Eaves Trough Cleaning in Bobcaygeon, ON

Late-Fall Gutter Visits When Nobody's Home

Timing is the tricky part with a seasonal place. The fall gutter cleaning matters most, because clear troughs going into winter help prevent ice damming, but it does the most good after the leaves are down. For a cottage that closes in October, that usually means a visit in late fall with nobody home, and that's fine with us as long as we can get into the yard.

A full trough on an empty cottage does its damage quietly. Water that can't drain spills over the front edge, soaks the fascia and runs down the wall toward the foundation. In a freeze, it backs up as ice under the shingles. Nobody's around to see the icicles or the ceiling stain spreading, so the damage turns up at the spring opening. On a building that already deals with moisture off the lake, that's water it doesn't need.

Wind is the other factor here. Exposed cottages catch gusts off the lakes that can knock troughs out of line or loosen their brackets, and a sagging section holds standing water instead of draining it. We look for that while we're up there and handle minor fixes like resetting brackets and sealing leaky joints. A single-storey cottage usually runs $125 to $200, and a two-storey home $175 to $300. Bigger roofs and more downspouts push it toward the top of those ranges.

Pedro handles eaves trough and gutter cleaning. For how he approaches eaves trough cleaning in general, see our eaves trough & gutter cleaning page.