Gutters Archives

It's Fall- Time to Clean Your Gutters

Cleaning your gutters in the fall is the best time to do this annual home chore. When the trees are clear of leaves, it’s time to make sure your home’s gutters and downspouts are clean. I have a fall chore list that I group together: clean the gutters, blow out the sprinklers, and drain the evaporative cooler on the roof.

Excel Roofing, Denver’s best gutter cleaner, finds that downspouts are clogged more often than the gutters, so it’s important to make sure both the gutters and downspouts are thoroughly cleaned.

Gutter Covers– Excel Roofing has never seen a gutter cover system that works really well, and they do have some issues. First, they are really expensive, costing between $15 to $20 per linear foot! It’s less expensive to pay Excel to clean your gutters than to buy gutter covers. Other problems include causing water to overshoot the gutters in heavy downpours, making icing and icicle problems worse, and the gathering of debris on top of the gutter. Excel does not recommend that you cover your gutters.

Cleaning gutters is crucial because it helps keep water away from the foundation of your home. Our part of the country has expansive soils that when saturated, can cause foundation damage to your home. Basement flooding is another reason to keep water away from your home. Did you know that basement flooding caused by water coming in from the outside is not covered by your regular insurance? If you do not have flood insurance, which most of us do not, then your basement is not covered if the gutters overflow and water leaks into the basement. Excel has seen a number of flooded basements caused by clogged gutters.

Still more problems caused by overflowing and leaking gutters are damage to wood and paint. It’s easy to see where the water flows onto the wood because the paint will peel and the wood will start rotting. If you notice areas on the soffit or fascia board where the paint is peeling, this is a sign that the gutters are probably leaking, and may be clogged. It’s best to clean the gutters and downspouts, and test the gutter with water to identify the reason for the leak. If a gutter connection needs sealant, clean the area and use gutter sealant to fix the problem. Gutter sealant is different than regular silicone and can be found at most hardware and big box stores.

Cleaning gutters and fixing gutter problems is a dangerous job. If you are not comfortable working from a ladder for several hours, hire Excel Roofing to do this for you. Excel Roofing offers simplified pricing for gutter cleaning:

$199 for a one story home

$299 for a two story home

$399 for a three story home.

Don’t ignore your gutters! A clogged gutter system can easily cause thousands of dollars in damage. It’s easy to get wrapped up in other home projects, but make sure those gutters are doing their job.

Insider Roofing Tips: Hail and Gutters

HI, I’M J BRETZ, THE OWNER OF EXCEL ROOFING.

I’ve been in the roofing business for almost 30 years, and I would like to share some insider information with you about hailstorms and roofers.

Pick a local company you can trust. How do you know who to trust? Ask these questions:

How long has the company been in business?
How many jobs have they done?
What is their BBB rating?

Trust: You can trust Excel Roofing. I founded Excel in 1993. We have performed over 32,000 jobs and have always maintained an A+ rating with the BBB.

Cancellation fees: Most roofers charge a 15% cancellation fee to cancel

Local Company: We don’t door knock, and we don’t telemarket; however, this doesn’t mean we’re not interested in your business. We’re just not storm chasers. Excel Roofing are the local guys who were here before the storm and will be here long after the storm chasers are gone.

Repairs: Storm chasers don’t do small repairs. Excel has a full service repair department. This is important because

1) you want the company that installs your roof to be around if there’s ever a problem, and

2) you want them to be good a fixing roofs.

Money Up-Front: Don’t ever pay a roofer/storm chaser money up-front; you’re just asking for problems. If a roofer says they need money for material, it means they have a cash flow problem. The dirty little secret is the salesman wants money up-front so he can get an advance payment on your deal. The other reason they want money up-front is that it makes it almost impossible for you to get out of the deal if you change your mind.

Never pay any money until the job is 100% complete! Don’t give in on this one. No matter how sincere they sound, don’t pay anything until the job is complete.

Q & A: Hail

Q: HOW MUCH MORE DOES HAIL RESISTANT ROOFING COST?

A: Hail resistant roofing material is typically 5% – 15% more expensive than standard roofing. The good news is over the past 10 years, the cost to upgrade has dropped from a 30% price difference. The average price for a new standard asphalt shingle roof is $8125. To upgrade to hail resistant shingles would be $8325.

Q: IS HAIL RESISTANT ROOFING WORTH THE EXTRA COST?

A: I think so. The savings on a homeowners insurance premium will cover the cost. If a homeowner saves $250 a year on the premium, the hail resistant roofing material pays for itself within a few years.

Q: DO HAIL RESISTANT ROOFING MATERIALS ACTUALLY WORK?

A: Yes. They definitely sustain less damage from hail. The manufacturers of hail resistant roofing have done their homework and developed a stronger roofing material. The independent tests that Underwriters Laboratories developed has proven the strength of these materials. And the insurance companies are willing to offer discounts to those homeowners that do have them installed.

Q & A: Gutters

Q: HOW MUCH DO GUTTER SCREENS COST?

A: The best gutter screens can be purchased at your local hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s. If you are not a DIY’er (do-it-yourself’er), Excel Roofing can install them for $4 per linear foot.

Q: HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO UNCLOG AN UNDERGROUND (FRENCH) DRAIN?

A: This is a tough question to answer. It really depends on the clog and the design of the underground drain. Because French drains cannot be roto-rootered, often the entire drain will have to be replaced.

A correctly installed underground drain is usually about 15 feet long, the drainpipe needs to be sloped away from the house and completely surrounded by rock.

The average price to remove and replace an underground drain is $500.

Q: MY DOWNSPOUT KEEPS FREEZING. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

A: Heat cable should be installed to prevent future freezing. Heat cable can be found at your local hardware store for about $70 per 100 feet and obviously needs a power outlet near the install.

The cable needs to be strung into the gutter, down the downspout and several feet on to the ground. If the heat cable is going into an underground drain, the cable needs to be strung as far as possible.

Excel Roofing can install most 100 foot plug and play heat cable systems for $299.

It’s Fall – Time to Clean Your Gutters