By: Chris Copeland
Fall has come and gone and winter is steadily approaching. If the snow hasn't started falling just yet, now would be the perfect time to ensure that your gutters and downspouts are functioning properly. If your gutters are clogged and the snow falls and begins to melt it could leave you in a disastrous position with the surrounding elements of your home as well as foundation and basement water damage. Gutter cleaning is a fairly simple task that any homeowner can perform if you don't mind working on top of a ladder. The work is not tedious just manually intensive so to speak in that the best way to unclog a gutter is using the tools that God gave you, your hands, and a ladder. If you are worried about all the muck that accumulates in a gutter system you can wear a pair of inexpensive rubber gloves to help aide you in this process. The first step in getting your gutters functioning appropriately is to get all the material that's been deposited in your gutters cleared. You will need to take care in positioning the ladder on the gutter system so that you don't do any unnecessary damage to it during the cleaning. Simply position the ladder on the gutter, climb to the top and remove the debris. A couple of handy little tools to help you along in the process are hand garden shovels and a pail. When you get down to the only portion that remains is the sludge on the bottom of the gutters, you can use the hand shovel to scoop it out. Instead of just discarding it in your yard, you could use the pail to place all the material and then discard it properly in the trash can. Once it looks all clear, I'd suggest hitting it with the hose to see that the water is flowing properly to the downspouts and out the bottom. If it is not, then you may have another issue with the actual downspout being clogged. Again, it's fairly easy to clear a clogged downspout. These clogs typical appear in the bends near the top of the gutters where they bend back and attach to your home. These bends tend to be good little places for nests to form and really clog a gutter system. All you really need to know is this, the downspouts are typically attached to your home not at the bends so there's nothing to worry about there and the bends actually piece together sort of like Lego's. The only difference is that the upper pieces fit inside the lower pieces. They are made to fit this way so that the water has a continuous flow to ground zero. Simply unhinge the upper piece by the downspout attachment at the gutter and start taking the bends apart. Once the pieces are removed, clear any debris that may be clogging the down flow of water. Once they are all cleared you can put the pieces back together and reattach it to the gutter system. Be sure to test again with the water hose to see that the drain is free and clear.
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Chris provides information on gutters and downspouts especially for those looking for some DIY Gutters information that will help you hang your own.
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