This is another story about how not cleaning your eavestroughs can lead to more serious and costly problems for homeowners.
We were called to this home in Stouffville when the gutters detached themselves from the roof and took part of the fascia board with them. What a mess!
This home had 5″ gutters with an Alu-Rex leaf guard system, which is the same one we install. It’s a good system, but what most people don’t know is that you still have to clean your eavestroughs even though you have a leaf guard system attached. If the gutters are not graded properly, like these were, the water will not flow properly and will just sit in your trough. And when leaves stay stuck to the top of the leaf guard, they will freeze over when winter comes around, and start to form an ice build-up on the top of your trough. Now add this to the water that is frozen inside the trough, and it’s a recipe for a disaster just like this.
They only had small nails holding the fascia board instead of 3″ screws going into the rafter tail ends. It was a combination of a lot of things that caused the eaves to fall, but most of it could have been prevented had they had their eavestroughs cleaned just before winter. I usually recommend that you get them cleaned twice a year if you are in an area where leaves and debris can accummulate over the course of a couple of months.
As I said before, there are 9 things to know before you hire and eavestroughing company, and you should be wise to hire a reputable and stable company for all of your installations and repairs. Thanks you for reading.
As always, at True North Eavestroughing, quality is our priority!
