Gutter Cleaning Colchester CT

The seemless gutters on your house provide an extremely important function: They collect rain water off the roof, direct it toward a downspout that allows it to drain down the corner of the house or garage to the ground where it can be routed away from the house and foundation. When your gutters get loaded up with debris, the water can clog and not flow properly like is does when the gutters are clear of any obstructions. When enough debris builds up, the gutters overflow allowing water to fall to the ground all around the house, just as it would if you did not have gutters. So, it's important to keep them clean.

Look at this photo to the right ->
Imagine YOUR gutters in Colchester CT looking like this!

Even though gutters, aluminum or otherwise, are located high on your house at the edge of the roof line, they actually are the first line of defense against ground and soil erosion around the foundation perimeter of your house. Without gutters to direct the water off the roof to specific locations (by way of the down spouts), water would run off the roof in sheets and saturate the soil all around the base of the house. Saturated soil around the foundation is a recipe for disaster that can cause all kinds of foundation problems, issues that are extremely expensive to repair.

Water can work its way into cracks in the foundation and into the basement. With water in your basement in Colchester Connecticut USA and homes all over, you end up with moisture, dampness, mold, mildew, and bacteria growth. And in really bad cases with a lot of water around the foundation on a regular basis, water can seep to deeper levels of the soil and cause the soil under your foundation to get saturated. That can result in the soil caving in forming a sink hole under your house. I think you see where I'm going with this, right? Not a good situation! So, get those gutters cleaned every year!

Clogged gutters loaded with debris can accelerate the formation of ice dams in your gutters. An ice dam forms when the snow that accumulates on your roof begins to melt from the bottom up. Heat escaping from your roof melts the lower layer of the snow while sub-freezing air temperatures keep the top layer frozen. Then, water drains down to your gutters and when it comes in contact with your frozen rain gutters, freezes instead of properly draining down your downspouts. The frozen runoff fills the gutter, seals off the down spouts, and forms an ice dam.

When the ice thaws, the melting ice seeps as water underneath the roof shingles, tar paper, and plywood base. This can cause leaks in your attic and lead to top floor ceiling damage from the water. Keeping your gutter clean can help to minimize this problem.

All kinds of stuff and gunk can and does accumulate in your gutters over the course of the year, every year. To avoid build up over years of debris that can ultimately clog your gutters and down spouts, causing them to fail, you need to get your gutters cleaned every year. The stuff that ends up in gutters includes leaves, tree seeds, grass, dead bugs, twigs, sticks, and asphalt shingle gravel.

Another great benefit of having your gutters cleaned at least once a year is that you or the pro you hire get a chance to get up close and personal with your gutter system. A lot can be seen up close compared to just standing and looking up at your gutters from the ground. When you gutters are cleaned, they can be inspected to be sure the attachment mechanisms, e.g. nails, etc., are in good shape and hammered all the way in. Plus, the condition of the gutters can be viewed to make sure they are not cracked, bent, dented, or otherwise damaged; otherwise, they may not perform optimally. Connections to down spouts can be examined and the down spouts themselves can be looked at to be sure they are in good condition.

Cleaning gutters, while a crucial and necessary task, is a job many homeowners simply choose not to do on their own (yours truly included!). It involves getting up on ladders and/or scaffolding to reach your gutters and even getting up and walking on the roof to get to gutters that are just too high up for conventional ladders. That said, if that kind of hazard or risk is something you're comfortable with, then get your garden hose, gutter brush, work gloves, small hand-sized garden shovel or gutter scoop, and a bucket or two, and get to work.

In my case, I'd much rather stay comfortably and safely on the ground and pay a hundred bucks or two and get a pro in to do it. These guys do this day in and day out, have the experience and training and all the right equipment to do it properly, safely, and thoroughly.

That's why each and every year I hire the best gutter cleaning pro in Colchester CT I can find, and I hire this company every year. I recommend you do the same.