Clearing debris from your gutter or eavestrough is an important aspect of regular home maintenance. Knowing how to maintain your gutters, eavestroughs and downspouts is essential as if they are left to accumulate debris, can lead to clogging and potentially cause water damage to your home and gardens. For instance, backsplash against your home’s walls resulting from excess water runoff can lead to rot and mould, while the pooling of water against your home’s foundation can spell a flooded basement. Gutter or eavestrough maintenance is a relatively simple task, but it is one that can spare you time, money and headache down the road.
How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters or Eavestroughs?
Here, we are using the terms “gutters” and “eavestroughs” interchangeably, as these terms typically refer to the same thing. (The one exception is that “gutters” sometimes refers to multi-building drainage systems.) That said, ideally, your eavestroughs or gutters should be cleaned twice per year, once in the fall and once in late spring. This way, you will be able to gather leaves, needles and other debris that has shed from nearby trees that can clog your gutters and downspouts.
How Do You Maintain Gutters or Eavestroughs?
Cleaning eavestroughs is a relatively simple task, however, not everyone is comfortable with heights or has the proper ladders and equipment necessary for the job. If you do clean your own eavestrough or gutter, be sure that you follow the “three-points” principle of ladder safety (i.e., maintain three points of bodily contact on the ladder at all times) and have another person hold the base of the ladder for added stability. If you need to access gutters on dormers atop the roof, be sure to use proper harnesses or scaffolding as needed.
To clean out your gutters, position your ladder near the section of trough you wish to focus on. It might be a good idea to use ladder “arms” that will rest on the roof of your home, so as not to damage the eavestrough system with pressure from the ladder and your body weight against it. Climb high enough to see and reach inside the gutters, and scoop out any debris you find. We recommend that you wear a good pair of gardening gloves to prevent injury from roofing nails and other sharp materials you might encounter. Use a gardening hose to wash out any remaining material (e.g., grit from shingles) and to flush out your downspouts at either end of the gutter.
Downspouts that are clogged with leaves and other debris may need to be dismantled and cleaned. They can also be snaked out with a drain auger.
How Can I Make My Gutters or Eavestroughs Drain Better?
Aside from regular cleaning and maintenance, there are other ways to improve the functionality of your gutters.
- Walk around your home every so often and inspect the positioning of your eavestroughs and downspouts.
- Ensure that your gutter system is not sagging or pulling free from the side of the house.
- Make sure that your downspout system is unclogged and fully intact, as it cannot properly drain or direct water away from your home’s foundation if it is full of material or missing a piece on the end.
- Pay attention to the slope of the land around your house. Ideally, you want water to drain towards downward slopes and not back into the foundation.
- Adding a section of “big-o” pipe to the end of your downspout to extend its reach towards downward slopes might be a good idea. Big-o can be buried if you prefer not to let it sit on the ground beside your house.
- Install a Gutter Guard to ensure water runoff from the roof properly drains.
Cleaning and maintaining your gutters and eavestroughs is a relatively simple task, that if done regularly, can increase the lifespan of them, and therefore your roof and home. Remember, a little proactive maintenance can save you a lot of grief in the long run.
Keep Your Eavestroughs & Gutters Draining Properly
For more information on eavestrough and gutter maintenance, our house gutter guard installation, eavestrough installation and gutter replacement services, or other key home exterior services, contact Davidoff Roofing today.