Clean your gutters after the trees over your house finish dropping, not on a date somebody picked for the whole country. Under oaks around Knoxville that usually means late November or into December, then again in late spring once the seeds and flower bits are down. Under pines, you look more often than that.
The twice-a-year rule works fine for a house with nothing taller than a dogwood near the roof. Plenty of East Tennessee houses sit under a full canopy of oaks and maples with a few pines mixed in, and those trees set your schedule.
Why does it matter so much here?
It rains a lot in this valley. NOAA's 1991 to 2020 climate normals put McGhee Tyson Airport at 51.93 inches of precipitation a year, with an average of 14.3 days that bring an inch or more (NOAA normals, yearly). On those days a packed gutter can't move the water to the downspout fast enough, so it goes over the edge.
November isn't a dry month either. The normal at the airport is 4.21 inches, and December's is 5.00 (NOAA normals, monthly). That's the same stretch when the oaks let go.
A cleaning calendar by tree
Look up before you look at the calendar. Here's how the usual trees around here fill a gutter.
- Oaks let go late, and some hang on to brown leaves well into winter. Clean once most of them are down, usually late November or December. Clean in October and you'll be back up the ladder a few weeks later. Acorns roll to the downspout and settle in the elbow.
- Maples rain helicopter seeds in spring. Left in the wet muck at the bottom of a gutter, they sprout. One cleaning after the seeds fall takes care of it.
- Pines shed needles all year, with a heavier drop in fall. The needles knit into a mat that slows the water and traps dirt.
- Sweetgums drop spiky balls through the winter, and they're just the right size to jam the top of a downspout.
- Oaks and tulip poplars both drop flower parts in spring, a brown mush that's hard to spot from the ground.
Our take: if pines hang over your roof, forget the calendar and check once a season and after any storm with real wind in it. A needle mat can look fine from the yard and still be holding water.
After a storm
Summer thunderstorms tear off green leaves and twigs, and those wet clumps slide to the low end of the gutter. After a windy one, walk around the house during the next rain, or run a hose on the roof edge, and watch where the water goes.
What overflow does to fascia
Fascia is the board along the roof edge that the gutter hangs on. When a gutter overflows, some of that water runs down the back side and soaks the board. Painted wood handles rain on its face. It doesn't handle water held against it for weeks.
First the paint peels. Then the wood goes soft, the gutter's screws lose their grip, and the run starts to sag, which holds even more water. The water that spills over the front lands in the same spot by the foundation each time, digging a trench in the mulch and splashing dirt up the siding.
Signs your gutters need cleaning now
- Water sheets over the front edge in a hard rain.
- Grass or seedlings are growing out of the gutter.
- There's a line of dirt splashed on the siding under one stretch.
- A section sags between hangers.
- Nothing comes out of the downspout during a storm.
That last one usually means the downspout itself is plugged. Here's how to clear a clogged downspout, starting from the bottom elbow.
Can you clean them yourself?
On a one-story house with level ground, most people can. Set the ladder on firm footing, have someone hold it, and don't lean it on the gutter. Start at the downspout end, scoop by hand into a bucket, then flush the run with a hose and make sure water comes out the bottom.
Two stories or a steep yard is a different job. So is a gutter pulling away from soft fascia, because that one needs a repair. If your gutters keep sagging or the seams drip even when they're clean, they may be near the end. Here's how long gutters last, and our gutter page covers replacement gutters.
Questions
Is once a year enough?
With no trees close to the house, often yes. With oaks or pines over the roof, it usually isn't.
Do gutter guards mean you never clean again?
No. Good guards stretch the time between cleanings, and some types handle pine needles better than others. Here's how gutter guards do under oaks and pines.
