we should spend some time researching for cleaning solutions and tools to clean our gutters in an easy way.
Safety
As they say, safety first. Make sure that you take all the necessary precautions before climbing on high spots of your building while cleaning your gutters. If you think your ladder is not stable enough, test it or buy a new one before starting with the gutters clean up. If your property is higher than a single story, then you should better consider calling a professional team of cleaners.
You should not risk your health in the attempt to clean every spot. If you are not sure that you can achieve the task or cannot find a proper gutter cleaning equipment, you should better contact a professional window cleaning company.
Benefits of cleaning home rain gutters by yourself
Price
Of course, you can save money by choosing to get the job done instead of just calling a team of cleaners to clean your gutters instead. You can find plenty of cleaning tools and products on the market that are way much cheaper than the commercial cleaning products professional companies use. Of course, the price depends on the types of products you will find available on your market. Easy steps how to clean our gutters on our own:
Step 1-Scooping the debris
Remove the loose debris by using a narrow garden trowel or a gutter scoop to scoop out the collected debris in the gutter. Start working at a drain outlet at the low end of a gutter. This is done very easy when the debris is a little bit damp as this makes it more pliable.
That is why we should wait a bit but not to long for our gutters to dry out before starting to clean them. If the debris is dry, encrusted or soggy, it’s more difficult to scoop it out. Bring a plastic bucket with you to put the gathered debris in it.
It’s not a bad idea to invest in a leaf blower which is suitable for removing dry gutter debris.
Step 2-Rinsing with water
Use a hose to wash out every gutter across the length. In this case it’s recommended to use an on-off high pressure hose nozzle placed at the end of the water hose. Work in the direction of the drain outlet.
This task is a messy one so be careful not to blast off mud all over your house. If there is too much encrusted dirt, use a stiff brush to remove it.
Step 3
If the water doesn’t flow easily through the drainpipes, we should flush the debris with a hose. If this is not effective, using a plumber’s auger (snake) to take out the debris from the bottom of the drainpipe or to push it through from the top in some cases.
To find out what is the condition of your gutters, inspect them in autumn and spring.
