The season of Autumn is upon us.
Have you considered cleaning your gutters?
It might be time to get your gutters cleaned before the falling leaves fill your gutters and cause issues.
If you live in Tasmania, it’s safe to say that you’ve seen a birch tree. Birch trees have trunks that are marked in different shades and colours. The lifespan of a birch tree is typically 80-140 years.
Birch trees flower and drop their seeds in spring while autumn is the time they drop their leaves. If you live around them, you may find that you need six monthly gutter cleans, due to the tree’s cycle. Birch trees have such fine leaves. They settle in the gutters and create the optimal environment for plants to grow. This will affect the flow of the gutters if left uncleaned.
Some people use gutter guard in areas where there is a birch tree. It is a good tool but only if you continue to clean off the top of the guard and are prepared to clean under the guard when there is a build-up of silt and sludge. When the debris sits on top for any period of time, it breaks down and falls through the holes of the guard. Too much debris collected on top can consolidate and cause blockage or overflow issues.
Installing the gutter guard in this instance, keeps the water flowing, as the foliage sits on top of the guard, allowing the water to pass along the gutters as it should. Combining a gutter clean maintenance means that the debris does not build up to create dams and cause water issues.
One thing to consider before installing any gutter guard is the expense. You will be cleaning on a regular basis with the guard in place anyway, so is it worth the expense to install gutter guard? If you are not having any issues with overflows or blockages while cleaning the gutters regularly without gutter guard, then it is safe to say that regular gutter cleaning would be a good maintenance plan. It will also prolong the life of the gutters.
Consider where those leaves are falling next time you look around. Clean the gutters now before you start to have any winter issues such as blockages and overflows or seeds start to germinate.
If you need a gutter clean, Gutter-Vac Northern and Southern Tasmania are at your service. You can contact us on 1300 654 253 or request a free quote today here.
