Daily Home Renovation Tips

In Part 13, we wrote about how our new gutters and oversized downspouts, installed this year as part of our continuing home renovation / makeover efforts were performed during a heavy rain. And, we’ve had lots of heavy rain storms this summer.

Remember that the reason we went through having our gutters replaced was because ice dams occurring not once but twice last winter causing water leaks to occur in our dining room.

So, with one of the solutions in our gutter replacement project to have wider downspouts, it would make no sense to not check from time to time that the end of these downspouts were kept clear of debris.

Here is a picture of what happened after merely 6 weeks after the installation of our new gutters and downspouts.

Yes, my wife’s husband can be lazy. So, one of the yard tasks he does not do after every mowing of the lawn is to use the grass trimmer. Just look at how thick the grass has become during that time. You can hardly see the end of the downspout because of all the grass. Not even in the closeup below.

So, even in the summer, it’s important to ensure the end of the gutter is free from debris. But, ice dams won’t occur in the summer.  Imagine if I happened to simply forget to clear away that long grass in the fall. You bet that the first time we had a significant snow fall I wouldn’t have remembered and it would be too late to clear it without a lot of work and cursing and swearing.

So, a simple trimming of the grass with our McCulloch grass trimmer  we wrote about back in July does the trick, as shown in the picture above.

What I like about how they installed this down spout are two things. First, it is sufficiently flexible that in the winter I can raise it up off the ground as pictured below. I will need to put something underneath the end of the down spout to hold it there, but being able to raise it off of the ground is nice.

Second, if I want to I can also detach it at the wall at a point higher than previous. Likely I would not do this as that would mean that the resultant water would fall down right at the wall which could if there were any cracks in the foundation lining could cause a leak into the basement. But, it’s good to have that flexibility.