House Maintenance

Roof Rain Gutter Downspout Maintenance | Downspout Cleaning

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.

How to Clean Gutters and Other Gutter Cleaning Tips

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

GFCI Maintenance | Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter Testing

GFCI maintenance is a very simple and extremely important procedure. Just like many other house maintenance tasks, maintaining functional and properly operating GFCI outlet receptacles will ensure that you and your family are protected from a ground fault.

Ground Fault – it’s when the electricity, instead of following its normal path – electrical wire – passes through a person’s body to the ground. That person becomes a conductor (wire) and you may know this condition as an electrical shock.

* Never paint GFCI outlet receptacle! If you’ve just moved into the house and installed GFCI’s are covered with paint – replace them immediately. Removing paint from their surface is not enough, even if Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter appears to be responding to the test buttons.

* Never insert into an outlet receptacle objects other than a plug designed for its configuration.

* Avoid spilling liquids onto the device – it could result in permanent damage or malfunctioning.

Testing is the most important part of the GFCI maintenance routine and it should be performed on monthly basis. The reason is very simple – Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter outlet receptacles are just like any other electronic devices – sometimes they fail.

House Safety Maintenance Checklist – Do It Now

All of the house safety maintenance checklist items listed below are extremely important for household members, especially for children. While performing home inspections I’ve noticed that many home owners, parents of small children, are simply not aware about the critical safety issues in their homes. They don’t realize that sometimes things need to be updated / replaced to perform as required, and to provide protection.