The end of summer heralds the beginning of a new season and all its accompanying activities. You may be looking forward to sending the kids back to school, as well as the return of cool, crisp autumn mornings. One thing you’re probably not excited about, however, is gutter cleaning. Unfortunately, this household chore is often an unavoidable part of the fall season. Leaves, pine needles, twigs, nuts and pods that have built up over the course of the summer will prevent rainwater from draining safely away from your home.
It’s important to keep your gutters clear and flowing freely year-round, but especially in the fall before the arrival of winter, when ice and cold weather can make gutter cleaning nearly impossible.
The Problems Clogged Gutters Can Cause
Why is it so important to keep your gutters clear? Gutters clogged with debris can lead to a number of problems:
- Water overflow. Clogged gutters can’t fulfill their job of draining water away from your roof, siding and foundation. When gutters clog and overflow, the result can be damage to the walls, soffit, fascia, siding, basement and foundation, among other things.
- Gutter corrosion. As debris settles in your gutters and decomposes, it turns into corrosive muck that can eat away at the gutter material, weakening your rain gutter system and potentially leading to leaks. If gutters are allowed to clog and overflow, this nasty sludge will also spill over, leaving stains on your siding.
- Ice dams. When snow falls and the temperature drops below freezing, heat emanating from your home may cause some of the snow on your roof to melt. This snowmelt will run down toward the gutters, but if they’re clogged it will have nowhere to go. As a result, it will refreeze along the eaves, creating a damaging build-up of ice called an ice dam. Further snowmelt will back up behind the ice dam, at which point it may find its way underneath the shingles, leading to water leaks and causing extensive damage.
Learn More About Gutter Helmet®
If the potential of these problems occurring makes you anxious, there’s an easy way to keep your gutters from clogging in the first place: the Gutter Helmet® gutter protection system. After all, cleaning gutters with gutter guards is much easier than cleaning those that don’t have them. Gutter Helmet® is the best gutter protection system for keeping debris out of your gutters and avoiding the tedious and often dangerous fall maintenance task of gutter cleaning. After more than 30 years in the business, there’s a reason why Gutter Helmet is the best rain gutter system around: it’s America’s proven choice for gutter protection! Find out more about this innovative system by calling (800) 824-3772 or filling out our online quote request.
