One of the most overlooked features of your home is quite possibly its biggest asset. No one notices your home’s gutter system unless it’s packed full of leaves, spilling water out across your landscaping, or has begun to grow its own terrarium.
However, a properly-functioning drainage system protects your home’s roof, foundation, exterior walls, decks, patios, and even your beautiful planting beds from devastation, rot, decay, and critters.
With an investment so crucial to the health of your home, it’s best to leave your gutter maintenance to the experts.
What is Included in Gutter Maintenance?
Expert gutter cleaning companies are commonly contracted to remove debris including dirt, dust, leaves, branches, twigs, bird’s nests, wildlife, and even pest habitats from your gutter system. While cleaning, they should be inspecting your gutters for any leaks in the seams, holes from continuous wear, rust, and loose gutter runs and downspouts that no longer function as they should.
A great gutter company will also make necessary repairs or recommend the replacement of a small section or the entire system to keep your home safe from expensive water damage.
How Often Should Your Gutters be Cleaned and Maintained?
When it comes to cleaning your gutters, two is the magic number – experts suggest a thorough, twice-a-year gutter cleaning and maintenance schedule. Contract an expert to clean and inspect them once after the spring storms have passed and again toward the end of autumn/beginning of winter when the leaves have all fallen from the trees.
Hiring your gutter maintenance pros too early could require you to have them make an extra visit to clear out the remaining leaf piles.
Why Hire a Gutter Maintenance Expert
Homeowner standards must be high when contracting a gutter expert due to the sheer importance of their home’s drainage system and the avoidance of tens of thousands of dollars in water damage repair costs. Ensure that the expert gutter cleaning pro you hire maintains the following company features.
Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency
Every home services contractor, including expert gutter cleaning pros, should devise and abide by an internal code of ethics which includes treating their customers well, maintaining honesty with their services, integrity in their work, and transparency in their pricing.
Experience
While there’s nothing wrong with hiring “the new company on the block,” with well-trained and highly experienced technicians boasting decades of experience, there’s a better chance you’ll end up with a better quality of work. When it comes to the importance of your gutter system, hiring the best of the best might be a better option.
Insurance
Crucial to the safety of your home, your family, and the people who perform the work at your home, companies (including gutter experts) must have liability insurance. It’s a relief to know that if the worst happens, everyone is protected.
Online Reviews
In a digital world, online reviews can give potential customers a peek into the experience of others and many seek the recommendations of gutter cleaning pros via online reviews. Keep in mind that what matters greatly to one person may not matter much to another so take all reviews with a grain of salt – but it’s a great idea to review as many as you can to get a good picture of the company you’re looking to contract.
High-Quality Service
No one looks forward to shelling out their hard-earned paycheck to a company that provides low-level service and lackluster work. Contact the customer service representatives at the gutter company you’re considering and ask the tough questions. If they provide high-quality service, they’ll be ready to answer them all.
Maintenance and Warranty-Type Plans
Gutter installation and cleaning companies that offer maintenance or warranty-type plans for their work are focused on making life easier for their clients. With all the stressors and responsibilities of daily life, it’s great that companies offer a hands-off approach to cleaning and maintaining your home’s gutters without homeowners needing to do a thing.
Conclusion
It’s no easy feat to DIY your twice-per-year gutter maintenance tasks. Dragging out the 2-story extension ladder and attempting to climb it with arms full of safety gear, hoses, and cleaning supplies is not usually something homeowners look forward to.
Not only could it be a massive safety concern for property owners but when you’re not experienced in the proper cleaning methods, what to look for when inspecting your gutter system, and how to fix them properly – it’s best to hire a gutter cleaning expert to take care of it all for you – in a fraction of the time.
