Gutters might be one of the darndest features of your home, because they’re a critical addition to the modern home and we make use of them all the time, but we hardly ever think about them unless there’s a problem. If you’re lucky, then the time you notice it just comes when they’ve built up some grime or where you can see something sticking out. If you’re not lucky, then the problem could come crashing through your window or leaking through your ceiling.

Cleaning your gutters is one of the most necessary exterior cleaning jobs you can do, because the fallout from not cleaning them can spread around your entire house. A clogged gutter not only doesn’t do its job in terms of carrying away rain water, but it also invites other problems into your home in the form of pests and structural damage.

Gutters are made to carry rain away from your home and to keep water from just pouring down the side of it. This serves the dual purpose of preventing leaks where your wall meets your roof and keeping water out of and off of siding. When you see a wave of algae going down the siding of someone's home, it’s often because their gutters are clogged. Protecting your home’s wood, insulation, and exterior siding, it’s easy to see how gutter cleaning can help prevent a myriad of repairs you might otherwise have to make.

Beyond water pouring into and down the side of your home, clogged gutters can also invite pests into your home, as they first make their home in the built-up gutter debris, and then find the conveniently located cracks at the side of your roof and just inches from where they’re building their nest(s). If you get to this stage and still don’t address it, then your time to clean the gutters will be when you’re repairing them, because a clogged gutter will inevitably collapse, and when it does, more property damage might come with it.