How Your Gutters and Gutter Protection System Enhance Your Home

Water damage is one of the biggest threats facing your home. Water that seeps through your roof, siding or into your foundation can cause serious damage in your home. The good news is, this type of damage is usually preventable.

You deserve a house that’s in good working order — but to achieve this, you need to have high-quality gutters. It’s imperative you choose the right gutters and a gutter contractor with the experience and skills to guarantee a proper installation. It also falls on you to ensure that that your gutters are well-maintained and kept free of debris. Having clean gutters is key to preventing a multitude of problems in the home.

Unfortunately, many homeowners underestimate the importance of having functional, high-quality gutters along with a solid gutter protection system. In this blog, we provide an overview of a typical gutter system and discuss its role in keeping your home in optimal condition. We also explain how good gutter maintenance can prevent a bevy of home issues.

We’ll conclude by providing an overview of gutter protection systems and explaining how they bolster your home’s defense against bad weather. By the end of this post, you’ll understand how your gutters affect the performance of your roof, your foundation, your basement and the rest of your home.

How Your Gutter System Benefits Your Home

We cannot stress enough the importance of a properly installed and well-maintained gutter system. The importance of gutters is becoming increasingly apparent to homeowners as well as building officials around the country who have begun to make gutters a requirement on all new residential construction.

Gutters play the following critical roles:

• Keep the soil around the house stabilized by diverting the water away from the home; erosion of the soil can cause foundation problems
• Prevent flooding under the house and in the basement
• Preserve landscaping and turf
• Prevent water damage to siding
• Retain the beauty of brick and stone masonry
• Prevent the settling and cracking of sidewalks, patios and driveways
• Better preserve exterior doors and garage overhead doors

To ensure your home’s total protection, you need high-quality gutters (preferably seamless gutters) installed on every roof edge. The gutters should be tested to ensure they don’t hold standing water, don’t leak, are securely fastened to the fascia, and have downspouts that are likewise securely fastened to the exterior of the house. Also, the downspouts should end some distance away from the foundation–at least three feet away is highly recommended. If you’re serious about prolonging your home’s lifespan, this is the way to do it.

Gutter Maintenance

The one downside to having rain gutters is that you need to keep them clean, which requires regular maintenance. Don’t wait until they are full of leaves and are clogging up, since clogged gutters cause standing water, which can lead to a host of problems ranging from mosquito swarms to roof leaks. In addition, leaves left in gutters also present a fire hazard.

Common household problems that homeowners can prevent by maintaining their gutters are:

• Roof Leaks: The roof protects your home from the sun, snow and rain. Having well-maintained gutters ensures that water and melted ice flow safely away from your home. If you overlook maintenance, water can back up onto your roof and eventually seep into the insulation, drywall and plaster of your home.

• Interior Damage: Gutters prevent moisture from seeping into the ceiling and wall cavities. By doing so, gutters help prevent the formation of water stains, rot and mold, which can lead to even more serious and massive damage to the home.
• Cracks in Your Foundation: What happens on your roof can affect everything in your home, including its foundation. As water overflows from your gutter, it can travel anywhere, but will most likely run all the way down into your home’s foundation. There, it will saturate the wood and concrete slabs that help keep your home standing — freezing, melting and refreezing — and weakening your home’s structural integrity over time.
• Basement Flooding: This can often be traced to an unlikely culprit: overflowing gutters. It’s important you inspect your gutters regularly, precisely because of problems like this.
• Pest Infestation: Standing water breeds all sorts of problems, not the least of which is pests. Gutter maintenance is critical in preventing the damage pests can bring to your home. Leaves, branches and pine needles in your gutters present a perfect breeding ground for pests.
• Decreased Safety and Comfort: Clogged gutters can threaten your own safety and comfort in various ways. Contaminated water can find its way into your tap. Water stuck in the gutter is full of organic matter and organisms that can cause a slew of health problems.
• Reduced Home Value: Well-maintained gutters can boost your home’s beauty, while gutters in disrepair create an eyesore. That’s why regular gutter cleaning, repair and maintenance are invaluable.

If you’re a diligent homeowner who pays serious attention to your home’s upkeep, you’re bound  to come out on top. You won’t just preserve, but can also potentially increase your home’s value by investing in high-quality gutters and a sound gutter maintenance program.

Gutter Protection in Hamilton, NY,

Gutter maintenance is time-consuming and tedious. It’s also hazardous, as it involves climbing a ladder and working from a great height. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid gutter maintenance while still ensuring your gutters remain clog-free.

Enter gutter protection systems. More commonly called gutter guards or gutter covers in Syracuse, they are designed to ease the cleaning and maintenance requirements of your gutters. They filter out the debris so that nothing will inhibit your gutter’s main function, which is to channel water away from the home.

There are many types of gutter guards on the market, but not all are effective. For example, low-quality gutter guards may block out larger debris, but still allow smaller debris to penetrate and cause a clog. Do your research and read up on the brands that are most effective. You may pay a bit more upfront for a better gutter protection system, but you’ll save money in the long run by choosing this option.

Gutter guards are among the best choices in gutter protection. They cost a bit more than alternatives such as gutter screens, but they pay for themselves over time.

We recommend choosing gutter guards that are both easy to remove and easy to replace for cleaning. The cost of gutter guards will definitely be worth the trouble and time you might otherwise spend scooping out leaves, seeds, animal waste and other goop from your gutters.