7 Tips For Taking Care Of Your Gutter in McLean, VA
When you’re looking to clean the exterior of your home, one of the things that may not seem entirely obvious for you as far as things to do is to look up at the gutters that are attached to your home — they take good care of your home and without them, you’d have quite a few issues with water entering your home and possibly even damage it.
Of course, taking care of your gutter is a lot easier if you have some idea of what you’re doing and if you don’t, you can refer to this article for some good advice.
Here are seven tips for taking care of your gutter in McLean, VA
1. Taking Care Of It Early And Often
One of the best things that you can do for your gutters is to not put off cleaning them — and to take care of them often enough that when you are cleaning them, you’re not spending many hours cleaning up the mess that has accumulated.
The thing to do instead is to make sure that you have some kind of schedule for yourself so that you know when you’re going to be cleaning the gutters and stick to them.
2. Preventing Larger Debris
When you can prevent larger debris from entering your gutter system, you’re doing yourself a favor in that you stop some of the bigger clogs from entering into the gutter.
There are numerous ways to do this but some of the easier ones involve filter systems that still allow water to come in but not the things that clog your gutters.
3. Trimming Nearby Branches
So long as you are taking care of your gutters, you can also make the time to trim some of the branches that are near your house that could possibly hit your house in a strong storm.
The reason that this is a good idea is twofold — one is that you’re already up there so it’s not like you’re making a special trip.
Secondly, by trimming the branches you are preventing possible damage to the gutters as well!
4. Wearing Protective Gear
The cleaning of gutters can be a dangerous thing and if you’re not protected it’s possible that you’re going to get hurt.
More specifically, you should try to wear long sleeved clothing (even if lightweight for the summer) as well as goggles for your eyes and a pair of gloves to protect your hands.
5. Stabilizing The Ladder
One of the worst things that might happen when you’re taking care of your gutters is if you are up there on a ladder and have a fall because the ladder was not properly stabilized.
What you should do to prevent this is to make sure that the ladder is properly stabilized — of course it would be great if you could get a second person to hold the ladder for you but failing that, you can always check the stability of the ladder and see that it’s not on uneven ground.
6. Verifying How Well It’s Attached
Verifying how well a gutter system is attached to your home is fairly straightforward but it’s something that needs to be done when you’re taking care of your gutters.
Basically, you’re going to want to see the areas where your gutter is attached and make sure that the things attaching it to your house are not loose or missing.
7. Check For Leaks
Lastly, it’s important to check your gutters thoroughly to see that there aren’t leaks.
If you run some water through the gutters and find that there are leaks, you’re going to have to find some good sealant to seal the leak or if possible just replace the section of the gutter that has the leak.
Image Painting is a professional full-service residential & commercial painting contractor based in Falls Church, Virginia. We have served the Washington DC metropolitan area since 2003. You can click below to request an estimate.
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