Trees in the area mean leaves happen and wind up in the Gutters. Just as the roof is good at sheading the rain to protect your home the roof also sheds the leaves down to the gutters. A U shaped gutter at the roof line is great for catching rain but it also catches the leaves and debris from what ever falls on the roof from above. This is not just leaves it can be needles from near by pine trees food that birds drop, even earth worms. Water filled or wet gutters especially accumulate leaves that tend to mat down and clog the gutters and down spouts. The backed up down spouts and over flowing gutters then can damage the siding of the house, the landscaping and lead to a wet basement.
Leaves create the need for gutter cleaning
There are all sorts of approaches to dealing with leaves in the rain gutters, but clearly to maintain the gutter system is primarily caused by leaves and the rain water pushing them towards the opening. over time or with a large volume of leave the opening bridges over and plugs the downspouts and then more accumulate there and plug the gutter system. So that is what happens and every one has a different way of dealing with the situation learn more. Many systems are used to prevent clogged they range from simple screens to elaborate gutters with shapped covers to shed the leaves but capture the water. On top of this there are a huge number of tool, robots, vacuum and gizmo’s to make gutter cleaning easier.
Regular Maintenance
Leaves and debris accumulate at some rate in the rain gutters. Gutter cover systems are designed to stop debris from getting in to the gutter system. The point is, at some regular interval the gutters need to be cleaned. This can be done at regular interval or just wait until the downspouts back up or the gutters over flow. It is truely interesting how many homes do not have any good vantage point to see much of the gutters to see if the need cleaning. So if you can not readily tell and do not climb ladders have some one check your gutter or clean them periodically.
How many leaves are there on a tree?
The number of leaves on a tree is an interesting question to put things in perspective for fall leaf raking and gutter cleaning. It has been estimated that the number of leaves on a mature, healthy tree can be 200,000 to 250,000 leaves. I will take the figure to be 225,000 for a talking point. Next assumption if you live on a one-half acre lot and have 10 mature trees then there would be 2,250,000 leaves to deal with. Another source estimates the dry wieght of leaves to be 25,000 dry, oak leaves may weigh less than 70 pounds. So you could have 6300 lbs of leaves to deal with if all these assumptions are correct as well as my math. Any way this is just meant to put the whole leave clean up in perspective. The amount of material that winds up in a gutter to be cleaned out usually fills a five gallon bucket 3-6 times with a high of about 10 buckets.