Gutter downspouts help protect your home from water damage. To help clean up these downspouts, you can bag them to prevent the water accumulated from interfering and mixing with your home’s garden landscaping.
Generally, gutter downspout bags are important during roof cleaning when there are chemicals used which may harm the surrounding landscape. Let’s talk about when to use these bags and what materials we need.
When Should You Use Gutter Downspout Bags?
While bagging gutter downspouts is not recommended by everyone, it is certainly necessary to do this, especially when you want to maintain and preserve your garden’s landscaping.
Gutter downspout bags are useful during the following situations:
Maintaining the Home’s Foundation
When the water is not accumulated in downspout bags, it can erode the soil at the base of your home’s external walls. Moisture accumulation in your home’s structural foundation can cause brick and molar cracks, leading to bigger durability problems.
Collapsed Gutters
Gutter downspout bags also help prevent your gutters and downspouts from retaining too much water, leading to their collapse and detachment from your home’s fascia.
Landscaping
During your home’s roof cleaning, chemicals can harm your garden’s landscaping if the fluids are not disposed of properly. It is essential to use gutter downspout bags to protect the plants in your garden.
Recommended Materials For Gutter Downspout Bags
There are materials recommended to ensure that your gutter downspout bags are properly doing their jobs in keeping your gutters and landscaping protected and clean.
Generally, a poly tubing roll with a thickness of at least 4 Mil can contain moisture and other substances accumulated from the gutter downspouts. Depending on its thickness and width, a poly tubing roll offers versatility and flexibility in holding as much fluid as possible.
Poly tubing rolls are very durable which can work as diversion tubes and gutter downspout bags. You just simply have to tie and seal both ends of the tubing roll, and you’re good to go.
Tips On Cleaning Your Storm Drain System: Gutters And Downspouts
Gutters and downspouts are essential components of your drainage system. When they are not maintained properly, leaves and debris can clog, leading to a faulty drainage operation.
Keeping your downspouts and gutters clean and maintained can sustain their life and prevent sticks, leaves, and other debris from building up, which may lead to leaking problems.
Generally, fall and spring are the best times to clean your gutters and downspouts.
The cleaning process becomes easier when you have all the materials you need and know the complete step-by-step procedure.
Materials You’ll Need
Before starting with the main clean-up process, you must ensure that all your materials are complete. You will be needing the following:
- Rag for cleaning up
- Leaf scooper and bucket
- Garbage bag to dispose of debris
- A sturdy ladder set to get up and reach the gutters
- A pair of work gloves to prevent your hands from getting injured
- Garden hose to clean up anything that has been missed by manual labor
Preparation
When preparing to clean your gutters and downspouts, ensure that the ladder you’re using stands on a solid and flat surface. The ladder should also be adjustable to reach your desired height. It’s recommended not to lean on the ladder while you’re working; what you can do is move the ladder more frequently instead of risking unwanted accidents.
When you want to dispose of wet debris with chemicals that might harm your landscaping, don’t forget to prepare and set up your gutter downspout bags as well.
Other materials you might need will depend on the cleaning method you prefer. However, regardless of your chosen method, it’s better to have a working partner to help you clean, complete all the steps, and help keep you safe.
Start Cleaning Using Your Preferred Method
Generally, there are three methods of cleaning your gutters and downspouts. Choosing what method to use depends on the debris being cleaned out. Wet and soggy debris are cleaned differently from dry ones.
1. The Scoop and Drop Method
The scoop and drop method is ideal for cleaning out soggy and wet debris. With this method, you scoop up wet debris from the gutter and drop them on a cloth or tarp placed on the ground. As you move and reach the other parts of the gutter, the tarp or cloth also moves with you.
When the tarp becomes full of debris, you can dump it in your garbage bag or on a compost pile.
2. The Gutter Bucket Method
Another useful method in cleaning out wet debris is the gutter bucket method; it is also one of the most common ways to clean out gutters. For this method, you will need a wire-handled bucket. You will need to cut the wire handles in half and turn them into hooks.
The handle hooks are attached to the gutter, and you move them along with you as you clean the gutters. However, this method is more tiring because it involves going up and down your ladder several times since you need to dump the debris inside the bucket.
3. The Gutter Bag Method
The gutter bag method is ideal for dry debris. You also need to hook your bucket to the gutter with this method. The difference between this method with the gutter bucket is the hole you need to cut at the bottom of the bucket, where you’ll attach a garbage bag.
When you dump debris into the bucket, the debris shoots into the garbage bag. This method is efficient as long as there is no heavy debris.
Rinse Thoroughly
After cleaning, the final step is rinsing your gutters and downspouts to remove any lingering debris. You can do this by inserting the garden hose and running it into the farthest section from the opening of the downspout.
Your gutters are completely cleaned if the water from the hose can completely run through your drain system without encountering any clogs or debris.
Bag Upon Your Discretion
Gutter downspout bags are most effective when you don’t want your landscaping to be negatively affected by debris coming out of your gutters and downspouts.
While not everyone likes the idea of bagging gutter downspouts, the decision of whether to bag or not depends solely on you and your current situation.
