Gutter cleaning is, perhaps, one of the most universally loathed home maintenance tasks. Few homeowners relish climbing a latter and pulling out the leaves and underlying muck. While this chore is despised, it’s also incredibly important. When you allow leaves to build up in your gutters, you see some ill effects in and around your home.
Overflowing gutters
When your gutters are full of leaves, rainwater can’t flow through your gutters and away from your home. During a heavy or long-lasting rainstorm, you will see your gutters begin to overflow. Overflowing gutters might seem innocent enough, but they’ll actually lead to some serious problems with your home, including:
• A flooded basement. Believe it or not, overflowing gutters can lead to a flooded basement. When large amounts of water are deposited next to your home, the water has nowhere to go. It can seep down through the soil around your home and into through the walls of your basement, causing flooding and damage.
• Stained or rotted woodwork. As water flows down the exterior walls of your home, it can cause damage to the wood framing around your doors and windows, and it can cause staining on siding and doors. The longer gutters are allowed to overflow, the worse the damage is likely to be.
• Damaged landscaping. An excess of water striking your landscaping can ruin the aesthetic. It can wash away mulch, flowerbed, retaining walls and landscape features; it can kill plants; and it can destroy sidewalks, patios, and walkways.
• Deteriorated foundation. The worse of the damage caused by overflowing gutter is a deteriorated foundation. Wet soil can introduce moisture to the masonry materials of your foundation, which can cause it to crack or weaken. As the wet soil around your foundation shifts, it can cause your foundation to shift and suffer damage, as well.
Overloaded Gutters
Too much debris built up in your gutters eventually will become too much for your gutters to endure. When gutters become too heavy, they will droop, pull away from your home and crack. Not only does this cause permanent damage to your gutters, but it can also degrade the look of your home.
Ice dams
When leaves are left in the gutter over the winter, the likelihood of problems increases. The water in the gutters will freeze. The ice can weigh down gutters and cause damage. It also can cause ice dams that can damage your roof. Snow on your rooftop melts due to heat coming out of your attic. As the water flows down your rooftop, it will have nowhere to go when gutters are already filled with ice. The water will be forced back into your rooftop. There it can cause water damage, or it can refreeze and cause large, damaging, dangerous ice dams on your rooftop.
If you hate cleaning your gutters but don’t want to face the ill effects of clogged gutters, The Gutterman of TN can help! We can install gutter guards on your gutters to prevent leaves and debris from entering the gutters in the first place, eliminating the need for gutter cleaning while keeping your home safe with a functioning gutter system.