Fall Maintenance: The Joys Of Keeping Your Gutters Clear

One of the most important parts of your home that often is taken for granted is your gutters and downspouts. Gutters play an important role in draining water away from your house. Without gutters, your home could face water damage resulting in expensive repairs. It pays to add unclogging your gutters as part of your fall maintenance checklist.

Clogged Gutters Can Cost You

As mentioned above, gutters direct water away from your house and foundation. This might not seem like a big deal but without gutters, rain falling from your roof can erode the soil around the foundation of your home. Especially during the rainy season, we have in Georgia. If this occurs in the fall or winter, the freezing and thawing could crack your foundation. Clogged gutters can push water up under your shingles. This can cause leaks in your attic and water damage on your ceilings and walls. 

Signs of a Clogged Gutter

• Soil erosion below the drip line of your roof
• Rotting wood
• Birds gathering at a particular spot to drink.
• Gaps between your gutter and roof

Yard Flooding

Clogged gutters don’t just damage your home, they can damage your yard as well. Water overflowing from a gutter can erode away flower beds and other ornamentals plants up against the house. If your yard has poor drainage, the water can flood your entire yard. 

Clogged Gutters Are Breeding Zones

When gutters get clogged with leaves and twigs it creates an ideal environment for pests such as squirrels, mice, and mosquitoes, who require standing water to lay their eggs. You could have a mosquito hatchery right above your head and not even know it.

Wood Damage

Clogged gutters can cause water damage when water sits too long and is pushed up under the shingles. These slow leaks can persist for years before you notice it and by then, the damage has already been done. Wet or damp wood can also attract pests like termites and ants that will cost you even more in damages.

Foundation Damage

The one thing a homeowner doesn’t want to hear is that they have a foundation problem with their house. Clogged gutters can cause existing cracks in foundations to expand and get worse, causing basement floods. Repairing a foundation can be very expensive which is all the more reason to take the time and check your gutters. It’s a small trade-off for how much money you could save yourself.

Do My Gutters Need To Be Cleaned?

It’s not easy to tell if your gutters are clogged because you usually aren’t outside in the rain to check. Next time it rains, go out and check to see if your downspouts are draining water properly. Look for:

• Basement leaks
• Little to no water coming out of the downspout
• Water settling around your foundation
• Water spilling over the edges of your gutter

Call The Professionals At North Georgia Lawn

Does your yard have drainage problems? Are you tired of living with that perpetual puddle in your yard? At North Georgia Lawn, we offer yard drainage solutions to make sure everything in your yard stays nice and dry.

Call us at (678) 508-0050 or request a quote on our site. Want to keep up with us on social media? Find us on our Facebook page and our Twitter.