It is hard to notice your gutter until the rains start to pound and you realize that your ceiling is darkening which is a bad sign. Then you go outside and you notice that the gutters that you have neglected for a while are overflowing with leaves and debris leading to the leakage on the roof. Perhaps it has been raining for a few hours then you noticed that your basement is leaking or your foundation has suffered some damage. What if you had inspected these gutters early enough and fixed any hitch? Would you start dealing with leaky basements and eroding foundations?

Forget about cleaning gutters on your own

According to experts, you should never clean gutters o your own if you are not trained to do so. Cleaning the gutter is a dangerous task that requires safety precautions to be observed. First there is the balancing of the ladder trying to reach the slimy, smelly decomposing leaves and trying to make repairs to the roof or the gutters. You can decide to handle the cleaning yourself on a given weekend or hire a professional contractor. Whatever your choice is, leaving your gutters unattended will lead to leakages through winter.

You need to observe safety precautions if you choose to do it yourself.

First you must make sure that you use a sturdy ladder that stretches way up the roof to avoid stepping on the top rungs. You should have someone to spot you and make sure that the ladder seats securely at the bottom.

   Wearing sturdy gloves use your hands to clean the debris out carefully. A plastic gutter scoop can also do the work. It is safer to use a disposable tarp on the ground rather than a bucket.

Use a water hose to wash the gutter while making sure that the       water flows through the gutter and out of the downspout.

You can decide to place gutter guards on top of the gutters. They help to prevent debris from entering the gutter and allowing the water to pass through. You can use metal gutter guards that fit in perfectly into the gutters; use plastic ones that are held on the last shingles, or wide flexible wire mesh that also fit perfectly on top of the gutters.

If you aren’t sure of what to do when it comes to gutter cleaning, you would rather hire an expert rather than starting a task that can leave you with a broken leg (when you fall off the ladder).