Cleaning Your Gutters During Winter
When people hear the word winter, most of the time they think of snow, cold weather, ice, and low temperatures. If you live in the northern region, it is true. On the other hand, winter is not so severe or cold if you live in the southern region.
Since you can only do gutter cleaning if temperatures aren’t freezing, professionals usually recommend cleaning your gutters during fall and spring. Typically, gutter cleaning isn’t a problem in areas where freezing doesn’t happen. Aside from temperature, environmental changes during these seasons have a bigger impact on the accumulation of debris in the gutter. This leads to a bigger demand for a cleaning task.
You might have problems going into winter if you missed gutter cleaning during the fall. These problems aren’t always obvious since your gutter is frozen. However, they will show once the ice thaws.
During winter, there are a couple of common issues for Kansas City gutters. This includes winter storm damage, damage due to extra weight from ice and snow, ice damming, the weight of ice on/in the gutters, and snow sitting on top of the roof.
Ice Damming
If you’re a homeowner, then you do not want to deal with ice damming. Despite the common belief, gutters don’t cause ice damming. This issue starts with the insulation of your home. It happens when the hot air from your attic escapes. This will lead to the snow on the roof melting. The melted water will then refreeze on and over the gutters once it reaches the surface of the cold gutter.
Proper insulation is the best thing you can do to prevent ice damming. However, you can also follow preventative measures to avoid ice damming. For instance, you can get rid of several feet of snow on the roof using a roof rake. It can help get rid of the accumulation of ice dams. Also, another preventative measure that requires less maintenance is adding heat cable to your gutter. This will stop your gutters from freezing. It will also melt ice and snow accumulation on the gutters.
How Often Should You Clean Your Gutters?
Usually, a professional will recommend you to clean your gutters at least twice a year. This is particularly true if you’re going to hire an expert to do the job. Usually, you’ll have to clean your gutters during fall when leaves have fallen. Next, you’ll also have to clean the gutters during the spring season.
What Are the Things You Can’t Do During a Freezing Temperature?
- Fixing or resealing existing gutters
- Gutter guard installation on existing gutters. The reason for this is that it’s difficult to install guards during a freezing temperature.
- Cleaning gutters. It is too cold to clean gutters if the temperature is freezing.
What Are the Things You Can Do During a Freezing Temperature?
- Fascia installation and fascia wrap
- Snow guard installation for metal roofs
- Heated guard and gutter installation. These things should be installed together in order for them to work properly.
- Gutter and guard installation.
- Gutter and downspout installation.
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