It’s important to properly maintain your gutters to help preserve it’s lifespan and longevity. A large part of maintenance and upkeep is in the act of damage prevention. Below are several ways you can prevent damage to your roof, home, and gutters. A variety of damaging weather will need different preparation. For example, snow will require your gutters to have different preparation and maintenance performed on an annual basis than hail will. Luckily, in the southern Texas region, snow is not an issue to the health of your gutters so below we cover the most common weather damages.
Hail
You can help prevent hail damage to your gutters by installing a heavy-duty gutter system such as copper, steel, or another type of durable metal. Before hail season roll around between March and October, you’ll want to perform a thorough inspection of all brackets and joints of your gutters to help ensure they are still in good shape. Additionally, you’ll also want to inspect your roof for any loose shingles and nail them down. This helps avoid your shingles from sliding down your roof and cracking your gutter channels on impact as hail can easily knock shingles loose.
Water
Water should freely through the downspouts of your gutters, and even though gutters are built to withstand water flow, though that does not exempt your gutters from water damages. Standing water can seriously damage your gutters with improper runoff. There are steps you can take to help prevent water damage to your gutters. First, painting a layer of water-resistant paint can help prevent cracking and seal the breaks or cracks in gutter channels. Secondly, it’s important to clear any debris from the gutter channels and remove trees from above gutter spouts to reduce seasonal leaf debris.
Foundation
It’s important to keep your foundation free of potential damages. Your foundation determines the overall health of your home. By following these few steps you can help ensure the safety and health of your home. The first step is to point any gutter downspouts away from your foundation or home on a downward slope. You can aid the flow of water by implementing rain chains or stones. It’s important to direct the flow of water through dirt or cement trenches.
Yearly Inspection
To prevent overall damages to your home it’s important to conduct a yearly inspection on your gutters, roof, and foundation. These regular inspections can help maintain the health of your home and keep it free of damages.
The main things you will want to check for is keeping your gutters well maintained, free of debris and standing water. You’ll need to keep water away from the outer perimeter of your home to avoid foundation damage Lastly, you’ll need to ensure that no dirt is washed away from downspouts – if there are signs of washed out dirt, it’s recommended to install rain barrels, rain chains or some other method of re-directing and re-routing water flow.
