The Real Cost of Not Cleaning Your Gutters in Mason and Pierce County

When gutters get clogged with leaves, pine needles, or roof grit, water can’t flow through them properly. That water has to go somewhere, so it spills over the edges, pools around the foundation, or runs down your siding.

How much water are we talking about?

More than you’d think. One inch of rain on 1,000 square feet of roof is about 620 gallons. Olympia gets around 50 inches of rain a year. That’s roughly 31,000 gallons coming off a small roof every year, and most houses have more roof than that.

Gutters exist to carry all of it to the downspouts and away from the house. When they’re packed, it lands right next to your foundation instead.

Here’s what that can lead to:

• Cracked foundations from water pooling near the base of your house
• Rotten fascia boards where gutters stay soaked
• Siding damage from overflow
• Mold growth around the roofline

And if your home has a basement, clogged gutters can even lead to water seeping inside.

How a clog turns into a repair

It doesn’t happen in one storm. It goes in steps.

First the gutter fills and water goes over the back edge, onto the fascia board the gutter is attached to. That board stays wet for months. Wood that stays wet rots.

Then the weight shows up. A gutter full of soaked needles is heavy, and the hangers start to pull out of that softened wood. Now the gutter tilts, and even more water misses it.

Meanwhile the ground along the house is getting soaked every time it rains. Saturated soil pushes on foundation walls and finds its way into crawl spaces and basements.

None of that is dramatic. That’s the problem. By the time you see a stain on the ceiling or a crack in the foundation, it’s been going on for a few winters.

Cleaning versus repairing

A gutter cleaning is a short visit. Replacing rotted fascia means a carpenter, paint, and usually new gutter sections. Fixing a wet crawl space or a foundation is one of the bigger bills a homeowner can get. We’d rather see you once a year for the small job.

We recommend cleaning your gutters at least once a year, twice if you’ve got lots of trees. We do a lot of fall and spring cleanups in heavily wooded areas of Mason County.

What about gutter guards?

They help with leaves. Fir needles and shingle grit are small enough to get past a lot of them, or they mat on top and send water straight over the edge. Guards mean less cleaning. They don’t mean none. If you have them, still look up during a hard rain.

It doesn’t take long, and it costs way less than fixing water damage. If you’re not sure if your gutters are flowing right, give us a call. We’ll check it out for you.