5 Winter Gutter Care Tips for Colorado Homeowners

Colorado winters along the Front Range have a reputation for being long and cold. As such, it’s standard fare for Colorado homeowners to prepare by winterizing outdoor spaces and fixtures, like patios, siding, roofs, and of course, gutters. By far the best way to keep your gutters in tip-top shape for the winter is to perform gutter washing and gutter maintenance before the worst of the weather rolls in. In this blog, we’re going to walk through five tips for winterizing your gutter system.

Trim Your Trees

Our unpredictable weather, including freak downpours, can cause some of your trees and branches to grow quickly in a short amount of time. When trees are near your home’s perimeter, the overhanging branches can leave your gutter’s troughs full of leaves, seeds, twigs, and other debris. When Fall finally arrives, you’ll ideally be able to trim back those branches to help prevent your gutters from getting clogged. If tree limbs are left to overhang your gutters, you risk a snow-laden branch breaking, falling into, and subsequently damaging your gutters. All you need to do after a good snowfall in Colorado is step outside and listen to the trees pop to know this is a likely reality, and you should be proactive about your branches. 

Clean Debris From Your Gutters

Cleaning out your gutters is the second thing you should do once you’ve cleared the immediate area of excess tree growth. The goal for doing this is to prevent your gutters system from having any clogs before the first big snowstorm hits. If your gutters are still filled with leaves and debris from the autumn months, the ensuing snow and ice won’t be able to drain properly, and can potentially overflow. This can result in huge, dangerous ice patches on walkways, or even worse, could weigh down your gutters to the point that they begin to detach from your home, requiring re-installation. When you’re cleaning out your gutters, make sure you get all of the seeds, leaves, sticks, twigs, and any other debris before winter proper arrives. 

Get Service From a Professional

If your HVAC system was on the fritz or needed repairs, you’d call a professional, correct? The same level of professional services should also be expected to maintain your Colorado gutters. If you’re inexperienced with maintaining your gutters, or you’ve never performed a gutter washing before, or you simply lack the time, energy, or tools to do the job correctly, there’s absolutely no reason you shouldn’t seek the services of a professional team. Front Range Seamless Gutters has the experience, tools, and know-how to get the job done right, safely, and quickly. 

Perform a Thorough Gutter Inspection

While you’re giving your gutters their required cleaning, it’s the perfect time to perform a thorough examination of the entire system. Take the time to check for any damage or repairs that need to be addressed. These can be difficult to spot from ground level, to take advantage of your elevated perspective to give your gutters a proper once-over. When you inspect and repair your gutters before the worst of winter arrives, you’ll also be able to ascertain the extent of damage that may have occurred to your gutters during the previous winter season. Being armed with this knowledge can help you know what to expect in the future, and let you compare the current state to what your gutters look like in the spring.

Explore Heat Tape and De-Icing Products

There are some interesting products on the market that seek to help homeowners like you avoid the worst damage that can occur to your gutters over the winter. Some may work better than others, but it can’t hurt to explore your options. Take, for example, heat tape. Some heat tape products are designed to be applied to specific parts of gutter systems and facilitate the melting and removal of any ice dams that may occur from trapped, frozen water. If ice dams like this are left untreated, the blockage can potentially cause water damage to your roof structure. Some de-icer products can be used in the same way and to the same effect, but with a chemical compound doing the thawing duty instead of applied heat. 

Make Sure Your Gutters Are Prepared This Winter Season

There are multiple things to consider when setting out to winterize your gutters this winter. Performing these tasks as early in the season as possible, including gutter cleaning and washing, will do wonders to keep your gutters in great shape and prepared to handle everything that next year has in store. If you require any gutter-related maintenance services along Colorado’s Front Range, be sure to contact the friendly experts here at Front Range Seamless Gutters! We look forward to being the company you trust to keep your gutters functioning and your house dry for years to come.