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The Importance of Gutters for your Home

Jul 8, 2013

When are asked, as roofing specialists in Newmarket, York, Durham, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Zefer & Uxbridge, the importance of gutters for your home we tell homeowners this…gutters are to home longevity as a healthy diet is to a long life and air conditioning is to your summer sanity—completely interlinked.

The importance of gutters for your home comes from the fact that they keep foundation- and structural-damaging water and melting snow away from your home. Think of gutters as the home equivalent to storm drains in streets. Without them the street—and your home—would be flooded with water as there would be no place to water to drain to. Without gutters (and more importantlywell-maintained gutters) your home is vulnerable to:

·Wall- and foundation-damaging runoff

·Ice dams (frozen pools of water) on your roof from melting and refreezing snow

·Soil destabilization

·Flooded basements

·Soil erosion and destabilization

·Damaged/flooded gardens

·Water stains inside and outside your home

·Damage to doors, garage doors, windows, decks, siding, trim, masonry, brick and more

·Mosquitos breeding in the standing water created by lack of drainage.

Despite their importance, gutters aren’t like the Ronco Food Dehydrator infomercial we’ve all seen on TV—they aren’t a set-it-and-forget-it solution. They need proper maintenance to ensure they properly drain the water from your home. As roofing specialists in Newmarket, York, Durham, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Zefer & Uxbridge we can’t stress proper maintenance more—without it you’ll be seeing us a lot more often!

The Importance of Gutters for your Home—and the even MORE Importance Maintenance:Since gutters are prone to the leaking caused from the clogging, rusting and cracking associated with crazy Canadian weather, it is imperative to maintain your gutters—and remove the seasonal afflictions of our Canadian climate. When maintaining the integrity of your home’s gutter system, consider the following easy maintenance tasks:

1. Unclogging Clogged Gutters
Gutters are extremely vulnerable to clogging, especially in the fall and after any extreme weather fall, so be sure to clean them at LEAST once a year—and after an major weather event.

2. Sealing of Leaky Joints
Gutters take the brunt of bad weather, which means they are vulnerable to wear and tear. Whenever you see a leaking gutter give it a little loving by sealing it (from the inside) with a gutter sealant.

3. Fixing Corrosion
Ditto for the above about corrosion. At the first sign of corrosion patch your gutter with a comparable material (so aluminum patches for aluminum-based gutters, plastic for plastic, etc.)

Remember—gutters are your home’s best friend, so treat them with loving your care. Your walls, foundation and insurance company will thank you (OK—your insurance company won’t likely send you a ‘thank you’ card in the mail, but you’ll save on costly deductibles at least).

For more advice on your home’s roof and the value it brings, follow our blog and make us your roofing specialists in Newmarket, York, Durham, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Zefer & Uxbridge!