Your gutters suffer the same as your siding or roof does on a daily basis. Are you overlooking them?
Gutters are an important aspect of every home. After all, staunchly protecting your home from water damage and mold is tough work. If left to endure the elements without proper cleaning, your gutters will eventually fall into disrepair. With gutter whitening, you can restore your gutters to their former glory and keep them up and running for longer.
What is Gutter Whitening?
To put it simply, gutter whitening is the process of cleaning your gutters inside and out. More specifically, you are removing the mold, algae, and grime that sticks to your gutters, restoring their color.
Over time your gutters will accumulate a variety of debris and detritus that will prevent them from doing their job. By removing any unwanted materials from the inside of the gutters you can keep the water flowing without any of it spilling over the sides and causing a mess. When it does spill over, the outside of a gutter can become caked in dirt, grime, sap, and whatever else your gutter was holding. Restoring the color and shine of the gutter on the outside is also included in this process.
How Do You Whiten Gutters?
Before you even get to cleaning the gutters, you should start by cleaning the surrounding area. Washing the gutters first would just create more of a mess. Washing the roof will end up depositing even more debris into the gutter, so it’s best just to start there.
As a general rule of thumb for cleaning, you almost always want to start at the top and work your way down. When it comes to cleaning gutters, start with the roof and proceed to the gutters before eventually cleaning up the wall afterward.
Now that the surrounding area is clean, you then want to remove anything in the gutter preventing you from whitening the gutter itself. You can do this by hand or with a tool, but using a hose or pressure washing machine will help you reach more debris without moving around as much. Make sure to flush the downspout with water to make sure it isn’t clogged.
Once the gutter has been cleared, you can start whitening the gutter itself. While there may not be any actual debris in the gutter anymore, the gutter can still be caked with other contaminants such as mold and mildew. If water and scrubbing are not enough to remove them, you will need a chemical capable of removing them without damaging the material of the gutter. Once you are finished, your gutters should be looking brand new and as bright as day.
Why You Should Whiten Your Gutters
Since the purpose of your gutters is to move water away from your house, it can seem harmless to let it spill over. What you may not know is why that water is being moved away in the first place and what it could mean if it is not dealt with.
Without a gutter, your walls, basement, and foundation are at risk. Heavy rainfall can deteriorate your walls faster than if you had a gutter, leading to rot or other problems. With all of the rain that your roof accumulates and then dumps on the ground, you can end up with pools of water that seep into your foundation or basement, causing all kinds of water damage. To prevent that, your gutters help navigate the water away from your house to somewhere safe for depositing. However, if you do not clean your gutters, they won’t provide that benefit at all.
A clogged gutter can also create problems of its own in ways the water can’t. If a clog is serious enough, the gutter can damage any shingle right next to it by exposing them to water for long periods of time. This can cause roof rot, destroying your shingles and exposing other parts of your home to water damage. Beyond that, clogged gutters can also become nesting grounds for animals. The last thing you want is your home to become a house for something else.
Bright and Clean
Your gutters work hard to protect your home year-round. They need to be rewarded with spa days sometimes. By cleaning and whitening your gutters, you can increase your home’s curb appeal and help the gutters keep doing their job. Some gutters can be pretty high and dangerous to clean, but as professionals, we can help.
Contact the helpful professionals at Arlington Pressure Washing, and we can help you achieve a cleaner and brighter gutter.
