FAQs

#1 Prevent Water Damage to Your Home

We recommend cleaning your gutters twice a year to avoid the risks of water damage. Gutters that haven’t been properly maintained can cause water damage both inside and outside of the home.

Excess water can travel into your home through crevices and cracks in the siding. This trickle might not seem like a big deal at first, but the compounding effects can result in serious and extensive water damage. This will appear as ugly staining to your walls and ceiling.

Clogged gutters and downspouts can also push water, with nowhere else to go, through the roofing structure. This process is aided by another problem that occurs when your gutters haven’t been maintained.

The Average Cost of Restoring Water Damage: $2,000 to $5,000

#2 Reduce the Risk of Cracked Foundation

Your gutter system plays a huge role in protecting your home’s foundation from damage. Without it, your foundation has no guard against pooling water during heavy rainfall.

Gutters help to move rain and melting snow away from your home. This helps to protect the base of your home from cracks and leakage that occurs when water pools around it. So, while gutters themselves may seem insignificant, the financial damage you can incur from clogged gutters is undoubtedly significant.

Erosion and pooling water will weaken your foundation over time — eventually leading to cracks, shifting, or settling. Cracked foundation will lead to uneven floors and cracks in your walls. These are problems that are pricey and will need immediate attention from a professional.

The Average Cost of Cracked Foundation: $2,000 to $10,000+

#3 Ward Off Pests

Clogged gutters make attractive hangouts for pests and rodents. This can be a serious health hazard for your family and can also lead to a number of other damages associated with pest infestations.

Keeping your gutters clean keeps rot from occurring, which is an especially attractive feature for pests. If you skip out on having your gutters cleaned, the pest and rodent problem can become more extensive. This can ultimately lead to major repair costs.

The Average Cost of a Pest Infestation: $300 to $600

#4 Protect Your Roof

When your gutters are clogged, there’s nowhere for water to go. This can force water to your roof, which will result in water leaks. For obvious reasons, water leaks aren’t something you want occurring in your home.

Leaks can lead to further damage to your home’s interior, rot away your roofing system, and result in high repair costs. The cost to protect your roof with gutter cleaning services is relatively low in comparison to the average costs of roof repair.

The Average Cost of a Roof Repair: $650 to $1,100

#5 Avoid Fascia Damage

Your clogged gutters inevitably will begin to hold water. Between the mounting water and the weight of the debris clogging your gutters, your gutters will become incredibly heavy. This can lead to your gutter breaking away from the fascia, causing damage to this portion of your roofing system.

The Average Cost of Fascia Damage: $600 to $6,000

#6 Protect Garden Beds from Damage

If you’ve spent a great deal of time tending to or having a landscaping company tend to the garden beds around your home, then you’ll want to do what you can to protect them.

If your gutters are unkept and overflowing with water, instead of successfully guiding it down a downspout, then your garden beds are at risk. Clogged gutters can lead to overwatering, which may ultimately kill your plants.

The Average Cost of Landscaping Damage: $500 to $1,000

#7 Improve Curb Appeal

Clean gutters won’t be the one factor that sells your home (or makes your neighbors jealous). But clean, well-kept gutters give your home a defined look without distraction. In fact, the gutters will most likely blend right into the rest of your home — just how you want it to be.

Not only are clean gutters a good look, but the absence of damage caused by unkempt gutters is also a good look. This will keep your home from having saggy gutters, torn up landscaping, and water staining on your siding.

Whether you’re trying to sell your home right now or you just want a beautiful house to come home to, well-kept gutters will help you achieve your goal.

#8 Prevent Basement Flooding

Basement flooding due to lack of working gutters happens as a result of water collecting in pools next to your home’s foundation. This can cause water to seep down and collect in your basement. You should be especially aware of this if your home’s landscaping does not slope away from your home.

You’ll want to ensure your gutters and downspouts are clean and free from clogs. It’s also important to repair and replace these when needed.

The Average Cost of Basement Flooding: $3,000 to $10,000

#9 Extend Gutter Lifespan

Clogged gutters can accumulate debris and collect water, causing them to become damaged under the mounting weight. This can also lead to rust and corrosion — shortening the lifespan of your gutters.

Gutters that receive proper maintenance and cleaning can last for 20 to 50 years depending on the material used. Downspouts can last for even longer with average lifespans of 30 to 100 years.

The Average Cost of New Gutters: $600 to $1,500

#10 Prevent Ice Dams

Ice dams form when snow on the roof of your home melts and runs into the gutters. Once it's there, it re-freezes due to the cold temperature of the gutters. This caused the formation of an ice dam that prevents proper drainage. This can be exacerbated by gutters that already have a buildup of debris due to lack of cleaning.

Ice dams can cause water to collect under shingles, moving moisture to damage the roof, fascia, and soffits on your home. Icicles can also form, which adds additional weight which the gutters can not handle. This can lead to gutters detaching from the roof and damaging the fascia.

#11 Prevent Unexpected (and Expensive) Repairs

There are multiple problems that can set in when gutters remain clogged for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, if your gutters have been neglected, your home won’t be subject to just one repair. Clogged gutters can cause all of the damages covered in this article to the same home at once. This will result in a massive repair bill for your family.

You could be looking at total repair costs that are as high as $10,000 on the low end.

Maintaining clean gutters is the cheapest and most effective form of preventative maintenance. Overflowing gutters can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage in a very short period. The best steps to follow when cleaning gutters are:

• Blow all sticks and leaves off the roof

• Clear all debris out of the gutters

• Check downspouts for blockages and clear

• Pick up any dropped debris and move to a natural area

• Blow or wash off any surface where debris made a mess

It’s just as important to get all debris off the roof as it is to clean out the gutters. This is something we include with every service. The same goes for clearing blockages from downspouts. We use specific tools and methods to clear blockages without taking apart downspouts.

Debris removal

This includes any and all dry debris. Whether it is leaves, weeds, bark, or even larger objects, we will be thorough in the work to make sure that every piece of dry debris is removed. Clearing gutters isn’t the easiest job, even if it is only removing dry debris, but we make sure that we don’t miss a thing.

Gutter flush

The cleaning process will begin with us removing all the dry debris from the gutter, just like in the previous service listed above. This will then be followed up with a stream of water that will run through the gutter system and flush out the downspouts to ensure your gutters are fully functioning properly.

Most homes need gutters cleaning twice a year. We recommend once in the fall and then again in the spring. Trees will drop their leaves in the fall and a lot of pollen and seeds in the spring. Additional cleanings may be necessary to maintain clear gutters if your home has pine trees dropping straw year-round.

Signs that your gutters need to be cleaned:

• Water overflowing during rainstorms

• Debris visibly piled up in the gutters

• Leaves and debris accumulating on your roof

• Standing water in your gutters

• Water dripping from gutter seams or downspout after the rain has stopped.

Gutters are not designed to hold a lot of weight. Too much debris and water in your gutters will pull your gutters out of alignment and lead to wood rot.

Yes, you will still need gutter cleaning and roof maintenance. No gutter guard will prevent debris from gathering on your roof, and sometimes it even becomes worse. There are homes where gutter guards are effective at keeping debris out of the gutters, but in most cases, debris still gets under the guards or piles on top.

The primary concern is water damage. When debris is left to pile up on top of the guards, it forms a “debris dam.” Water then becomes trapped in the debris. It will rush back into the roofline instead of flowing into the gutters. This will lead to water-damaged shingles, roof sheeting, fascia board, soffit, and siding. Regular gutter/roof cleaning will help prevent this.