When Should You Clean Your Gutters?

Your gutters are an essential part of keeping your home in good condition. They work to protect your home against water damage and to defend it against basement flooding and soil erosion. However, they can’t do that if they’re clogged, which is why many homeowners wonder when you should clean your gutters. It’s important to ensure that you keep your gutters clean so that you can protect your home and keep your gutters in good condition, otherwise, you may end up needing to replace your entire gutter system.

Here’s what you need to know about why you should clean your gutters, how often you should conduct gutter cleaning, and the best way to clean your gutters. Let’s get into it!

Why You Need To Clean Your Gutters

As previously mentioned, your gutters serve a very important function in protecting your home by providing a way for water to drain off of it. As such, it’s vital that you take good care of your gutters and clean them regularly. When you neglect your gutters, you could end up with extensive damages to your home and could even need to replace your gutters entirely. 

When you don’t clean your gutters, you could face all sorts of consequences, including:

• Leaking. When your gutters get clogged with leaves, debris, and other blockages, this can cause them to overflow. 
• Mold. This goes along with the previous consequence. When your gutters get clogged, the debris, such as leaves, can start to rot. This can lead to mold growth over time. Mold can cause extensive damages to your home, and can even result in health issues if you have mold sensitivities or after long-term exposure. 
• Roof damage. One thing always leads to another. When you have clogged gutters, this doesn’t just result in leaks and mold growth, but that moisture can also seep into your roof shingles, damaging them. Once your shingles are damaged, it can very easily lead to damage to your roof structure as a whole. 
• Foundation damage. Gutters are meant to direct draining water away from your home’s foundation. If your gutters aren’t functioning properly, the water will hit the ground close to your foundation. Over time, this can cause soil erosion and significant damage to your foundation, including basement flooding.
• Lawn damage. All that water that isn’t draining properly because your gutters are clogged can also cause ditches in your lawn, cut paths through it, and even kill it.
• Driveway damage. Mold doesn’t just grow in your gutters themselves. When your gutters aren’t draining as they should, this can cause water to pool by your driveway, leading to mold growth. Mold can end up causing serious damage to your driveway.
• Pests. So many pests love moisture, to breed in and to use as a food source. It’s important to clean your gutters regularly to keep pests away from your home.  

Signs You Need To Clean Your Gutters

So, we’ve gone over many different things that can happen when you don’t clean your gutters. Now, let’s look at some of the telltale signs that it’s time to clean your gutters, to help you avoid all those negative consequences. Generally, if you stick to a cleaning schedule, you’ll be able to keep your gutters in good condition, but it is always good to know what to look out for.

• Visible debris piling up in your gutters
• Overflowing gutters
• Dripping gutters
• Water not coming out of your downspout
• Shrubs or vines growing out of your gutter systems
• Pests in your gutters
• Lots of mosquitos around your home
• Pooling water around your home
• Leaking issues in your home
• Aging gutters

How Often You Should Clean Your Gutters

Generally, it’s recommended that you clean your gutters on a twice yearly schedule: spring and fall. You should clean your gutters in the fall in order to prepare them for the winter months and all the debris that can build up then, and you should clean your gutters in the spring, to get out all that winter debris and prep your gutters for spring and summer rains.  

Depending on where you live, you may need to clean your gutters more frequently. If you have fir trees by your home, if you live somewhere where it rains a lot, or if you live somewhere with heavy storms that can cause leaves and other such debris to get into your gutters, you’ll want to clean your gutters on a more frequent basis. 

The Best Way To Clean Your Gutters

While you can clean your gutters yourself if you have a ladder, don’t mind heights, and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, this is a job that professionals excel at. People who are not trained in gutter cleaning can end up accidentally damaging their property or they can do an inadequate job. 

Vue Window Cleaning offers professional gutter cleaning services. Our gutter cleaning service will help return your gutters to their functional state and keep both them and your home protected from damages. Contact us today to schedule your gutter cleaning!