Your gutters play a vital role in your roofing system’s ability to protect and maintain your home. Without proper and regular gutter cleaning, your home can sustain a great deal of damage. Not only are you inviting mold and insect infestations, but clogged gutters could also lead to foundation cracks, flooding, and more serious issues. If you’re looking for gutter cleaning in Fairfax, Virginia, consider hiring a professional in order to avoid the water damage gutter troubles could cause.

8 Problems Regular Gutter Cleaning Can Spare You

1. Gutter damage

This one might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that your gutters themselves are at risk if they are not maintained. A gutter can easily overflow with leaves, sticks, pollen clumps, and water, but waterlogged debris also start to get heavy. If it becomes too heavy, your gutters can detach from your home, resulting in a costly repair. The weight of the standing water in your gutters can also damage your soffits and fascia. Damage like that will make leaks into your home much more likely in the future.

2. Attracted pests

When you think of the ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes and other annoying pests, you probably think of stagnant ponds, old swing tires from your childhood, and drainage ditches. You might not realize that even a small section of a clogged gutter is also a perfect spot for mosquitoes to breed. On top of that, rodents and other nasty mosquito-predators will be attracted to the spot!

3. Leaky roof

If water gets trapped in your gutter system, it’ll find the easiest way out: which might just happen to be the wood fascia beneath your gutters. This can cause rot and leaks both inside and outside of your home. You might start to notice a stain growing on your ceiling and even a leak. Situations like this can quickly become pricey since you’ll need both to replace the damaged wood and repair the water damage inside your house. 

Not only that, but a leak like this can develop mold in 24 hours, which triggers a long list of additional issues. The structure and safety of the house becomes compromised and health issues easily arise. Regular gutter cleaning will greatly reduce the risk of these issues.

4. Ice damming

Avoiding regular gutter cleaning means pools of standing water. When temperatures drop below freezing, that standing water turns to ice. Now, not only do the clogged gutters get heavy due to the expanding ice, potentially leading to a frozen fallen gutter, but any nooks and crannies are also filled with expanding ice. Ice dams can form more easily around debris, causing even more water to pool up and possibly seep into a home. Clogged gutters also result in more spill-over, perhaps in entryway areas that should be protected. Water pooling—and freezing—around entrances to your home is a major slipping hazard.

5. Siding damage

The purpose of a gutter system is to channel water off the roof and away from the home. Clogged gutters result in standing water that often pools over the sides. This can result in stains, bubbling, and rot to the siding. Any wood in contact with an overflow will be more likely to rot and weaken. Over time, your siding and even wood framing could need to be replaced much sooner than otherwise necessary. 

6. Foundation damage

Though it might seem unrelated, clogged gutters can cause issues for your foundation. Instead of being purposefully directed away from your home, overflowing water will saturate the ground directly near the house, allowing pools of water to form and penetrate any cracks and pores in the foundation. This can quickly start to deteriorate the foundation. If the issue goes unchecked, severe structural damage might occur. The house could shift and even become unsafe.

7. Mold, algae, and moss

In addition to causing leaks which can lead to mold in your house, clogged gutters and standing water can also develop moldy gutters, pools of algae, and collections of moss. Not only do these things look and potentially smell bad, but they can make cleaning of your gutters a much bigger, and costlier, task when you eventually do it.

8. Landscape damage

In heavy rains, the waterfall from a clogged gutter system can increase the run-off onto your landscaping. Water can easily wash away your mulch and create muddy rivers and pools, but it can also severely damage your flowers, shrubs, and trees, and cause yard erosion.

Conclusion

Sure, gutter cleaning is an annoying job that seems like it can perpetually wait until next week, month, or season. But it is not a home-maintenance task to ignore! Improper gutter cleaning will only cause issues for your home, many of which are far more costly than paying a professional to check on your gutter system. Remember that no matter how much of a nuisance this gutter cleaning job sounds, the water damage your house could sustain due to clogged gutters is far worse.

If you’re looking for an expert to tackle your gutter cleaning in Fairfax, Virginia, contact us to get a free quote!