When is the Best Time to Clean Your Gutter?

Although it may seem like a chore and certainly isn’t the most fun thing you might do on the weekend, gutter cleaning is integral to your home maintenance schedule. Your gutters are an essential part of your house as a system; they need to function correctly to do what they were designed for.

Why is late Fall an excellent time to clean your gutters?

The timing of cleaning your gutters can help prolong their life and minimize damage. There are a few factors to consider, but one of the best times to clean your gutters is when the season changes from autumn to winter and the last leaves have fallen.

This is one you’ll want to plan out in advance since it’s better to wait for most, if not all, of the leaves to fall so that you don’t have to perform this chore twice. Learn your region’s fall foliage projections to develop a good plan.

If you fail to clean gutters before winter, all the water, leaves, and debris in your gutters will freeze once the temperature drops. Once it's frozen, the water from the snow and Ice will have nowhere to go. In many cases, clogged gutters are the direct cause of ice dams. When water freezes in your gutters because of debris preventing drainage, it forces the melting ice and snow underneath the shingles on your roof and into your home.

This causes mold, leaks, and water stains. At the same time, ice dams can form that are so heavy that they cause your gutters to tear away from the edge of your roof. However, clean gutters can proactively prevent ice dams from forming, as well as prevent any significant water damage.

Once the water freezes, you can rest assured that the heavier debris will also freeze. Regular gutters were not designed to accommodate this additional weight, which can result in gutters tearing, pulling away from the home, and unsightly sagging gutters. In this unfortunate scenario, your gutters could fall entirely. In addition to being very dangerous, heavy, sagging gutters typically require the gutters to be replaced entirely.

How Gutter Cleaning Can Protect Your Family and Home

If your gutters stay full of debris, they'll compromise the safety and health of your family. Once the leaves, pine needles, and twigs start to pile up in your gutters, they'll serve as the ideal breeding ground for dangerous contaminants like mildew and mold, which can quickly spread under the eaves and into the soffit and attic areas of the home.

Those who have asthma or are susceptible to allergies will be significantly affected by the increased harmful mold spores and mildew in the air—cleaning your gutters before winter can remove and destroy potentially harmful contaminants before they become a severe health risk.

And it doesn't mean you can completely forget about pests because it’s cold. While clean gutters may not completely repel foraging rodents and insects, they can help prevent them from nesting and entering your home. Virtually all critters love dark, damp places.

The decaying leaf matter fosters mold and bacteria that act like a beacon to hungry insects and rodents. However, cleaning your gutters before it freezes will reduce the likelihood of a pest making them their winter home.

Why LeafGuard is your best option to prevent clogging and cleaning

An even better way to avoid this problem is eliminating the need to clean gutters with a gutter system that won’t clog – LeafGuard®. With this system, you’ll never have to worry about that leaf buildup or water seepage. LeafGuard provides such a system and aims to help homeowners everywhere fortify their homes.

LeafGuard is the premier product in the market today. Our gutters are more robust than the industry standard, and we have received the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for the last 18 years.

Our proprietary one-piece design utilizes the simple but powerful principle of liquid adhesion to draw rainwater into the gutter while leaves and all other types of debris roll off. This prevents your gutters from clogging. Find the closest dealer to you today!

LeafGuard’s limited lifetime guarantee means that if you end up having a gutter clog, we will come out and fix it at no charge. And this guarantee is for the life of the product. LeafGuard's seamless one-piece design is more robust and durable than any gutter system. With LeafGuard, quality and durability are built in. The gutters are stronger than the industry standard, ensuring your home’s protection against the harshest weather conditions and your family’s safety. LeafGuard – protection from a company you can trust.