Gutter News & Information

Did you know that just a few large leaves or as little as 10 pine needles can be enough to block water from flowing through your gutters? Clogged gutters can lead to pooling water, flooding in your yard, and even cracking foundations. That’s why it’s extremely important to ensure that runoff water and snowmelt moves easily throughout your home’s entire guttering system.

So how often should you have your gutters cleaned?

It’s summer, and most teenagers are enjoying their time away from school by sleeping in, goofing off, and just generally lazing around the house and doing nothing.  As parents, we know how unfair (not to mention annoying) this is. So it’s well past time to follow that time-honored American tradition of making the kids do chores, especially the ones you don’t want to do, and paying them for it.  Consider this before making them an offer:

-        How hard is the job, and how long will it take?  Is it something they’ll have to do every day, or something that will only be done once?

If you’re concerned about debris clogging up your gutters, then you may want to consider a system of gutter protectors. These are usually gutter covers of some sort that are designed to keep out leaves and needles while allowing water to freely drain into the gutters.

If you’ve already started looking for gutter protectors, you’re probably well aware that there are various brands and types of gutter protectors to choose from. Here are five questions to ask yourself before purchasing one.

Source: http://www.sxc.hu

The autumn season is commonly known as “fall” for a reason. That’s because it’s the time when all those beautiful leaves on your stately trees suddenly decide to cascade down onto the surface of your yard. It’s bad enough that you have to spend your time raking, blowing, and gathering leaves throughout the fall. But the fact that many of them get stuck in your gutters and cause rainwater to spill onto the ground is enough to make you yearn for an apartment lifestyle.

How can you get some “leaf relief” for your gutters? Here are four tips:

Ah, yes – “no-clog gutters”: the Holy Grail of home drainage systems. If you could just find those elusive no-clog gutters, then most of your water runoff problems will simply wash away – literally. But is it really possible to have true no-clog gutters on your home?

Image: ghclark.com

Judging by the ads you see on the Internet, no-clog gutters are just a phone call or email away. Many companies and contractors market their products and services with the “no-clog” moniker, and a few even offer some sort of warranty or guarantee. But do they work as well as advertised?

Wally Conway is an expert on homes. He first got involved in home inspections in 1994, and has since inspected an amazing 5,000 houses. He’s also the founder of HomePro (www.GoHomePro.com), which as a company has inspected over 25,000 homes!  Recently we had users from our Facebook and Twitter Facebook accounts submit questions to Wally about gutters and home improvement; here are the best.

What are the three most common “unpleasant surprises” that homeowners get during their home inspection?

Installing and cleaning your gutters is a risky business.  We like to pretend that’s not the case, but the simple act of getting on a ladder can put you at risk of serious injury.  Here are the three most common worst case scenarios, and how to avoid them:

1. Electrical Wiring Issues

One problem any gutter installer has to be careful of: electrical wiring.  True, any halfway decent electrician has installed the wires properly, and the wires themselves are properly shielded to avoid electrocution.  But that doesn’t mean electrical wires can be ignored, or that they aren’t dangerous.

Summertime is here, and that means you can finally enjoy all those outdoor activities that you yearned for while you were snowbound. Like swimming. Playing in the park. Trips to the lake. And that all-American favorite: backyard barbecues.

But summer also means the return of mosquitoes. Those nasty pests can swarm around your family and friends and turn a fun barbecue into a teeth-gnashing, skin-slapping disaster.

So how do you prevent those pesky mosquitoes from wrecking your next barbecue? Here are six tips to keep those biting insects at bay.

You see it all the time in movies: somebody is about to fall off a roof, and they’re stuck clinging for dear life … to a gutter.  But how often does this actually happen?  Well, at least once, and it saved a life.

A little boy in Henrico, VA, was simply trying to get his mother’s attention.  His mom happened to be outside, so the four year old pulled a chair over to the window, stood on it, and started calling to his mother.  Unfortunately, he also leaned against the screen…and it gave way, with the boy falling two stories.

You may wonder: what’s the big deal with gutters anyway?  OK, so they get rainwater away from my house, and that’s nice, but so what?  If my gutter is sagging a little, or if it overflows now and again, it’s unsightly, but it’s not a big deal, right?

Wrong.  Here are four problems, from top to bottom, caused by bad gutters that’ll make you want to get right up that ladder and get them hanging correctly.

4) They Ruin The Roof