subject: Clean Gutters Are Good for the Health of Your Home [print this page] Clean Gutters Are Good for the Health of Your Home
If you are like many homeowners, cleaning the gutters on your home is a chore that you can do without. Climbing ladders, mucking out wet leaves and pine needles, scraping off layers of who-knows-what kind of growth not a pleasant way to spend a weekend.
Yet gutters that are clean and clear are essential for the health of your home. The gutter system captures rain and melting snow from your roof and redirects it away from your home. Any breakdown in the system can result in water entering the structure, leading to rot, mildew, stains and eventually serious structural damage.
That means your gutter system must be up to the task. The gutters must be wide and deep enough to accommodate heavy rainfall, seamless to prevent leaks, and snug against the roof edge to eliminate gaps. Downspouts must also be wide enough to quickly drain filling gutters and positioned to direct the flow of water far enough away from the foundation of your home to prevent seepage that could damage the walls.
Even if all that is in place, a gutter system that is clogged with leaves and debris is even worse than having no gutters at all! Full gutters allow water to back up and seep into your home at roof level, where moisture can travel along rafters and walls and be deposited at random spots inside.
Your options, then, are to make the climb up the ladder on a regular basis (perhaps as often as weekly during the fall season in New England, when leaves fall like snowflakes!) to muck out the gutters; paying somebody else to do the dirty work; or investing in a gutter protection system that keeps debris out of the gutters in the first place.
Gutter replacement protection systems have come a long way from the basic mesh screens that often clogged themselves. Modern "gutter shutter" designs offer sophisticated flow patterns that capture rain and melted snow, but keep organic materials like leaves, pine needles and branches out. The result is a clear path for the water to follow and the end of the onerous task of cleaning out filthy debris.
