In “The truth about Gutter Guards” I covered some of the consequences of failing to maintain your homes’ gutter guards. This time around, we will look at what happens when you ignore your rain gutters altogether. Twigs become the skeleton for leaves while soils and minerals fuse the mass causing water to dam, overflow and rot the facia boards they’re mounted on. This ultimately allows water to enter you home. Then later during the winter months ice dams force snow melt underneath your shingles and destroy roof decking, which in turn causes your roof to leak.
When rain gutters are working properly water gets diverted away from your home. But when they are clogged water cascades over the side of your gutters, causing pooling against the foundation which further erodes soils and can cause walls to crumble. Wooden studs absorb water (making them heavier and surpassing the load bearing capacity of the walls. What is more, mold and mildew find just the right environment for growth.
As a former certified water damage technician, and a certified microbial remediation professional, I have responded to flooded basements due to this sort of structural damage, which occurs gradually over time. This happens when homeowners ignore rainwater short circuiting their rain gutters. It happens during the winter when it warms just enough to allow snow to melt and rather then drain it becomes trapped and this expands as it refreezes overnight. The result of such water damage is usually insidious. Not like a bursting pipe, that is noticed immediately. Nonetheless it can become catastrophic since there is usually some content (personal property) destroyed in such cases.
Fortunately, the solution is routine maintenance, i.e., gutter cleaning. Don’t wait for the problem to become an insurance claim, give Happy Window Cleaning a call to schedule your annual cleaning. While we are at your home we will check and repair damaged silicone caulking and free the horizontal and vertical channels of all debris so that water flows away from rather than into your home. When we are finished with your hassle-free service, our office people will send you pictures of the completed work.
Gutter cleaning is an expense, we know, but the alternative is a much bigger burden. For some settings, gutter guards do reduce the frequency of this maintenance. Be sure to check out our blog in that topic before purchasing those. One way that you can save money is to talk to your next-door neighbor and get them on our schedule the same day, this way, Happy Window Cleaning can pass along our savings for the direct cost of our employee travel time.