Expert Gutter Maintenance Advice

Cleaning and Maintenance: An Essential Step. Why Is It Important?

Cleaning your eavestroughs is essential to keep them functional. This step consists of removing leaves, buds and debris such as shingles, nails or gravel from the inside of the eavestrough to prevent clogging and water stagnation.

Four Rules for Cleaning your Gutters

Cleaning your gutters is essential to keep them fully operational. This means removing any leaves, buds and debris such as shingles, nails or gravel that have accumulated inside the gutter to prevent it from clogging up and filling with stagnant water.

Not sure how to clean your gutters? The experts at Gouttières LM Landry will let you in four simple steps to help you get rid of debris and leaves with the least hassle. Ideally, you should clean gutters whenever they get cluttered: in autumn, after the leaves fall and in late spring after the pollen has mostly fallen.

1. Use a bucket

Tie a long rope to a bucket and have a hook ready so you can put the bucket up on the ladder. You can create a hook from a hanger folded in two.
Wear work gloves, get a trowel and a brush.
Stand a high, sturdy ladder near the downspout and carefully climb up to the gutter.
Pull the bucket up with the rope and hook it to one of the rungs on the ladder.

2. Start from the Bottom

To be most effective, work from the bottom up.

Using the brush, push the debris towards the upper end of the gutter.

Pick up the debris with the trowel and put it in the bucket.

To be safe, clean by sections, only where you can easily reach. Once you’ve done one section, move the ladder over to the next section.

3. Detect Problems with a Hose

Once you have removed the debris, use a garden hose to rinse the gutter, working from the top down. At this point, you can see if there are leaks or other problems.
If you find a pool of stagnant water, this means your gutter needs to be realigned or re-installed.
If the water does not flow at all, this means your downspout is clogged and needs to be cleared.

4. Clearing the Downspout

Quickly clean a clogged downspout using a garden hose. This time, it is best to work from top to bottom.
Wrap rags around the nozzle of the flexible hose and install it in the top of the downspout. You may need to remove some of the downspout for access.
Turn on the water at full force.

If this does not remove the trapped debris, use a plumbing snake, working from top to bottom.

Why is this important?

Do not underestimate the importance of this cleaning, which can prevent moisture from seeping under your roof, causing premature degradation of your property. Proper maintenance of your eavestrough will allow the sealant joints to degrade less quickly.

For any questions, please call our team – we will be happy to help you!