House owners can appreciate the importance of good, clean gutters. To keep it clean, you have to maintain them throughout the whole year. Some people don’t do this themselves- either they are lazy, clumsy or have enough money to spend it on this kind of service. It is challenging- cleaning the pipes and the downspouts requires work on higher altitude, which is dangerous. You’ll have to work on the top of your ladder most of the time, se be careful. It takes two major sessions of work a year to save yourself from the trouble of drain downspouts. Once they are drained, more rain or snow could quickly destroy the outside of your house, so you don’t want that to happen.

Leaves are one of the main clogs in our down sprouts and gutters, they turn to compost once they’ve had enough rain. They also stack up quickly in your gutters. It’s advised to get up on the ladder and clean them out once every few weeks, especially if there are high trees close to the house. The most efficient way to get rid of all that nastiness is to use the pressure washer. This will enable you to clean your pipes in a few easy steps with far less effort than by doing it manually. Be careful to have the right angle as you spray the water- the pipes on your house won’t stand the full on blast of water. If your gutters are older, cracks and leaks can form on the surface due to the exposure to sunlight and other weather reactions. First you have to clean the cracked area in dispose it of any leaves and other dirt. Make sure the surface of the down sprout is dry using a cloth and place some duct tape firmly over it. This should cover the leak and it’ll suffice until you replace the gutters and down sprouts.

The rivets on the downspout also have to be taken care of regularly. They tend to get loose, so you’ll need a rivet gun, to attach them back on. If your downspouts are rusty and old, you should consider the new aluminium and vinyl gutters and downspouts, that are out there on the market. They don’t rust, so you wouldn’t have to worry about repainting the pipes every few years. A lot of people tend to forget that once the water comes down your downspout, it has to go somewhere. That’s where a splash block comes in handy. It’s there to contain all of the water, so there’s no possibility of a pond forming next to your house. You have to consider the weather at your location to have the right kind of gutters on your house.

The gutter spikes should be replaced every few years. After you detach the old one, it’s mandatory to fix in the new spikes as soon as possible. This keeps them firm and solid. You can also put a gutter screw on the inside of the spike hole by using a drill. The drill keeps the fastener going in through the spike to the other side. The screw has to connect on the other side of the fascia board in order to keep it solid.