There are already enough reasons why you won’t want to wash your gutters. Why bother when it’s out of sight? No one is looking at it. You have to climb up a ladder, haul containers of water and detergent up there to clean and wash. It’s just too stressful. Life is hard enough, no need to add to that.
Do you know by not doing anything about your gutters, you could significantly harden life for you, your family and guests? Although they’re out of sight, they play an important role in keeping your home comfortable.
Leaving your gutters unclean lets it accumulate debris. Debris-clogged gutters become a problem and attract other troubles. They could come in form of the following.
Pests
Is your home surrounded by trees? Are your gutters under a tree? If that’s the case, you’ll have broken branches, twigs and leaves in your gutters. The presence of this debris coupled with the height makes it an ideal habitat for birds and squirrels. Once they’ve made a nest of your gutter, it becomes clogged leading to other problems. Moreover, the noise these pests make will no doubt irritate you and disturb your peace. Gutters not under or surrounded by trees face similar problems. When they are clogged by debris, even the smallest puddle of stagnant water makes it a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Damaged Roof
When your gutters are long overdue, clogging is imminent. When your gutter is clogged during rainfalls, it overflows onto your roof. The wood supporting your roof will absorb the water which will cause the wood to rot away. When the wood rots, fungi start to grow on your roof. This makes an unpleasant sight. I say this from experience. The cost of fixing the roof could run very high as the wood decay spreads.
Damaged Brackets
Brackets are what holds your gutters in place. When the roof is clogged with debris, it adds to the weight of the gutter. If you don’t clear out the debris, the continuous accumulation will damage the brackets. The damage is sped up by the weight of water it will hold when it’s clogged.
Potential Damage to Your Foundation
One of the reasons gutters exist is to move water from where it could be a problem to where it’ll be easily absorbed into the ground. When your gutters are clogged they won’t fulfill that purpose. When your gutter is filled with debris, the level of water during a heavy rainfall will rise till it overflows and starts dropping to the ground around your home. If this is left unchecked, your foundations will start absorbing more water than it should. This weakens your foundation and could possibly damage it.
You can see this all a chain reaction. By just refusing to clean your gutters, you make it inviting to birds and squirrels. They’ll build tagger nest here, which will increase its weight and damage your brackets, damage your roof or weaken your foundation.