Has your gutter decided to leave your house behind? When your gutters start to pull away from your home, this can pose serious problems to your drainage and cause issues with siding, landscaping, and roofing. Before your gutters abandon you, address the seasonal challenges of debris and ice that can lead to sagging gutters.

Are Your Gutters Moving Away From Your House?

When you look up to the side of your home, what do you see? You may see gutters that look warped or seem to attach at a strange angle. You may see gutters that have lost their spikes, brackets, or hangers. You might also notice that there are leaks in your gutters when it rains, with water spilling from the sides of the gutters or from areas where the gutters should connect, but don’t. All of these can be signs of sagging gutters.

Problems Caused By Sagging Gutters

When your gutters are sagging, your house can feel the burden. A sagging gutter can lead to overflowing water, which can cascade down onto siding or landscaping, causing problems with algae and soil erosion. Without an adequate drainage system, you may also experience troubles with your roofing, and over time roofs can degrade, causing leaks.

Why Do Gutters Sag?

While older gutters are more prone to warping and sagging, how you treat your gutters can determine how quickly they start to experience trouble. In the spring, falling blossoms and old leaves provide homes for nesting birds and wasps. Plant debris and nests can clog gutters and add weight, causing them to sag. In the fall, leaves can accumulate in your gutters, and if you don’t clean them regularly, those leaves provide a place where other debris can accumulate. Winter brings ice and snow, which can back up against the leaves, causing warping and sagging.

If your gutters are older or were not installed well, the brackets that attach them to your house can start to bend with the pressure, and the joints on the gutters can also crack as one section of gutter bends outward at a different rate than the others.

What Can You Do About Sagging Gutters?

Installing new gutter systems and checking and placing new brackets on older gutters can help solve your immediate problem of sagging gutters. However, as with many home maintenance issues, it’s important to get at the root of the problem as well. Gutters may sag because they’re old, of poor quality or poorly installed, but they also sag when you neglect seasonal maintenance. If you’d prefer to avoid the seasonal gutter maintenance entirely, choose gutter products that are low-maintenance, such as gutter covers. Gutter covers prevent leaves and other debris from moving into the gutter in the first place. If you find that you have a lot of seasonal buildup of ice and snow, consider adding a gutter heating product as well. This product prevents ice and snow buildup and prevents heavy ice from clogging and weighing down your gutters.

When you’re looking for seasonal maintenance solutions for your home, contact Harry Helmet. Our gutter products help make your maintenance easier, giving you the opportunity to enjoy your yard instead of spending all of your time maintaining it. Contact us today to see how Gutter Helmet can prevent your gutters from sagging.

Written by Del Thebaud