The Best Time to Clean Gutters
Although it may seem like a chore and certainly isn’t the most fun thing you might could do on a Sunday afternoon, gutter cleaning is an important part of your home maintenance schedule. Your gutters are an important part of your house as a system, and they need to function properly in order to do what they were designed for. In some cases, it can even be argued that it’s better to not have gutters at all than to have them not working.
So the question comes up, when do you need to clean your gutters?
The timing of cleaning your gutters can help prolong its life and minimize damage. There are a few factors to consider, but general speaking, one of the best times to clean your gutters is when the season changes from autumn to winter and the last leaves have fallen. This is typically a good time to conduct gutter maintenance and check for the need to conduct any gutter repair which may be needed.
Gutters as Part of a Structural System
Gutters are more than a convenience which keeps rainwater off your head as you walk under the eaves. Gutters actually put the rainwater where you want it, rather than straight onto your lawn, or any garden beds which may line the perimeter of your house. Without gutters, rainwater will erode the soil next to your house, eventually leading to pooling. The pooling will in turn, eventually, seep through to your house’s foundation. Your foundation does, by code, have its own drainage system as part of its integral design, but it was not intended to handle the bulk of the rainwater flowing from your roof.
Prevent Gutter Damage with Winter Cleaning
Gutters get clogged, even if you don’t live on a wooded lot and don’t have many leaves. The reason it is a good time to clean gutters before winter arrives is that autumn leaves have collected and dam the water into place, so they need to be removed to allow for the water to cleanly flow through them. Once winter comes, that standing water will freeze, which in turns makes more water build up and freeze. Water is a heavy material, and when an excess builds up it will put an extra strain on the gutters causing them to sag or otherwise fall out of alignment. It becomes an ongoing process in which each step causes itself to become worse until the gutters suffer a complete failure.
Get a Free Gutter Maintenance & Repair Estimate
Although gutter cleaning could be a DIY project, it is a good idea to contact trained professionals who can clean gutters efficiently and reliably. At Weatherguard Gutters, we provide a full-service gutter maintenance to prevent any potential problems from arising. Give us a call today to discuss what gutter services we provide and how we can help maintain your home in the Metro Vancouver area.