If you have trees near your home, you will definitely need to clean your seamless gutters every 6 months to a year and possibly even more often depending on how much debris collects in your gutters.
How do you know when it is time to clean your seamless gutters? The obvious thing is to climb a ladder to visually inspect your gutter system. You should be especially looking at the downspouts as clogging near them is the biggest cause of gutter failure and damage to your home. Also, if you see that your gutters are overflowing, that is a sign that they are clogged or that something is wrong. Don’t wait if you see this occurring. Wood rot and gutter warping/sagging can result from a non-functioning gutter.
We realize that gutter cleaning is not a fun process, and it can be dangerous being on ladders especially on two and three story homes. A few options you have are hiring a company like Martin’s Seamless Gutters to do the cleaning for you or you can opt for leaf guards. See our blog post about the different kinds of leaf guards and the ones we recommend. However, even with leaf guards, no guttering system is truly maintenance free regardless of what you may hear on TV. Occasionally the leaf guard can collect some pine straw or leaves on top and will need to be blown off. However, we have not yet seen a clogged gutter that has leaf guards installed. Another consideration when cleaning gutters is the shingle grit from your roof (assuming you have a shingled roof). While it Is basically harmless compared to leaves or pine straw, when you combine them together, you are asking for a clogged gutter. When cleaning shingle grit, we find it easiest to use a water house and a ladder to direct the of grit out through the downspouts.
We hope this article will help you make a decision on caring for your home and seamless gutter systems! If you would like to schedule a cleaning, leaf guard installation, or any other seamless gutter services we offer, call us at 850-324-8000 or contact us online at https://martinsseamlessgutters.com/contact