Spring Gutter Maintenance Tips

April showers bring more than just May flowers—they can also bring leaks and water damage to your home if you’re not careful! Spring is an important season for gutter care. Spring storms can clog your gutters with debris and cause water damage to your fascia, soffit, and siding if the water overflows from your gutters. Water leaking from your gutters can even cause damage to your foundation if it’s not taken care of quickly.

Follow our Spring gutter maintenance tips to protect your gutters and home this Spring!

Clean Your Gutters

This tip may seem obvious, but it’s an aspect of Spring cleaning a lot of homeowners overlook. It’s important to clean your gutters at least twice a year, usually in Spring and again in the Fall. Clearing your gutters of any leaves or debris will create a clear pathway for the rain to flow and direct away from your home. This protects your home from any possible water damage.

Check For Damage

It’s important to take care of your gutter system and that includes more than just cleaning out debris. Check your gutters and downspouts for any damage—rust, loose screws, sagging or pulling away from the home. These types of damage to your gutters and downspouts can create bigger issues in the future if not taken care of. Giving your gutters a quick once-over can save you a lot of pain in the future!

Repair The Damage

Make sure to repair any damage to your gutters and downspouts after you’ve located it. A loose screw may not seem important but could cause your gutter to come loose and overflow later. If the repairs are larger than a loose screw, such as your gutters sagging or pulling away from the home, call a professional. A gutter professional may also be able to identify any problems you didn’t notice.

Gutter Guards

The best way to protect your gutters this Spring is to install gutter guards. There are different types of gutter guards, including screen mesh, drop in, and the MasterShield Gutter Guard system. No matter which kind of gutter guards you install, their goal is to keep leaves and debris out while allowing water to run through and away from your home.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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Winter Gutter Tips

Winter weather can be rough on your gutter system. If you followed our fall gutter maintenance tips, your gutters should be in good shape going into winter, but there’s still a few steps you can take to protect your gutters during the chilly winter months.

Clean Gutters

If you didn’t clean your gutters during the fall, don’t wait any longer. As snow and ice accumulates in your gutters and freezes the existing debris, the added weight can stress your gutters. This can cause your gutters to sag or detach from your home. Cleaning your gutters can help avoid the overwhelming weight.

Gutter Guards

Gutter guards produce a shield between your gutter and the falling debris. They can help prevent the debris from collecting in your gutters and causing damage to your home. Especially in the winter, gutter guards can protect your gutters and home from harmful debris.

Improve Insulation

Improving the insulation in your attic can help prevent ice dams on your roof and in your gutters. Ice dams form due to the temperature differential between your attic and the outside, causing ice and snow to melt and refreeze. Add extra insulation to your attic to prevent heat from escaping. This will reduce the temperature differential and help prevent ice dams.

Follow these tips this winter to protect your gutters, and all us at (434) 239-8440 or head to our contact page to set up a free appointment today!

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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When To Replace Your Gutters

As much as we’d like them to, rain gutters don’t last forever—but not everyone knows the signs of when they need to be replaced. The signs range from obvious cracks and water leakage to signifiers like the gutters sagging away from your home. We’ve explained some of the signs that you may need to have your gutters replaced.

Cracks or Holes

If your gutters or downspouts have holes or cracks in them, it’s time to replace your gutters. These cracks and holes make it hard or even impossible for the water to properly flow through the gutter system, leading to leaking gutters that may cause damage to your home if left unfixed. Large dents can create the same issue.

Sagging

Gutters can start to sag and pull away from your home if they’re full of water. The weight of the water causes the gutters pull away, which means the gutters are not properly draining and need to be replaced. This may be due to debris piling up in the gutters are other damage harming the flow of water. Sagging gutters also hinder the appearance of your home and can lead to further damage if they’re not replaced.

Rust

If your gutters are rusted, it’s time to replace them. Rust can lead to further damage such as cracks and holes. In addition, rust stains on areas of your home around your gutters may be a sign that the gutters are overflowing and leaking water on the exterior of your home. This is another sign that your gutters need to be replaced to prevent further water damage.

Leaking or Standing Water

Leaking, overflowing, or standing water in your gutter system is an obvious sign that your gutters need to be cleaned or replaced. If the problem isn’t fixed by a simple gutter cleaning, the cause may be worse damage that requires replacing your gutters. Puddles of water around your home or water leaking into your foundation is another sign that your gutters aren’t performing properly.

Water Damage

In addition to leaking from your gutters, water damage to your home around your gutters is another sign your gutters may need to be replaced. This may take the form of the paint on your home peeling or even water seeping into your basement. Whatever form the damage takes, it indicates that your gutters are not properly directing water away from your home and may need to be replaced.

If you notice any of these issues with your gutters or around your home, contact a professional to examine your gutters and determine if they need to be replaced. Call us at (434) 239-8440 or head to our contact page to set up a free appointment today!

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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DIY Idea: Gutter Garden Planters

Do you have old gutters lying around that you’re not sure what to do with? If you’ve recently had your gutters replaced and still have the old ones lying around, what better way to make use of them than a Do-It-Yourself project! Gutter planters, using rain gutters to plant herbs and flowers, is a creative way to make use of your old gutters. Not only does it create a beautiful addition to your home or garden, but it’s also a space and cost saver.

To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of different DIY gutter planters so you can choose one (or more than one!) that works for you and get to planting.

Hanging Gutter Planter Stand  by Her Tool Belt

Learn how to make a hanging gutter planter stand for a fresh herb garden with this DIY tutorial from Her Tool Belt. Make it your own by choosing a paint color to match your home or garden, and planting whatever herbs you use most often.

Hanging Gutter Planter by The Creative Mom

This gutter planter by The Creative Mom offers a wonderful way to save space and add instant curb appeal to your home. If you’ve been wanting to add flowers to your front porch and don’t have the room, or want a beautiful and easy addition for your garden, this DIY is for you.

Rain Gutter Planter by A Girl & A Glue Gun

A Girl & A Glue Gun offers another option for a hanging gutter planter. This tutorial allows you to make the planter your own with by adding labels and words of inspiration. It also mixes in traditional pots in case you don’t have enough gutter to make a full hanging planter!

How to Use Gutters to Dress Up Your Fence by Instructables

If you’re working with a small yard, this DIY will be the choice for you. By attaching the gutter planters to your fence, this DIY will allow you to save space in your yard and garden while still adding the beauty and convenience of the previous planters.

How To Make A Hanging Gutter Garden by Goods Home Design

This hanging planter from Goods Home Design uses half round gutters instead of K-Style, creating a distinctive look from the previous DIYs. Add style and color to your home by planting colorful flowers and hanging them up.

These are just a few of the gutter planter DIYs that exist, but they’re a great start if you’re interested in making something out of your leftover gutter material. If you try any of these ideas, make sure to share it with us on Facebook or Twitter.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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5 Tips For Fall Gutter Maintenance

Fall can be rough on your home’s gutter system. To help combat the fall foliage, it’s important to take certain gutter maintenance steps to make sure your gutters, downspouts, and gutter guards aren’t damaged during the fall season. In order to help you know the best way to maintain your gutters during the fall, we’ve got 5 tips for fall gutter maintenance!

1. Trim Trees

A major step to fall gutter maintenance that many homeowners overlook is trimming the tree branches around your home. As the fall leaves and foliage begin to fall, they fall straight into your gutters and clog them. Trim the tree branches around your home and near your gutters to help prevent leaves from falling into your gutters.

2. Clean Your Gutters

Although trimming tree branches will help lower the amount of leaves falling into your gutters, some leaves will still make it in. To prepare for the bulk of the fall leaves, make sure your gutters are clean ahead of time! Dealing with leaves and debris falling into already clogged and soggy gutters makes them harder to clean later and may even lead to permanent damage. Make sure your gutters are clean now before the worst of the fall debris begins.

3. Check for Damage

The fall season can be rough on your gutters. After your gutters have been cleaned, go over them and thoroughly check for damage. Make sure you check for loose screws, gutters pulling away from your home, leaks, excessive wear and tear, or anything else that may make your gutters less effective. If you’re not sure what to look for, contact a professional to inspect your gutters and look for areas that may need repair.

4. Repair Any Damage

Once you’ve identified the problem areas of your gutters and downspouts, it’s time to repair them. These problem areas can get worse during the fall and winter seasons and can sometimes even lead to permanent damage to your home, so it’s important to take care of the damage as you find it. You may be able to complete some easy repairs yourself, such as loose screws or brackets, but make sure you call a professional to repair any severe damage!

5. Install Gutter Guards

The best way to protect your gutters in the fall and winter is to install gutter guards. There are a  number of different types of gutter guards, including screen mesh, drop in, and the MasterShield Gutter Guard system. No matter which kind of gutter guards you install, their goal is to keep leaves and debris out while allowing water to run through. Gutter guards are invaluable in maintaining and preventing debris from damaging your gutters during the fall.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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Tips On Replacing Your Gutters

Spring seems to be coming early this year.

It’s the time for new beginnings and updating.  If you are planning on updating or replacing your gutters this spring here are a few tips on making sure you choose what is right for your home and budget.

Size

Is the current size gutter system the right size for your home?  If you live in an area where there is heavy rainfall or you have a steep roof, you might want to update to a larger gutter.  The standard house gutter size is 5″.  If you’re having issues with overflow or your current gutters not being able to keep all the rainwater, 6″ is the next size up.  A 6″ gutter is typically a commercial gutter but for some homes, its more effective than a 5″ gutter.  Consult with your gutter professional to see which option is best for you.

Material

Our most common gutter is the 5″ white aluminum K-Style Gutter.  Whether you are looking to change it up with a different color or different style, we can help.  You’d be surprised at what a darker gutter can add to your home. Check out our gallery and see for yourself.   They actual material you use can depend on a number of factors.  We have a older blog post that can help you decide if you want aluminum, copper or galvanized gutters.         Tips On Replacing Your Gutters

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Top Reasons To Add Gutter Guards This Spring

Gutters are the veins of your home. They direct all of mother natures rain water and snow melt away from your homes’ foundation, protecting your home.  When they become clogged, they stop doing their job.  Adding gutter guards to your home is very good idea when it comes to keeping your gutters clog-free. Here are a few more reasons to add gutter guards to your home this spring.

  1. Debris-free gutters

    Unwanted leaves in your gutters can lead to serious issues if neglected for too long.  It can lead to water finding other ways out of your gutters, as well as the perfect place for pests to build a home.

  1. Low maintenance

    Gutter Guards do not mean maintenance free forever.  It just means MUCH less maintenance. Unprotected gutters require more frequent cleaning, which can be time consuming, and potentially unsafe. Installing a quality gutter protection system prevents debris and leaves from accumulating in the first place.  You should only have to check them out once or twice a year depending on the amount of trees around your home.

Top Reasons To Add Gutter Guards This Spring

  1. Protect against pests

    Unprotected gutters can provide a convenient entry point to your warm and inviting roof space, which then becomes a nesting site and food source for a host of common household pests such as birds, possums, rats, mice and snakes.

  1. Avoid floods and water damage

    With a quality gutter guard installed, your gutters are able to transport rainwater the way they’re designed to, significantly reducing the risk of flooding in storms and heavy rain, as well as the likelihood of damage to your walls and ceilings if your home were to flood.

If you are planning on add gutter guards to your home or are interested in add gutter guards, give us a call for a free estimate. We’ll be more than happy to help you choose the perfect gutter guard system to add to your home. Saving you time and money on cleaning gutters out.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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Gutter Guards And Snow

Gutter Guards And Snow. In this area of Virginia, we seem to get just a couple good snow storms and that’s it. There are more icy snows that roll through our area. We’ve talked A LOT about ice dams and icicles. We haven’t really dived into what to expect when you have gutter guards on your gutters.

Gutter Guards And Snow

So when snow that’s icier or slowly melting becomes a icy slush this is where it’s going to drip; causing icicles and ice dams. When you mix this wintery weather with solid aluminum metal, it can create a sheet of ice. This makes it harder for your gutter guards to work properly ( or if you do not have gutter guards you can still run into this with just gutters). The melted water is going to roll over the ice sheet and drip onto your porch or walkway creating slick spots. Gutter guards that are more open mesh allow more water to seep in but this can make your gutter HEAVY. Leading to your gutters possibly becoming unattached from your home.

This is one of the biggest complaints about gutter guards but think about the rest of the year and how they keep your gutters clean and free of clogs. There are some preventative measure you can take to avoid these ice sheets over your screen mesh gutter guards and hopefully keeping the majority of heavy ice out of your gutters.

Snow rakes to pull sections of snow away from the eaves of your roof or heated gutter guards.

Gutters & Guards, Inc does offer a heated gutter guard. Depending on the climate that you live in should always impact the type of gutter guards you need to install on your home. That and the type of debris you want to keep out.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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More About Removing Icicles From Your Gutters

Last week we discussed removing icicles from your gutters, learn more about removing icicles from your gutters.

Check out last week’s article here.

Insulation – Heat can escape into the attic from the interior of your home through a number of avenues.  Lighting fixtures in your ceilings, poorly laid or insufficient insulation allow excess heat to enter your attic, but it’s the latter two that you need to inspect for and address, since you have to keep insulation away from the fixtures.  R-Values have increased over the years so you might stop ice dams by simply rolling extra insulation over what you have installed now. Pay particular attention to the edges of your attic and any space between rafters that might have been missed or removed in the past.

More About Removing Icicles From Your Gutters

Circulation – Another cause of excess heat in the attic is poor circulation.  Depending on the home, some attics may have a vent/fan installed in the wall of the attic to maintain a proper internal temperature in relation to the external temperature.  If you home is lacking proper circulation, you can speak with a local builder about installing baffles.  A baffle is a channel run from your attic through the insulation to the soffit on your roof eave.  This allows the cold air from outside to enter the attic and maintain a proper temperature.  This can also help to stop ice dams from building up.

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If you notice that your gutters are pulling away from your home contact a professional ( Like Gutters & Guards) to tighten up your gutters to ensure that they won’t cause more damage to your home.

For a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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How To Prevent Slick Spots On Your Sidewalk

How To Prevent Slick Spots On Your Sidewalk. No matter how well the snow and ice are removed from sidewalks, parking lots and the surrounding streets, people will invariably encounter some slippery surfaces when walking outdoors in the winter. Many cold-weather injuries are the result of falls on ice-covered streets and sidewalks. Walking on snow or ice is especially treacherous.

Getting around in icy conditions calls for planning, caution, and a little common sense:

  • Dress warmly and wear boots with non-skid soles (avoid plastic and leather soles).
  • When entering a building, remove as much snow and water from your boots as possible. Take notice that floors and stairs may be wet and slippery. Walk carefully.
  • Be prepared to fall and try to avoid using your arms to break your fall. If you fall backward, make a conscious effort to tuck your chin so your head doesn’t strike the ground with full force.
  • Streets and sidewalks that have been cleared of snow and ice should still be approached with caution. Look out for “black ice.” Dew, fog or water vapor can freeze on cold surfaces and form an extra-thin, nearly invisible layer of ice that can look like a wet spot on the pavement. It often shows up early in the morning or in areas that are shaded from the sun.

How To Prevent Slick Spots On Your Sidewalk

Eliminating Snow and Ice

    • Pay attention to weather predictions in your area. This will allow you to buy shovels or de-icers if you do not already have them. It will also help you predict whether you will be dealing with freezing rain or light, fluffy snow which require different techniques.
    • Apply a de-icer early in an ice storm, or a storm with heavy wet snow. You can choose between sand, rock salt, potassium chloride and other products.
    • Keep up with shoveling once the snow starts if possible. If it is only a powdery snow, you can just brush it away with a broom. If you cannot keep up with it, just shovel it all away at the end of the storm.

For more information about protecting your gutters or for a free estimate on gutter cleaning, repairs or adding gutter guards, call us today! Our experienced team will take the guess-work out of the process, and ensure that your home is protected.

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Gutters & Guards, Inc.

P: (434) 239-8440 | F: (434) 239-8443
19950 Leesville Road, Lynchburg, VA 24502
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Email: [email protected]
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