How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters?

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?

Most experts agree that the rule of thumb is twice per year, with one of those cleanings occurring after the leaves have dropped from the trees. Another way to remember this is to clean your gutters as often as you pay your auto insurance premiums, replace your smoke detector batteries, or change your clocks.

However, some homes require gutter cleaning more often than two times each year. Some of the factors which may necessitate a more frequent cleaning schedule include:

• the presence of trees that hang over your roof
• frequent heavy rains which wash roof debris into your gutters
• a “downhill” positioning of your home, where one or more nearby houses or structures are at a slightly higher elevation (which allows debris from those buildings to blow onto your roof)
• a lack of gutter covers

However, there are steps you can take to reduce the number of times each year that you have to clean out your gutters, such as:

• installing gutter guards or screens to keep debris out
• installing seamless gutters so that leaves and pine needles don’t get stuck in gutter seams
• inspecting your gutters at least once a year to make sure they are still lying flush against your eaves in order to prevent misalignment and its resulting clogs
• flushing out your downspouts and making sure they are not blocked by debris

Now, the final question: should you clean out your gutters yourself, or should you hire a professional to do it?

There is no single correct answer. You should weigh the costs of such a service against the time you would spend doing it yourself. Gutter cleaning can cost as little as $75 depending on the size of your home; and servicemen will also check for leaks and cracks while completely removing all debris and blockages throughout your gutter system. If you’re still unsure, then clean your gutters yourself the first time and then hire a service for the other semiannual cleaning. That should help you reach a decision for how you handle gutter cleaning in future years

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