Clean the gutters before the leaves, not after
Why before
Everyone thinks of gutters after the leaves are down. But the first heavy rain in October lands on gutters that are already half full of summer debris, and that's the rain that spills over the back edge, runs down the fascia, and finds its way into the basement or behind the siding.
Clean them at the end of summer so there's room for what's coming. Then again after the trees are bare.
What overflowing gutters actually cost
The gutter isn't the problem — it's what the water does when it can't get out. Rotted fascia boards. Stained siding. A wet spot in the basement corner that shows up every spring. Every one of those is a bigger job than the cleaning that would have prevented it.
While the ladder is out
A gutter clean is the cheapest inspection you'll ever get. From up there I'm looking at the shingles at the roof edge, the flashing around anything that pokes through the roof, the seams in the gutter itself, and whether the downspouts are actually carrying water away from the foundation. If something's off, you'll hear about it before it's a leak.
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