Ew, yuck: what is that mess that’s coming out of your gutters? You may never have had the urge to deconstruct that bundle of dripping brown sludge. However, by analyzing what’s in your gutters, you’ll discover how to keep it out.

Leaves in the Gutter 

What are the ingredients present in a gross gutter? It depends on the time of year. However, leaves will almost always be present in your gutter goop. Even in the spring and summer, a breeze can knock a few leaves off a tree, and in the fall, those leaves are present in abundance. They can quickly fill your gutters. While they decompose relatively quickly, leaves are a huge source of gutter clogs.

Needles Stick Around in the Gutter 

Needles are a type of fine debris that can be very hard to remove from gutters. They slide past some gutter covers or clog gutter filters such as foam inserts. If you live in an area where evergreen trees are common, needles will be a common sight in your gutters, where they collect together and clog the gutter. Since they are tough, they also take longer to break down than other leaves.

Blossoms Are a Delight, But Not in the Gutter 

It’s spring, hooray! While all of those blossoms look gorgeous on the trees, they look less than lovely as they decompose in your gutters. They can form mats of thin blossoms and can have a surprisingly large impact on your gutters, especially if you consider gutter cleaning to be a fall task rather than a spring one.

Pollen, Pollen Everywhere

While pollen is tiny, it all adds up in your gutters. During pollen season, some plants move their pollen on the wind. Quantities of this land on your roof and move into your gutters. This contributes to the fine debris at the bottom of the gutter and sticks everything else together.

Seeds Fly Around 

The flying seeds of spring are also prone to landing in your gutters. From maple keys or helicopters to fuzzy, cotton-like seeds carried by the wind, you’ll find a selection in your gutters. These decompose and contribute to gutter blockages. They are also prone to growing in the gutter, where they find water, light, and excellent growing conditions.

Sticks Can Block Your Gutter

During the fall, winter, and spring storm seasons, sticks and leaves fly everywhere. If you don’t have gutter guards, some of these will land in your gutters. Large sticks not only have the potential for puncturing your roof: they also clog up your gutters. They stick out of the gutters, but the end that’s inside will capture a lot of debris. Sticks also don’t decompose as easily as other gutter debris, so that blockage will be with you for a long time.

Are There Mushrooms in Your Gutter? 

If your gutter is really wet and mushroom spores land there, they could form a root-like network called mycelium and begin to grow. What you call mushrooms are actually the fruit of the mushroom, and this takes some time to develop. Since mushrooms can grow in places where there is very little light, you could find mushrooms moving down into your drain pipe if you don’t clean out your gutters for a long time.

What’s That Green Stuff? Algae Will Bloom In Your Gutters 

Particularly in the summer months, the abundance of water from a blocked gutter and the large amounts of sunshine will encourage algae to grow. This green plant can form mats over time, and those mats collect around sticks and leaves and form a net that captures gutter debris.

 Roofing Material Will Land In Your Gutters 

If your roof is beginning to degrade and small pieces of shingles are coming off the roof, that debris will land in your gutters. It can be both fine and sticky, gluing together other gutter debris. Roofing debris in your gutter is a sign that you not only need to clean your gutters, you also need to repair your roof.

Dust Is All Around 

Whether it’s from your garden or from a nearby road or construction site, dust is in the air, particularly during the drier times of the year. This dust settles everywhere: on plants, on your house, and in your gutters. All of that dust from the roof slides down into the gutter after the first fall rain. It forms a film on the bottom of the gutter, contributing to the fine, sticky mass of roofing and pollen dust that sticks other debris together.

Plants Growing In Your Gutters

Over time, organic debris turns into soil. If you’ve neglected to clean out your gutters for a long time, then your gutters may be sporting some fertile soil. When seeds fall into the gutters, they find a place to grow. Water flows down your gutters too, making them an excellent environment for new growth. If you neglect your gutter sludge for long enough, you’ll discover tree seedlings and other young plants growing in your gutters.

Moving Water Gathers No Moss 

Have you been neglecting your gutters lately? If so, you could be in for a surprise when you ascend that ladder. Moss reproduces with spores, and it’s easy for it to begin growing in your gutters if there is a lot of standing water. Moss adores wet environments. It’s also easy for this moss to clog your gutters because when it gets very wet or moves around, it comes off in large chunks that can be difficult to degrade.

What Happens to Gutter Debris Over Time? 

What is the story of gutter debris once it lands in your gutter? That depends on what measures you have in place for gutter protection.

• If you have a quality gutter cover, debris could slide off onto the ground.
• If you clean your gutters, debris gets removed every so often.
• If debris stays in your gutters, it can form a film, a mat, or another blockage. This blockage traps other debris.
• Water runs through the debris. Some of it moves to other areas of the gutter or into the drains.
• After a while, all of the debris begins to decompose.  It turns into soil.
• Plants begin to sprout from the soil.
• Alternatively, if there is a lot of water in your gutters, algae begins to grow.

Add a Gutter Cover to Prevent Debris Accumulation 

Clogged gutters are hard to clean, and if you neglect them for a long time, this job gets even more difficult. Clogged gutters also overflow, bend the gutters, or cause them to move away from the home, causing a need for renovations. Luckily, there is a way to prevent gutter clogging.

Adding a gutter cover is one of the best ways to stop gutter clogs from overflowing onto your siding, backing up onto your roof, and generally adding a lot of problems for your home. However, you need to be sure that you add the right kind of gutter cover to your home. Some products such as foam filters are prone to clogging and could cause just as much trouble as a clogged gutter over time. With Lednor Home Solutions’ Gutter Helmet, debris slides off the end of the gutter cover and onto the ground, while water moves smoothly into the gutter.

How Does Gutter Helmet Work? 

You’re tired of wondering what’s causing all of that gutter sludge. You don’t want to unravel the mystery of what’s in your gutter any longer. You need a high quality gutter cover that will make it easy to avoid looking at gutter debris ever again.

Gutter Helmet is this quality gutter cover. Gutter Helmet works on the following design principles:

• The nose-forward design means that Gutter Helmet has a rounded “nose” at the front of the gutter. It is flush with the gutter to prevent debris from sneaking in.
• The 3/8 inch gap makes it hard for debris to move into the gutters. There are no screens that can clog over time.
• Gutter Helmet has a special coating to prevent the gutter itself from degrading.
• Brackets reinforce the gutters, keeping them at the right angle.
• Flow-limiting ribs slow down and spread out the water across the gutter cover.
• Gutter Helmet works with surface tension. Water clings, and it moves more easily into your rain gutters.

Are you ready to banish gutter debris forever, so that you won’t be left asking, “What’s that in the gutter?” ever again?

When you’re looking for a gutter cover, look no further than Lednor Home Solutions. Our gutter guards are designed to keep leaves and other materials out of your gutter so that you’ll never be left wondering what’s in your gutters. Learn more about Gutter Helmet: schedule a free estimate today.

Written by Del Thebaud