The Role Gutters Play in Roof Health

Your gutters are more than just a means of collecting and draining water from your roof and moving it away from your home or business. Gutters play an important role in protecting your home, roof, and your overall property from water, snow, and ice damage. Cleaning the gutters isn’t any homeowner’s favorite job, but it’s necessary to keep your gutter free of debris in order for rainwater to flow freely through the downspouts and away from your home’s foundation. Properly maintained guttering will increase the longevity of your roof and help you avoid an unplanned, expensive roof replacement.

Properly installed guttering will collect rainwater and divert it through the downspouts and away from your home. Keeping your gutters free of sticks, leaves, and other debris is practically impossible if you don’t have a leaf guard solution, especially if you have trees in your yard or live near a wooded area. Left unattended, clogged gutters can cause water to back up and overflow, which can damage your roof, foundation, landscaping, and yard. These conditions invite the accumulation of moisture in your basement and attic space, can create cracks in your foundation, and produce standing water in your yard which creates the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos and other pests.

Poorly maintained gutters can cause other structural problems. Water and ice on your roof can weaken it and cause buckling and sagging as well as damaging the fascia, which is the board right behind the gutters. Water running down the sides of your home can also damage the siding and paint.

Living in a colder climate with harsh winters presents a new set of guttering and roofing problems through the formation of ice dams. An ice dam occurs when the heat from your roof causes snow and ice on your roof to melt. If your gutters are clogged with debris, the melted water has no place to go and refreezes into ice ridges. While icicles adorning the edge of your roof may look charming, they can wreak havoc. Melted snow and ice, having nowhere to travel, can back up, causing roof leaks. The extra weight of snow and ice can cause your roof to sag, which is the last thing you want in cold winter months.

While it’s not a pleasant task, keeping your gutters clean is important to the health of your roof and your home. This attention to ongoing maintenance will pay off in the long run. You will increase the lifespan of your roof and protect your home and yard from water damage. If you have questions about guttering, reach out to your local Premier Roofing Company. In addition to our roofing services, we also offer gutter replacement services to protect your roof. We have roofing locations throughout the U.S. and are your trusted source for all things roofing-related and stand behind our work. We also offer free, no-obligation roof inspections where we will also thoroughly assess the condition of your guttering system.