5 Reasons Why Your West Knoxville Home Needs Gutter Cleaning

Do you love spending your entire weekend high up on a wobbly ladder, scooping handfuls of dead leaves, dirt, animal nests, and other debris out of your rain gutters?

If that thought didn't exactly spark joy in your heart, you're certainly not alone. Gutter cleaning is one of the most neglected household chores, and it's not hard to understand why. It's time-consuming, difficult (especially with reduced mobility), and frankly—it can be pretty disgusting.

However, most homeowners don't realize how critical their gutters are, and how seriously their homes can be damaged by overflowing and broken gutters. If you think cleaning them out isn't that important, we've got five reasons to convince you otherwise.

But don't despair! You don't have to sacrifice your weekend getting your hands (and everything else) dirty. Mr. Handyman of West Knoxville can get your gutters clean, quickly and efficiently, and repair any breaks or weak points to boot.

Why Do Gutters Matter So Much?

Before we get to the reasons why you need proper gutter cleaning, we have to explain why gutters are so crucially important to your home. It's just a little tray attached to the side of your roof, how much can it really do? Well, it turns out... a lot.

Extensive water damage is among the biggest threats to the stability and security of your home. Under normal circumstances, gutters collect all the rainwater that falls on to your roof. That might not seem like a big deal, but one inch of rain falling on a 1,000 square foot roof equals an impressive 620 gallons of water. For comparison, a typical bathtub can hold around 60 to 80 gallons. Knoxville gets an average of 50 inches of rain annually, so that's about 443 bathtubs full of water per year.

If your gutters are clean and in good condition, they'll safely channel all that water away from the house into downspouts where it can't do any harm. But, if they're crammed full of grime and debris, the water has nowhere to go and will pour down the exterior walls of your home instead, where it can cause severe damage over time.

Why Your Home Needs Professional Gutter Cleaning

Now that you have pictured 443 bathtubs worth of water (or much more, depending on the size of your roof) pouring over your home every year, we can cover all the reasons why a seemingly simple task like gutter repair and cleaning makes such a difference in maintaining your property—while preventing potential issues in the future.

1. Prevent Moisture Damage

As you probably suspect by this point, preventing damage from moisture is the key function of your rain gutters. This is largely due to wood rot, a form of decay caused by wood-eating fungi that require timber to have a moisture content of 20% or higher in order to begin growing. Needless to say, wood rot is a huge problem in homes, which are almost always constructed using timber and therefore become vulnerable to rot when they are subjected to excess moisture.

Here's what happens to your home without clean gutters:

• Your roof has soffit boards on the underside of where the roof overhangs the exterior wall. Soffits are ventilated to let warm, humid air escape the attic, but when your gutters are full, the water can blow into the soffit vents and expose your attic to wood rot. This weakens the timber in the attic, causing structural damage that can threaten the entire house.

• The siding on your home is designed to resist water, but it can only take so much abuse. Constant exposure to running water will damage the siding, which allows moisture to enter the interior of the wall where it can cause mold, mildew, and decay—causing a hazard not only to your home but to the health of your family as well.

• Even in a brick or stone home, window and door frames are usually made of wood. Rain water raises the moisture content of the timber, causing the frames to rot and let even more water into the walls of your home. It also increases your utility bill by letting in air drafts that force your heating and cooling system to work harder.

2. Prevent Cracks in Your Foundation

When water falls straight off your roof instead of into your clogged gutters, it gathers in the soil around your foundation. That water will cause damage to your foundation over time, and if it freezes during winter, the freeze and thaw cycle constricts the soil and can actually crack the concrete of the foundation.

3. Keep Rodents and Insects Out of Your Home

Water eats away at your home, creating tiny holes and cracks that rats, squirrels, wasps, and other unwelcome guests are only too happy to take advantage of. Many pests have found their way into a home through damaged soffit boards or window frames, and brought hundreds of friends along with them.

4. Preserve Your Landscaping

Plants love water, but there can definitely be too much of a good thing. Even trees and bushes that are a fair distance away from the edge of the roof can be sickened or killed by too much water, and all that excess water can cause damage to driveways, walkways, patios, and other landscaping features as well.

5. Save Time and Money

The cost of annual cleaning and maintenance is minor compared to the cost of replacing a roof, or repairing window frames and siding, or having a rodent infestation removed—and that cost applies to both your money and your limited time, not to mention your peace of mind.

Rely on Mr. Handyman to Save Your Knoxville Home With Gutter Cleaning!

Convinced that annual gutter cleaning is an important maintenance step? Turn to the crew of expert gutter cleaners at Mr. Handyman of West Knoxville to protect and maintain your home so you can enjoy it for years to come. It's our pleasure to provide outstanding customer service and quality workmanship for every client.

Pick up the phone today and call us, or request service online, and we'll show you why West Knoxville residents consider us their number one choice for handyman services!