The Real Cost of Skipping Gutter Cleaning

Gutters are the cheapest part of your house to maintain and one of the most expensive to ignore. Here is what actually happens when they stop working.

What a blocked gutter really does

A gutter has one job: move water off the roof and away from the foundation. Blocked, it does the opposite. Water backs up, spills over the edge, and lands in the two places you least want it, against the wall and directly onto the ground beside the foundation.

The damage, roughly in order of expense

Fascia and soffit rot

Water sitting in a full gutter is in constant contact with the fascia board behind it. Wood in permanent contact with standing water rots. Replacing fascia and soffit means carpentry, not cleaning.

Foundation and settling

Overflow concentrates water at the base of the wall. In Florida sand that means erosion and uneven moisture under the slab. Foundation issues are the most expensive outcome on this list by a wide margin.

Water inside the wall

Where water overflows behind the gutter rather than in front of it, it runs down inside the wall assembly. That is a mould problem you cannot see until it reaches the drywall.

Pests

A gutter full of wet organic debris is habitat. Mosquitoes breed in the standing water, and the damp wood behind it attracts everything that eats damp wood.

Staining

Overflow leaves dark streaks down the siding, sometimes called tiger striping. It is the cheapest problem here, and usually the one that finally prompts the call.

Why Florida gutters clog faster

Mature oaks, pines and palms drop debris nearly year round here rather than in one autumn burst. Add heavy summer storms that wash everything into the gutter at once, plus humidity that keeps the debris wet and rotting rather than dry and blowable, and gutters fill faster than they would further north.

Homes in heavily wooded neighbourhoods like Fruit Cove and Mandarin often need attention twice a year rather than once.

Signs yours need doing now

• Water spilling over the front edge during rain rather than running to the downspout
• Dark vertical streaks on the siding below the gutter line
• Plants growing out of the gutter, which means there is soil in there
• Sagging sections, which means the gutter is heavy with wet debris
• No water at the downspout outlet during a storm

It pairs well with the rest of the exterior

Gutters get cleaned inside and out. The outside of a gutter collects the same black grime as the rest of the house, and it is almost always visible from the street. Doing gutters at the same time as a soft washing of the house costs less than two visits and looks considerably better than doing one without the other.

Frequently asked questions