7 Tips To Prepare Your Gutters For Rainy Weather

As the weather begins to change from warm and sunny to grey and rainy – it is time to revisit the good old gutters that we forgot about during the summer. Because if we don’t – we’re almost guaranteed to have some problem happen at the most inconvenient time.

If you live in an area where it rains heavy and often, then you probably know just how valuable gutters can be in keeping everything in perfect order during heavy rainfall. But, what you or someone else may not know is how to prepare your gutters for the rainy weather, and well, that’s why we’re here.

Today, we’re going to give you a few tips on how you can prepare your gutters for the rainy season. Let’s begin!

1. Clean The Gutters

Source: centralbayroofing.com

First and foremost, you’re going to want to thoroughly clean your gutters. Over time, all kinds of debris will find its way into the gutters. Trust us – people have been finding everything lodged in them if they haven’t cleaned them in a while.

To be fair, most commonly, you’re just going to find leaves and tiny branches filling up the gutters, which is not a big deal, but you will still have to take them all out.

Now, you’ll want to do this while the weather is good because, trust us – you won’t be getting wet leaves out of the gutter without breaking some heavy sweat. If they get wet – they’ll get sticky. And, when they get sticky – there’s no way they’re leaving the gutters without a fight. So, start early and don’t wait for the rain to start falling to do the cleaning.

2. Clean The Downspout

Source: mrhandyman.com

Another thing people seem to forget about is the downspout. For some strange reason, people don’t seem to realize that downspouts can become clogged, too. As a matter of fact, downspouts are far easier to clog than the gutters themselves, yet we still don’t think about it.

Well, you shouldn’t be like the others, and before the rainy season starts, you should make sure to thoroughly clean the downspout. After all, what’s the point of cleaning the gutters if the water can’t leave them through the downspout? Both of these should be clean before the rain comes around.

3. Check The Roof

Source: allstarroofingandrepair.com

To be fair, this has nothing to do with the gutters themselves, but if your roof, skylights or flashings are compromised – you won’t really have much use from the gutters anyway. To be fair, at this point, it seems we’re simply talking about rain entering your home and not preparing the gutters for the rain season, but if you think about it – that’s not really true.

You see, if your roof is damaged, the roofing debris could easily wash into the gutters, clog them, and then cause you issues, the same way the leaves and the branches would. As you can see, not everything’s always the way it seems. Now, on that note, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you might not even be able to properly locate roof damage, so you might need some professional help with this.

4. Repair Gutters And Downspouts

If your gutters are compromised in any way, simply cleaning them won’t do you much good. Sure, it’ll help if your gutters are loose, sagging or leaking – there aren’t too useful to you anyway. If that’s the case, you could try and humor yourself with a couple of days long DIY project while you try and repair your gutters, but if you want to take our advice – don’t waste your time.

Unless you’ve done this work in the past, you’re probably just going to end up contacting www.gutterspecialists.co.uk either way, only this time, they’ll not only have to fix what was wrong in the first place, they will also have to fix whatever you did wrong when you were “fixing” the issue. So, not only will you have wasted your time, but you will have wasted your money, too.

So, be smart – call the professionals right away and have them quickly and efficiently solve whatever problem you’re having.

5. Give Your Trees A Good Trim

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If you have trees surrounding your house, we would strongly suggest trimming them before the rainy season starts. As we’ve said earlier, the gutters will inevitably become home to all kinds of debris, but most of it will be leaves. So, the best way to prevent clogging during the rainy season is by eliminating the leaves from the equation. So, either grab a trimmer and do the job yourself, or call up and hire someone to do it for you – either way, it is fine. Just get it done.

6. Invest In Gutter Screens

Gutter screens are a great way to make sure you don’t have to deal with clogged debris as often as you do. These plastic drop-ins protect your gutters from being filled with leaves and branches, and therefore, they prevent constant clogging. Also, they’re remarkably easy to install, and unless you’re scared of heights – you should be able to install them all by yourself in less than an hour. However, these won’t protect from fine debris like seeds and pine needles, so keep that in mind.

7. Invest In Gutter Guards

Source: rooftopservicesllc.com

If you want full protection during the rainy season – you’ll invest in the gutter guards. There are two main types of gutter guards – the surface-tension and fine mesh gutter guards. Both of these will protect your gutters from debris a lot better than a gutter screen would – but they’re also not perfect.

For starters, surface-tension guards are quite a bit tricky to install, and you most likely won’t be able to do it on your own. They’re excellent at keeping all debris out of your gutters; however, they kind of defeat the purpose of the gutters during very heavy rainfall.

On the other hand, fine mesh gutter guards are a bit easier to install, although we still would suggest leaving this work to the pros. But, the main “issue” is that these must be oftenly cleaned because they can easily clog, which would render the gutters themselves completely useless. On the bright side of things, these are quite easy to clean, so that’s a bonus.

Conclusion:

Now, unless you live in a monsoon climate, we’re pretty confident these tips will help you get through the rainy season without any issues whatsoever. Hopefully, you feel the same way, too. Take care.