Tips for maintaining your gutters

Your rain gutters are an essential part of your home’s roofing system. Maintaining your gutter system can prevent damage to your home and help you avoid costly repairs.

Regularly Clean Out Your Gutters

It's recommended you clean your home's gutters twice each year—once in the spring and once in the fall. This helps prevent the buildup of leaves, sticks, and other debris. To clean gutters, remove debris from gutters by hand while wearing gloves. Use a wire brush to loosen stubborn accumulations. Rinse gutters with a hose to remove remaining dirt and leaves.

Inspect Your Downspouts

In addition to cleaning your gutters, you should inspect your downspouts (that vertical section that carries water towards the ground) for clogs. When your downspouts are clogged with leaves, dirt and other debris, the water has no place to go, which results in water backing-up and spilling over the sides during rainstorms. If you can’t see into your downspouts, you can use a garden hose with a pressure nozzle to test the flow and clear out any clogs.

Perform Needed

Maintenance

Make sure you have any repairs and maintenance completed if you see any issues. As with most things, smaller issues that aren’t addressed becomes bigger issues and those bigger issues usually come with a bigger bill as well.

Install Gutter Guards to Protect Your Gutters from Debris

Gutters guards can help minimize the need to clean your gutters. A gutter guard prevents leaves, twigs, and other items from falling into your gutters by fitting over or inside your gutters. With gutter guards installed, there is no need to scoop or rinse the inside of the gutter - all you have to do is brush the leaves and debris off of it. Simple and easy!

Consider Installing Downspout Extensions

It's common for downspouts to only have splash blocks, which catch and funnel water a few feet away from your home. if you do not regularly check your splash blocks and reposition them when they have been displaced water could end up pooling around your foundation. Instead of using the standard splash block, consider installing downspout extensions. These are flexible tubes that can be attached to your existing downspouts and placed so that the water flows away from your home and its foundation.