Tips on How to Keep Guttering in Good Condition & Free of Debris

Guttering plays a very important role to your roof line. This takes away all the water collected from your roof and disperses it into the ground. Guttering comes in all shapes, sizes and material. Guttering comes in the form of Cast iron,aluminium, plastic, and in some cases lead. Plastic guttering is the most commonly used material for guttering because of its maintenance free finish. Over time these materials breakdown as they are exposed to the elements causing your guttering to leak. Leaking gutters can cause your property’s walls to become damp and causing further more damage.

Check Your Guttering for Leaks & Defects

Its vital to check your guttering has no leaks. This can be easily done when it rains. The next you have a good down pour walk around your property and check for leaks. Pay extra attention to corners, stop end, outlets and joints. These areas are most common due to the perishing rubber seal over time. Some times when gutter is not installed with the brackets appropriately spaced this can cause the guttering to move/bend under hot weather, there for causing the guttering to either un-clip or clips to be broken. The correct spacing should not exceed 1m, roof-lines with heavy snow should be set to 750mm centres.

Its important to clean your gutters at least once a year or in some cases twice a year (bi-anually) depending on where your property is based. This is more important if you live near trees as these are the main culprits for blocking guttering. There really isn’t no ideal time to clean your gutters but id recommend cleaning them before the winter season sets in as this is when we tend to get the worst of the weather. Id also recommend the beginning of the summer as all the trees leafs have fallen.

If you choose to go down the route of cleaning the guttering yourself its very important you think safety first. For ladder safety and PPE see our blog posts on ladders & Work wear!  If you decide it to much of a task to do it your self then give Layton Roofing a call and we will obliged to help. There are also various gutter tools which reach of extendible poles to clear gutters. These generally only work well on bungalow height. Once you have managed to clear your gutters of any debris or foreign objects you need to make sure its free flowing and all repairs made are fixed. You can either wait for the rain or grab your garden hose pipe and flush it through. You may come across blocked downpipes! The best way to unblock these is to disconnect them from the down pipe clips and flush them through. For angled pipes and off sets use a sink un-blocking tool. This is a long bendy spring type wire. Most DIY stores sell them.

Layton Roofing & Building Specialists is Worcesters number one leading roofing firm that deals with all aspects of roofing work, including gutter repairs and replacement guttering. Call our team of trained roofers in Worcester and Malvern for gutter care today on 01905 26296 or 07980324227.

Or Visit this page for more information on gutter linings, treatments and roofline services http://www.laytonroofing.co.uk/fascia-guttering-roofline