In many areas of the country, with winter comes damaging ice and snow. If you neglect to clean out your gutters before winter arrives, these elements can do a number on even the best gutter systems. Because your gutter system’s job is to funnel rainwater and snowmelt away from your roof and down to the ground, gutter clogs due to a lack of maintenance can lead to a lot of problems.
Important Benefits of Fall Gutter Cleaning
In this post, we outline some of the benefits of making sure your gutters are properly maintained.
- It helps prevent water damage. If your gutters are full of debris, water won’t be able to move freely through them. This can result in them overflowing, causing damage to the side of your house as well as your landscaping and foundation. Water problems brought about by overflowing gutters can also cause your roof to deteriorate much faster than it would have otherwise. Excess moisture on your roof will lead to mold and mildew growth, as well, which can not only damage your roof but lead to health hazards too.
- It stops ice dams from forming. While icicles hanging off your gutters may look pretty, they’re actually an indicator of the presence of a dangerous ice dam. An ice dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of the roof, often due to gutter obstructions that prevent water from draining off the roof and away from the house. Ice dams will cause water to back up and seep under your shingles and into your house. The weight of the ice and icicles can also cause your gutters to warp and sag.
- It keeps pests away. While cold winter weather will help get rid of some pests, such as certain insects, there are still plenty that are active in the winter. And although clean gutters won’t keep all pests away, it will help prevent small animals from nesting in your gutters and eventually moving into your home in search of a warm, dry place to spend the winter.
Get Into the Habit of Year-Round Gutter Cleaning & Maintenance
By keeping your gutters clean year-round, you’ll be able to avoid many of the negative effects of clogged gutters, and maintaining them regularly will help them last longer. Gutter cleaning is a dirty, tiresome and often dangerous task, however. For this reason, we invite you to talk to our team at Gutter Helmet and find out more about the advantages of our top-of-the-line gutter shield, the main one being that you’d never have to clean your gutters again! To find out more about our exceptional gutter protection system, give us a call at (800) 824-3772 or submit our online contact form.
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