Gutter Cleaning

Here is a short video on a most exciting topic – gutter cleaning! Well, maybe not so exciting, unless you fail to set up your ladder properly. The video gives you some basic tips on ladder safety, gutter cleaning.

Some of the important points covered in the video are:

• Extension ladder ratio – maintain 4/1 ratio of ladder height to base distance
• Put your ladder away after use to prevent kids from climbing on it
• Use a 2×4 in your gutter to prevent damage from the ladder
• Use gloves when cleaning your gutters
• If you are using a power washer, remove the loose debris from your gutters first

It’s A Dirty Job!

I don’t wake up on Saturday mornings and get excited about cleaning gutters, but it is a job that needs to be done – sometimes several times each year. Proper gutter cleaning will help to minimize roofing cost, as well as prevent other problems with your home.

First, consider what gutters do; they direct rainwater away from your home. How much water do gutters direct away from the home? LOTS!! For example, a 1500 square foot roof will collect approximately 500 gallons of water during a rain event of 0.5 inches! So during a year of rainfall, your talking about thousands of gallons of water.

Thousands of gallons of water will cause all sorts of problems if it is not directed away from the home via clean gutters:

1) Standing water in gutters can seep into roofing edges and cause wood rot of the underlying roofing material.

2) Standing water in gutters can weigh down gutters and cause damage to the gutters and to the areas where the gutters are attached.

3) Standing water in gutters can cause rusting of the gutter material.

But wait – there’s more!

4) Water allowed to flow over clogged gutters can find it’s way onto house siding and cause eventual wood rot.

5) Water allowed to flow near the foundation can cause foundation damage.

6) Water allowed to flow near the perimeter of the home can cause damp, musty basements.

7) Water allowed to flow near the perimeter of the home can cause insect infestation due to high moisture accumulation.

I’m sure there are other problems I forgot to mention, but the point is that a lot of problems can be prevented just by spending a little bit of time and cleaning out your gutters.

One of the most common types of roofs is the gable type. The simple form of gable roof has two surfaces of the same size and pitch. Looking at a gable roof edge-on resembles the outer perimeter of a capital letter “A”:

This simple design makes gable roofs cheap and easy to build, so the initial roofing cost is relatively low. They shed water efficiently, provides good attic space, and provide for plentiful ventilation.

The simple gable design is seldom seen on most homes; homes with gable roof types typically have multiple gables – each gable perpendicular to adjoining gables. Have you ever heard of the “House of Seven Gables”? Right – a house with seven gables:

The old house where I grew up had three gables, and was no where near as complex as this great example of a house of seven gables.

Unfortunately for gable-roofed homes, gable roofs do not hold up well to high winds. If you have a gabled-roof house in a high wind area, be sure to have it properly braced to your end wall by a professional contractor.

Yep – sometimes it is a storm, and sometimes it is something else entirely. But one thing is for sure, roof damage will occur when you least expect it, and you will have to deal with roofing cost:

This may be an extreme example, but the point is that roofing cost can hit your wallet at the worse times. The best advice is to be sure that you have the right homeowners insurance to cover it!

This is my first post to roofing cost, and it is really an introductory. I have been a homeowner since 1999, my first home being a condominium. Before that, I lived in apartments, and had no concerns about roofing cost. But after a few years living in my condo, the roof had to be replaced. Luckily, I observed the work closely, and learned a lot during the experience.

last February, we purchased a three bedroom house – two kids and a wife will make you do things like this    Anyway, the roof needed patch repair, and was yet again aware that roofing cost would figure into our budget.  Well, armed with experience, this ordeal was not so bad.  I knew what was involved, and was able to minimize my expenses.

I hope to pass down some wisdom to my visitors, and hope that their needs will be met with a minimum drain from their bank accounts.