Gutter systems protect your New Jersey home from leaks and moisture damage, so it’s critical that you maintain them properly. When gutters leak or downspouts back up, water may accumulate around your foundation. As moisture continues to seep into the foundation’s surrounding soil, walls and floors may settle or crack and eventually cause costly damage to your home.
Maintaining gutter integrity begins with regular inspections. Twice each year, during spring and fall, carefully climb onto your roof and examine all portions of your New Jersey home’s downspout system.
5 Gutter Inspection Tips
Conduct the following chores during each inspection to keep all gutters optimally functional during rain, wind and snow.
- While wearing protective work gloves, remove all debris, sticks, dead leaves and pine needles from each gutter section. You may need a small trowel to empty all debris.
- Using your trowel or a caulking knife, carefully scrape off stuck-on roofing granules and remaining dirt film. Use a garden hose to run water through your gutters for a final cleanout. To fully flush downspouts, increase the pressure of your hose.
- After properly cleaning and flushing gutters, look for areas where water has pooled. This indicates that they’re not sloped properly, so you may need to adjust their position.
- Gutter hangers occasionally break, and may wear out over time. Take a handful of new gutter hooks onto the roof with you so you’re prepared to replace aging attachments. If your gutters are hung by straps, it’s difficult to remove the straps since they’re inserted underneath roofing materials. Instead, just add gutter hangers with self-tapping gutter screws to simplify repairs.
- Look for cracks in the gutters, themselves, and fill them in with exterior silicone caulking. You may need to replace entire sections of your gutter if it has rusted through.
Hire Roofing Professional
If your home is older, consider contacting a New Jersey professional roofer to handle your gutter inspection and possible repairs. LGC Roofing has been handling such projects for the past 25 years.
We specialize in replacing aging gutters with new aluminum, vinyl or steel models, the best gutter solution available on the market today. An additional benefit of many steel gutter replacement systems is a baked-on enamel coating which allows the gutter material to lasts for 30 to 40 years without requiring much maintenance—and you can choose enamel that matches your NJ home’s trim.
Call LGC Roofing to schedule a thorough inspection of your home’s gutter and downspout system, or to inquire about gutter repair pricing.
Don’t wait until you’ve developed foundation problems to start thinking about gutter replacement or economical fixes. We’re experts in gutter and roofing maintenance, offer competitive pricing and comprehensive guarantees.
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6 Comments
Great article, lots of good info here. I would hope that you would consider adding to your article that folks no longer have to “wear masks,” use ladders, scoops, or endanger themselves any longer while their rain gutters. I’ve found a great new method of doing my gutters without the fear of falling from a ladder, or dragging equipment around the perimeter of my home, while cleaning. Its a new tool on the market that is called a gutter buster and if you have a wet/dry vac with a 2-1/2″ hose it fastens onto the hose and literally “vacuums out” all gutter debris, wet or dry. You NEVER have to touch or breath the nasty debris that is packed into your gutters again and you do this while staying safely on the ground. Let your readers know that there is a safer, faster, and easier method of cleaning rain gutters now. Thanks Sonny
Thanks for the great tips! Maintaining a clean gutter system seems vital for protecting one’s home from hazards. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the tips it says the essay method of cleaning gutter. Keep up your good works.
Gutter Maintenance: From… http://lgcroofingnj.com/roofingblog/gutters/gutter-maintenance-from-inspection-to-leak-repair/ #roofing
Another good tip is to use a digital camera to take photos of the roof and those hard to reach areas, then you can check out any damage when you’re back down the ladder and in the safety of your home. You can even attach the camera to a pole or tripod so you don’t have to go all the way onto the roof.
Fibreglass Roofing recently posted..Testing News here
Excellent suggestion as those inspections can be really tricky!
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