As a homeowner, you have a lot of responsibilities when it comes to properly maintaining your home. One thing you never want to overlook is having your gutters properly cleaned out by a professional. Here is a look at why you may wish to consider a professional gutter cleaning service.
Why Are Gutters Important?
When most people think about rain and snow, they think their roof is their primary defense against protecting their home. While your roofing material does play a very important role in directing water and snow melt, your gutters are a necessary component to helping divert that water to a safe location.
Without gutters, water can easily wreak havoc on your home. Rainwater can drip off your roofing material and end up penetrating your siding, leading to premature deterioration over time. Rainwater can even end up eroding in the soil around your foundation, which can lead to foundational issues as well as mold and mildew growth in your basement.
How Do Gutters Get Clogged?
Because your gutters act as a collection source for your roof, any debris that lands on your roof will typically end up in your gutters. If you live in an area with one or more trees near your roof, leaves and twigs will likely end up on your roof and in your gutters.
If you have a shingle roof that’s starting to near the end of its lifespan, you can expect to accumulate granules from those shingles in your gutters. Furthermore, any sort of wildlife, like squirrels and chipmunks, can use your gutters as a walkway and leave behind remnants of food and feces.
Why Are Clogged Gutters Bad?
As debris starts to accumulate inside of your gutters, it will restrict the flow of water through them. It’s not uncommon for debris to get washed down the gutter into your downspouts and clog them up as well. When water is unable to flow through your gutters with ease, it will start to back up until your gutters are completely full of water. This will cause water to spill over the front of your gutter and can start to erode the area around your home’s foundation.
How Often Should Your Gutters Be Cleaned?
In general, most homes can benefit from having their gutters cleaned twice a year. This should be once in the fall after all the leaves have dropped and once in the spring to start the year off. However, how often your gutters need to be cleaned is going to be highly dependent on a few different factors. One of our roofing professionals can give you more insight into how often gutter cleaning is appropriate for your home.
Your Location
One of the most obvious factors that’s going to play a role in how often your gutters need to be cleaned is where you live. If your home is in a forested area with many trees, you’re going to need more frequent cleanings due to leaves and twigs clogging up your gutters faster. If you live in a more urban area that doesn’t really have a lot of trees, you can get away with less frequent cleaning.
Tree Types
The species of trees that surround your home also play a role in how often your gutters need to be cleaned. There are two main types of categories that trees fall into — evergreen and deciduous. Deciduous trees will drop all of their leaves in the fall season, which can lead to a lot of debris in your gutters at one time. On the other hand, evergreen trees will shed their needles all year round just at a slower pace. You’re going to need more frequent gutter cleanings when you have evergreen trees to help remove that excess debris throughout the year.
Gutter Guards
Another factor that plays a big role in how often you need gutter cleaning service is the state of your existing gutters. If you invest in gutter guards to help prevent a buildup of leaves and debris inside your gutter, then you don’t need to clean them as often. It’s also helpful to know that if your gutters are in poor condition, where they have spots of corrosion, they can accumulate debris in these spots and need cleaning more often.
Signs Your Gutters Need to Be Cleaned
Get yourself on a schedule where you regularly have your gutters cleaned. However, it’s important to realize that things like different weather patterns can influence how much debris ends up inside your gutters. If you notice any of the following signs, it’s an indication that your gutters need to be cleaned by a professional.
Overflowing Water
One of the most obvious signs that your gutters need to be cleaned out is that they’re overflowing with water. This will be most noticeable in a heavy rainstorm where water just seems to be dripping along the entire front side of your gutters. When this happens, there’s likely a large amount of debris that’s restricting the majority of the flow, or the entire flow, of water through your gutter system.
Visible Debris
Probably the most obvious sign that your gutters need to be cleaned is that you see visible debris in them. This could be leaves, sticks, or even chunks of algae growth.
Foundation Erosion
One of the lesser-noticed signs that your gutters are full of debris is foundation erosion. When water is unable to flow through your gutters, it will spill over and land on the ground next to your home’s foundation. If left unchecked for too long, water will start to erode the area around your foundation and expose more of its concrete or brick.
DIY vs. Professional Gutter Cleaning
As a homeowner, you may consider cleaning your gutters yourself to save some of your hard-earned money instead of spending your money on a professional to do so for you. This isn’t a great idea for many different reasons. First and foremost, cleaning gutters can be somewhat dangerous because you have to be up on a ladder to do so.
It’s easier to leave the job to a professional who has the appropriate equipment and experience to work around obstacles like power lines. Many gutter cleaners will have a forced-pressure system to hydrojet the debris safely out of your gutters with ease. Furthermore, when you have a professional doing your cleaning service, they’ll alert you to any problems your gutters may have so that you can get them addressed to better protect your home. Having that expert eye doing the inspection is a great way to extend the longevity of your entire gutter system.
Reliable Gutter Cleaning Service
Transformation Roofing & Home Services offers reliable gutter cleaning services to homeowners throughout Marietta, GA. We can also help with all your roofing repair, storm damage, roof installation, roof inspection, and emergency roofing service needs. Call our office today to book your next residential roofing consultation.
