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How Often Should Gutters Be Cleaned?

Nov 14, 2019

How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters?

blocke gutter
This is a question which we get asked all the time by both new and existing customers.

"How often should I get my gutters cleaned?"

There is no definite answer as there are many factors to take into account but we will go through the things to think about to determine how often you guttering should be cleared.

Location of property

A townhouse with no moss on the roof and no surrounding trees could easily get away with having there guttering cleared as part of there home's annual maintenance schedule.
Whereas a more rural house with surrounding tree's and maybe even moss present on the roof could need the gutters cleaned twice a year to keep them in full working order. 
So it all really depends on where you home is situated and the surrounding's but as a general rule of thumb, every homes gutter's should have gutter cleaning carried out a minimum of once per year.

Moss on the roof

Moss on your roof will defiantly make your gutters block faster than a clean roof as the wind and rain along with the birds picking at the moss make it become loose and fall straight into the guttering. With a heavily soiled roof you can be fighting a losing battle, due to as soon as the guttering has been cleared it only takes the first bit of wind and bad weather and they have moss debris in again. This is why roof cleaning and moss removal has become ever so popular over the past few years.

The guttering 

Another problem can be the gutters aren't quite fitted correctly, meaning the levels are slightly out. The water then instead of flowing towards the downpipe as it should ends up sitting stagnant in the gutter, this then is prime for debris to grow. A simple gutter repair can solve this problem by adjusting the gutters fall, most times its only a couple of millimetres out.

Also, we have seen many times people who live in terraced properties were the guttering is in a run and the downpipes are situated at one end, you are then relying on the neighbours to keep there gutters clear otherwise problems occur. 
The water needs to exiting the gutters via the downpipe and if that downpipe becomes blocked or the house that has the downpipe doesn't maintain their gutters this can cause a problem for all the other homeowners within the terrace. Even with there own guttering cleared the water has nowhere to go causing leaks and water to overflow from low points in the run. 

Summary 

For most UK homes its recommend to ave your gutters cleared a minimum of once per year, for more rural and homes surrounded by tree's you may need the guttering cleared twice per year.

cannock shop gutters

Gutter Cleaning in Cannock Town Centre

13 Dec, 2019
Here is a recent gutter clean we carried out on a shop fronts guttering in Cannock town centre which was overflowing directly into the shop.

Gutter Guards

24 Nov, 2019
This is another hot topic when it comes to cleaning and maintaining home gutters. Here we will go through the most popular gutter guards used in the UK and what we think to them with both their pro and cons. Most Popular Gutter Guards 1. Gutter Hedgehog The gutter hedgehog became very popular after being promoted on a very popular shopping TV shopping channel. The idea behind the gutter hedgehog is that they are a quick and easy to install while preventing your guttering from being able to get block with debris whiles still allowing the water to flow. What we have found is that they do not tend to be all that great. The gutter hedgehog tends to catch moss, leaves and general debris which then decomposes and blocked the guards which prevent the water from flowing. Also, any seedling which gets into the guttering instead of being able to flow away with the rainwater ends up being caught in the hedgehog and start to grow as seen in the photo above. When we clear guttering with these in place we always advise the homeowners to take them out and leave them out, they are more hassle than they are worth. 2. Leaf Guards

Fix a Leaking Gutter

14 Nov, 2019
Here we will give you the top 3 reasons we find gutters leak and the best ways to stop those leaking gutters.
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