4 Essential Gutter Maintenance Tips

When it comes to home maintenance, there’s one component seemingly overlooked by many homeowners: Gutters. Believe it or not, gutters are vital in keeping your home’s exterior from taking on serious amounts of water damage.

Maybe you just bought a home, or you’ve lived there for the past ten years. Either way, you slice it; you might need to maintain your gutters if you haven't thought about them in a while!

Here are four essential gutter maintenance tips.

Inspection

First and foremost, regular inspection is crucial to effective maintenance. Gutters-- along with roofing and siding-- should be inspected once or twice a year at a minimum.

When inspecting your gutters, look out for clogged gutters. Gutters harboring large amounts of debris like twigs and leaves disrupt water flow, which can cause significant amounts of water damage to your roofing and siding.

Next, you’ll want to look for any signs of your gutter pulling away from the eaves or an improper pitch, which also affects water flow. Lastly, look out for any leaks with the gutter system!

Gutter Cleaning

Now that you’ve looked at the state of your gutters, it’s time to get your hands dirty! Cleaning gutters is the least favorite part of gutter maintenance, but it goes a long way in keeping your system healthy for years to come.

If you have access to a ladder and can safely scale up to your gutters, take a small putty knife, scoop, or any tool that fits down the channel. Additionally, you will want to wear gloves as moist and organic debris doesn’t feel too great! Scrap out all the gunk you can before running a hose through it, pushing the stream towards the downspout to eliminate finer bits of debris.

Fix Pitch

If your gutters are improperly pitched or a recent storm knocked them out of level, setting them back may prove challenging. If you are unable, contact a trusted professional for assistance!

Patch Holes

Holes in your gutter system still disrupt water flow, sending too much water to certain areas, which may begin to wear away at your foundation. To patch gutter holes, simply clean off the area if you haven’t already and apply some caulking to the affected area.