Hi! I’m David Lupberger with servicemagic.com.
Today, I’m going to talk about the value and importance of keeping your gutters and downspouts clean. What we’re going to do here in the next couple of minutes is show you what happens when a gutter or a downspout gets clogged.
You see, I purposely clogged the downspout and I’m going to come in and let the water start running to fill this gutter up. In 90% of the cases, when there is water in someone’s basement, it’s due to improper drainage. As you can see, this fills up very quickly and once it fills up, it is no place to go but over the edge of the gutter. And this is exactly what happens in many homes at the end of a long winter where the gutters are filled with leaves. Now, water is rolling over the gutter and falling in many cases to the base of your foundation. Oftentimes people have water in their basement because the drainage is improper.
So, when your gutters and downspout is clean, here’s what should happen. The water cleanly falls into the gutter, goes down to downspout, and you’ll see there’s a four-foot extender because it make sure that the water is taken at least four feet away from the base of the foundation. By extending the water four feet from the foundation, your basement will in most cases stay dry.
In cleaning your gutters, this is really a comfort and safety consideration even on a single family home. If you don’t feel comfortable getting up on the gutters to make sure these are clean, hire a pro to do it for you. The whole purpose, make sure these are clean but make sure it’s done safely and make sure it’s done correctly.
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