Fall Maintenance

The amount of the roof rain gutter downspout maintenance depends mostly on the rain gutter maintenance and the downspout bottom end / its extension condition.
There’s not much to worry about if you’re living in a tree-free neighborhood, where your rain gutter downspout will (in most cases) require no maintenance.

However, every tree located close to your house will increase the chances of losing some of your valuable time on rain gutter downspout maintenance. The closer and taller the trees are, the more maintenance might be required.
The simplest method to minimize it and keep the gutter downspout interior clean is to install the rain gutter strainer. The gutter strainer will stop leafs and other debris from flowing into the downspout, and in some cases, contaminating it.

You have to remember to clean the gutter strainer periodically (depending on the number of trees surrounding your house) to prevent it from blocking the water flow.
Your rain gutter downspout should do OK without the gutter strainer if there are no trees in your area.

Clogged Rain Gutter Downspout

1. Observe your rain gutter downspout discharge while it’s raining.

If there’s little or no water coming out the downspout bottom end – check the gutter outlet first (top of the downspout / at the rain gutter attachment point). If it’s contaminated – clean it and watch if that improves the water flow.

Rain gutter maintenance is one of the most important house maintenance tasks to perform on the exterior of your property. Neglecting gutter maintenance might result in damage and costly repairs of the soffit, fascia, house wall (exterior and interior), roof decking surfaces, and other structures surrounding your property.

Rain gutters need to be cleaned more often if there are trees surrounding your house or if there are trees in the near neighborhood. During the fall, when all those trees start shedding their leaves, you may need to have the gutters cleaned several times.

Remember to perform your final downspout and gutter maintenance / check-up at the end of the fall, when all tree leaves have disappeared.

The safest method to find out how your gutters are performing is to go outside during the rain and check your downspouts.

If there’s very little / no water discharging from them, or water is overflowing the gutter edges, you have a few possible problems:

the gutter or the downspout itself is clogged – requires cleaning
the gutter has a negative slope – away from the downspout, and needs to be repositioned to discharge water properly (1/4″ slope per every 10 liner feet of the gutter will do)
section of the gutter is sagging – that happens occasionally as a result of loose nails / screws / brackets holding the gutter in place (separating from fascia board), contamination (weight of dirt, leafs and debris accumulated along the rain gutter) – requires cleaning and / or just repositioning