Essential Winter Gutter Maintenance Checklist
Your gutters work hard during the cold and rainy seasons to keep your home safe from flooding and to prevent roof damage.
Surprisingly, a little bit of wind, ice, or snow can damage your home if you ignore gutter winter maintenance. Clogs, cracks, or sags on your gutters can affect your home’s integrity during the snowy, rainy, or windy winter months. Even a functional gutter system can strain under the brutal ice and snow during wintertime. Maintaining your gutters keeps them in a perfect condition to divert water away from the siding and foundation. Here are essential winter gutter maintenance tips you can use to prepare your gutter system for winter.
Clean Your Gutters
Twigs, leaves, and other debris can build up and clog your gutters. As an effective way of preventing clogging, it’s necessary to clean your gutters before winter, even if you have gutter screens. Ensure that you remove all the leaves and pines needled from your gutters as part of the cleaning procedure. Moreover, the fasteners that attach gutters to your home, also known as the slope, loosen over time, affecting the pitch. Ensure that you check the slope before winter. Check your downspouts and ensure that they have excellent drainage to direct water away from the foundation.
Trim Your Trees
Another vital winter gutter maintenance tip is removing branches from trees hanging around your gutters. Tree branches hanging over your roof are a risk if they fall. Trimming trees also prevents a lot of leaves from falling into the gutters, reducing the possibility of clogging. Also, if snow or ice weighs down a tree branch during winter, it can drop and damage your gutters and roofs.
Secure the Gutters
It’s essential to secure your gutters as you prepare them for winter. Icicles and snow put additional weight and pressure on gutters. If panels or nails are loose, strong winds or heavy snowfall might leave your gutters hanging sideways off the roof. That leaves your home prone to water damage because the gutter system isn’t functional enough to drain water from the house.
Inspect Gutters for Leaks and Rust
Part of our winter gutter maintenance at Pierce Roofing is inspecting your gutters for damages and conducting repairs. It’s necessary to check for holes or gutter leaks at the gutter joints where the metal edges weld together. If you notice any hole or leak, consider calling an expert for repairs, purchasing gutter patching kits, or sealing the weak joints. If there are parts where the gutter framework is detaching from the siding or roof, make sure you hire a professional for repairs before winter. It’s recommendable to replace gutters if they are excessively rusty or have huge cracks and holes.
These are essential tips to maintain your gutter and prepare them for the winter weather. Winter gutter maintenance can be dangerous and messy if you lack the skills and necessary equipment. Contact Pierce Roofing today and schedule an appointment with one of our licensed technicians to prepare your gutters for winter.
