Ah yes… the age old question of, how do gutters get clogged??
Well my curious homeowner, your gutters get clogged because leaves and debris fall onto your roof and settle into your gutters…
Then if you don’t clean your gutters out, they can get clogged up…
I think gutters are more like leaf collectors than rain water collectors, don’t you??
Stick with me, this gets better…
So your gutter’s main job is to collect rainwater from your roof and then run it to your downspout…
To make it easy for the gutters, us plumbers angle the gutters down towards the downspouts…
And this is where the problems start to arise…
You see, the main reason your gutters get clogged is because, when you have a gutter that runs towards a downpipe and then leaves fall into that gutter, the rainwater will run into the downpipe but it also takes a bunch of those leaves with it…
And where do you think these leaves end up??
That’s right, they travel into the downspout as well…
These cheeky buggers like to get stuck in your downspout and clog it up…
Then to make matters worse…
The leaves keep falling and clogging up inside your gutters…
Do you know what happens next??
If you never clean your gutters, leaves sit there and turn into mulch…
And wouldn’t you know it…
It’s some of the highest quality top soil you’ll ever see!!
You could bag it up and sell it for a pretty penny…
Hmmm, I just had a great business idea!
I digress…
Where were we??
Oh yeah…
Now these gutters are getting really clogged up…
And you’ve now got a great garden bed just waiting to sprout out a lovely gutter garden…
These gutter gardens can get pretty impressive…
Can you see how gutters get clogged??
It’s at about this time that someone also says…
But I don’t have any trees near my home to clog up the gutters…
Well, this is a really curious case isn’t it?
Ok, well have you ever cleaned and polished your car up really nice and shiny?
Did you ever drive your nice clean car in the rain and see how dirty it got?
Yep, that’s because wind and rain carries dirt with it…
Now this dirt can blow up into your gutters and roof…
Then the rain washes it all down into your gutters…
When this process happens over and over again, you get that nice topsoil sitting in your gutters…
No leaves, just high quality top soil…
And…
That soil gets washed towards your downpipes…
And…
You get weeds growing up right from your downpipe, clogging your gutters…
Have you ever seen anything like this?
Week, if your gutter is clogged up like this, then this is what you should do…
What to do when your gutter is clogged…
The best thing to do when your gutter is clogged would be to call a gutter cleaning company to come around and clean your gutters…
This is the quickest and easiest solution when your gutters are clogged…
Not to mention the safest option…
And if I’m being completely honest, it’s my personal favourite way for you to fix your little clogged gutter situation because, well… it puts money in my pocket..
But it’s probably also the most costly way to go about unclogging your gutters…
And in the past, some people have accused me of being a nice guy, so I thought I’d give you a couple of options just in case you have no interest in helping me to feed my family…
Anyway…
Here’s what you need to do if your gutter is clogged…
You need to get up there and see why your gutter is clogged…
It could be that your “little ones” have lost a tennis ball on the roof and it’s jammed in the top of your downpipe, blocking it up…
It could be as simple as a stack of leaves sitting over your downpipe…
It might be a tiny weed that has sprouted out of your downspout…
Or you could have a full blown gutter garden clogging your gutters and downspout…
Whatever the case, you need to get up there and take a look so we can work out how we’re going to tackle it…
Now, before you get up there, make sure you have the right ladder and make sure you know how to set your ladder up properly…
The last thing you want is to fall from your ladder…
In case you hadn’t worked it out, I’ve already put together complete guides on which ladder is the best for gutter cleaning and how you should go about setting it up safely…
Go there and read them before you move onto the next step…
Awesome, now that you are all up to date with your ladder knowledge, let’s move on to that gutter clog…
Your gutter is clogged because of your downpipe…
If you peak over the top of your gutters and you notice that there isn’t really that much debris sitting in your gutters then it’s probably safe to say that your downspout is clogged up…
What you want to do is set up your ladder right next to your downspout…
Then climb up and see if it’s blocked up…
It’s possible that you discover something like this…
What you wanna do if you see something like this is to reach in there and pull it out…
But most of the time, there’ll still be some soil sitting in your downpipe so we’re not finished yet…
Get your garden hose with the jet setting on it…
You know the one…
That really strong stream of water on your hose ………
That’s the one…
Now go back up the ladder and spray the jet right down the top of your downpipe…
It’ll blast all of that dirt and break it all up…
Then it just flushes away…
Guess what?
No more clogged gutter…
All you need to do now is go around and check all of the downpipes just to make sure…
Congratulations, you did it!!
Problem solved…
If you peek over the top of your gutters and you see they’re full to the brim with weeds, leaves and sticks, here’s what you need to do…
You have to clean them out…
Genius, I know…
But there is a right way to do this and a wrong way…
I have already written a complete guide on the best way to clean gutters so you can head over there and get your mind blown or you can stay here, and I’ll summarise one of the great ways to clean your gutters…
Cool, so you decided to stay…
Let’s get into it then shall we??
- Set up your ladder with a standoff bracket and levellers…
- Get yourself a bucket with a handle…
- And a hook like this…
- Hook the bucket onto the gutter like this…
- Climb up the ladder and pull all the debris out of your gutters…
- Climb down and move your ladder to the next section…
- Repeat until all the gutters are clean…
That is one of the easiest ways to deal with a clogged gutter…
And now you pretty much know what to do if your gutter is clogged…
It’s usually at this point that you might be thinking that this is too much work…
And it sounds really boring…
Well, let me be the first to tell you, it is!!
That’s why I said the best thing to do is to call a gutter cleaner to do it for you…
But you didn’t want to call me, remember?
Well, don’t even think about leaving your clogged gutter…
Do you know what can happen if your gutter is clogged??
Lucky for you, I’m about to tell you right now…
What can happen if your gutter is clogged…
Well, if you find that your gutter is clogged and you decide to just leave it, then you could cause some serious damage to your home…
Most of the time, the main problem that occurs is…
Damaged gutters…
If you have water sitting in your gutters for a long period of time, your gutters will start to rust out…
It usually starts at the silicone joints and around the top of the downspout. It can even rust out your downpipes…
This is the most common problem that I see…
What I’ve found is, once you have leaking gutter joints and holes caused by rust, the water will drip out and you’ll usually end up with your facia boards rotting away like this…
This is a real pain in the “you know what”…
At this point, you’ll need to call a plumber to replace your gutters and a carpenter to replace your facia boards…
How much do you think this’ll cost?
You don’t want to know…
The other main problem I see when gutters stay clogged is…
Water can spill back inside the ceiling…
There’s two pretty major problems with this one…
Firstly, you’ll need to get your ceilings replaced and then repainted…
It costs another small fortune, but the real concern with water leaking into your ceiling would definitely have to be the black mould that is spreading…
Do I have to tell you about the dangers of black mould?
That’s why we try to keep rainwater out of your home in the first place…
Water will destroy everything, including your health…
In all honesty, these are the two main problems that I see when I deal with gutters that are clogged…
But there are some other issues that can arise…
You can get damaged foundations…
You know, we actually have gutters for a reason…
The whole idea is to collect the rainwater and take it away from your house…
And that’s because, if you have excessive amounts of water just sitting around your home, it can damage the foundations…
You’ll see concrete and brickwork start to crack and shift…
I haven’t seen this one that often but I have come across it a few times over the last couple of years while cleaning gutters…
It actually looks horrendous…
And it is…
The brickwork on some of these damaged homes can get pretty bad…
Maybe it’ll fall down, and maybe it won’t but try to sell your home with damaged foundations…
Ain’t gonna happen!!
Most times when I see damaged foundations, the owner has no intention of fixing it. The cost is just too big to even consider…
It’s much easier to do the maintenance and stop the damage from happening in the first place…
As bad as damaged foundations are, it’s not the most common problem with having clogged gutters…
This next one is a real pain…
You can get infested with mosquitoes…
And other pests…
I’ve seen rats nesting in downpipes…
I’ve seen birds making nests right in the middle of a grass filled gutter…
I’ve been attacked by a swarm of mozzies because there’s stagnant water sitting in gutters…
It can get pretty bad up there…
Do you really want to be attracting vermin to make your home their home?
Didn’t think so…
Moving on…
What to do now…
The only thing to do when your gutter is clogged is to find out where it’s clogged and then unclog it…
You can either do it yourself or you can call a professional gutter cleaner to do it for you…
My unbiased, nothing to gain from it, opinion would be to call a professional gutter cleaner to do it for you but hey, that’s just me…
Either way, I hope by reading this article and my other well thought out guides on cleaning gutters, you’ll be able to handle the situation without any confusion…
My aim is to arm you with the skills you need to handle any gutter problem you might have…
I lay out all of my knowledge for free so that you can have clean gutters…
And unless you live in my local area, I have nothing to sell you…
So the only thing I ask is that you help to spread my knowledge to help as many people who need it…
That’s all I ask in return…
You can do this by leaving a comment below, or sharing this article on Facebook…
The more love I get from you, the more my message can spread to help other homeowners…
I thank you for being here and supporting my website…
I wish you all the best with your clogged gutters and I’ll see you next time…
Peace,
Jason
FAQ
Your gutters get clogged because leaves and debris fall onto your roof and settle into your gutters, then if you don’t clean them out, they get clogged…
The easiest way to unclog gutters is by climbing a ladder and scooping the debris out of your gutters, into a bucket by hand…
You will know your gutters are clogged if you have water spilling over the edge when it rains or if you see gras and weeds picking over the top of your gutter…
If you leave gutters clogged, the water can spill out and flow back into your home or your gutters will rust and get holes in them…
