Cleaning the gutter is a job that is often forgotten, but it is certainly not unimportant. If your gutters no longer flow correctly or are completely blocked and no water can flow through the gutters at all you can get floods or even leakages. Therefore, you should clean it well at least once a year. In places where there are many trees we even recommend to clean the gutters once every six months. To find out the best tips and tricks for your gutters carry on reading below.
Best time to clean the gutter?
Cleaning a gutter is best done at the end of autumn or at the beginning of spring. If it is more than one year ago, it is best to do this immediately, to avoid problems and water not being able to flow correctly. Especially in autumn, the gutters will quickly get dirty due to falling leaves and twigs. How often you really need cleaning is, of course, dependent on where you live. General cleaning is enough once a year. But do you live in a place with lots of trees or lots of birds? Then it may be necessary to clean the gutters twice a year.
Why clean roof gutters?
Throughout the year a lot of dirt can get into the gutters and build up such as leaves, twigs, moss and general dirt and soil are often the biggest culprits. Each house has several gutters that drain rainwater that ends up on your roof. If the dirt accumulates, the rainwater can no longer be drained properly and blockages and leaks can occur. The water remains on the roof, flows down in undesirable places or starts to leak through the roof. If you want to prevent this, it is best to have the roof gutters cleaned at least once a year.
Let’s go through how you do it!
Cleaning a gutter is a fairly easy job, which does not take much time. With this job you have to stand on a high ladder, always wear good work gloves during cleaning as there may be sharp materials in the roof gutter.
- First, scoop all the loose waste with a garden scoop from the roof gutter. This is best when the material is slightly damp as this way the leaves and dirt all stick together and is easier to scoop. Spray it first with a garden hose.
- You then flush the gutter with the garden hose. Place the hose in the gutter and then slowly move the nozzle towards the pipe. You can possibly remove stubborn waste with a scourer or wire brush. Be careful not to spray your roof full of mud.
- Rinse the gutter well.
It is of great importance that the gutter is clean so that rainwater can be drained quickly via the gutter and the rain pipe. Moss, branches and leaves can end up in the roof gutter, which can hinder the drainage of rainwater. It is, therefore, important to clean the gutter twice a year. Using a bucket and a shovel you remove leaves, moss or twigs from the gutter.
We hope that you have found this blog helpful, if you need any help or advice with your gutter maintenance, please feel free to get in touch.