Cleaning the gutters on your house should be a routine incorporated into your schedule of home maintenance tasks. Home insurance and mortgage companies all say that it is a task that cannot be ignored, otherwise, you will end up with home repairs that could cost you a small fortune.
It is an uncomplicated process, especially if you have installed any type of gutter covers. Today, we are going to go over some basic reasons why you should clean your gutter. If you do not know how to do it, there are numerous articles written around the internet that can explain it, or you can watch a video on YouTube and learn that way.
- Water Damage: Water damage is the most obvious reason why you need to clean your gutters. Just because you see water trickling through the down spout does not mean that it is draining properly. There are several areas of the house that can be damaged by water. The first would be the roof shingles and the underlayment. Standing water in the gutter could make the wood get waterlogged, damaging both parts of the roof. It can also cause damage to the siding, window frames, door frames, or all the above. If not caught in time the water damage could even soak into the interior of your home.
- Cracked Fountain: One of the main points of having gutters installed into an effective water drainage system is to prevent water from forming around the foundation of your house. Standing water, or even a constant drip, can cause the cement foundation to absorb water, weakening the compounds that hold it together. The first stage of damage will be cracks and holes forming, and then peeling off the main foundation cement. The second stage will be crumbling off and foundation weakening, sometimes to the point of foundation collapse.
- Pests: Even if you do have gutter covers, pest will be pests. Debris built up, along with leaves, pinecones, and rotten wood all bring rodents, insects, birds, and other animals that nest, as well as the predators that feed on them. Everything goes full circle in the chain of life, and when one critter is present, the rest will follow.
- Money: All the things listed above lead to one thing. Money. Money out of your pocket to do the repairs caused by the water damage. If you do have home insurance and the damage is extensive enough to file a claim, the money will not come out of your pocket. At first, anyway. Eventually, though, your insurance premiums will go up, even if you try to switch companies. It is an expense that could have been easily avoided.
Twice a year is how often you should be cleaning your gutters, but this is not a rule set in stone. If you live in a house that has numerous trees around, you will need to clean them more often. If you have animals using your roof as highway debris can build up very quickly, so use your judgment. Every area will have there own specific circumstances, so you are the only one that knows if the gutters should be cleaned more often.
Just remember, if you do not clean your gutters at least twice a year you will end up paying for it later, in expensive repairs that you could have avoided. It is a straightforward process, but it does take a little time to do. And you will definitely get dirty doing it. If you simply do not want to do the task, help out a neighborhood kid and hire them to do it for you.
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