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Protect Your Gutters This Winter
The winter months can be brutal to your gutters. Ice and snow can be damaging in a number of ways. As such, you need to take action for gutter damage prevention. This can help your gutters survive the winter and come out without damage. Here are a few of the different steps you can take to protect your gutters from ice and snow damage.
Clear Your Downspouts and Rain Chains
One of the best ways to protect your gutters from ice and snow damage is to clear your gutter troughs, downspouts and rain chains before winter weather hits. When these items are cleared of debris, water is able to flow through them or over them as it should, without any blockages that can slow water. If there are blockages, this can prevent the water from flowing, which ultimately can lead to snow and ice damming.
Install Heating Devices
The second way you can protect your gutters from ice and snow damage is to install heating devices inside of the gutter troughs. These heating devices help to keep the trough at a warm enough temperature so that ice dams do not form in the gutters and so that snow that sits in the gutter melts. When ice and snow melt, they liquefy. From there, the liquid can travel through the trough, something that ice and snow simply cannot do.
Consider European Style Gutters
If you are looking to protect your gutters from ice and snow damage, you may need to start with the basics and select the right gutters to begin with. Seamless gutters are less likely to develop ice dams than seamed gutters. European style gutters are also designed to help prevent snow and ice damming. If you want to prevent damage to your gutters, consider installing new ones like these that help prevent damaging things like ice dams from forming.
Reinforce Your Gutters
The last way that you can protect your gutters from snow and ice damage is to reinforce your gutters. Snow and ice can weigh a gutter trough down due to their weight. Reinforcing the gutter helps to prevent it from pulling away from the side of the home or roof. This helps the gutter to stay in place, while also preventing damage to your siding or roof.
Install gutter heat tape
During the winter, water can freeze in gutters, creating ice dams that cause snow and ice to accumulate on the roof. The backlog can result in water damage, so remove the ice by hiring a professional to install heat tape or an electric heating cable for gutters. These cables, unlike other cords, are designed to produce a lot of heat, so they must be installed precisely. If they overlap, the cables can overheat and cause significant damage. For heating cable installation, the wires should be installed in a zigzag pattern inside the gutters and drainpipes.
Use de-icing compounds
If your home has a problem area where more ice and snow accumulates on the roof, use a de-icing barrier. It will melt ice and snow before it slides off the roof, which helps prevent ice dams in gutters. Fill an old pair of pantyhose with de-icing compounds, such as calcium chloride, and lay the hose across the roof. The chemicals will melt the snow and ice, and water will flow, preventing sagging gutters or broken hinges.
The Ice Impact: How Ice Can Damage Your Gutter Systems
Ice Causes Too Much Pressure on Your Gutters
Heavy ice can add undue weight to your gutters. As ice continues to build-up on and around your gutters and roof, your gutters will have more and more weight to bear and an increased likelihood of ice damage. Eventually, the buildup can lead to collapsed gutters and ineffective gutter protection.
Ice Leads to Downspout Blockage
With each new series of precipitation — and the freeze that often follows — your downspouts will collect more ice. Downspouts are designed to carry water away from your home. But that’s impossible when those downspouts are clogged with ice. These blockages cause backup and can damage your gutter system, sometimes beyond repair.
Ice Leads to Facia and Roof Decking Damage
As ice builds inside open gutters, it grows under the drip edge (the metal that goes over the back of a gutter to prevent water from getting behind the gutter). This growth can get behind the metal and expand into your fascia and roof decking. Over time this will rot out the wood and without seeing it or correcting it, this can destroy the edge of your home.
Icicles: Not Always Pretty
Ice damage and buildup can lead to icicles. While icicles create that “winter wonderland” photo opportunity many of us love, they’re more harm than help when it comes to your gutters. Icicles can hang off your gutter system, pulling gutters away from your home. Your gutter protection shouldn’t lead to home damage, but icicles can do just that if left unchecked.
Falling Branches
As trees gather ice buildup due to winter weather, they can fall on your home and gutter systems. This can lead to not only home and gutter damage, but also cracked siding, broken windows, or severe damage to your roof.
Ice Dams
As your gutters and downspouts continue to become blocked throughout the winter, ice dams will form. Ice dams are large slabs of ice that freeze along the roofline. As these slabs of ice start to melt, water can seep in under the roofline which can cause peeling shingles. Ice dams are also likely to appear in gutter systems.
Water Damage
The winter weather won’t be around forever! As things thaw, icicles and ice dams will melt into water, opening you up to damage on your siding, roof, and most importantly, your gutters. But here’s the good news: you can protect yourself from all of these potential harms this winter season.