Don't Leave Your Leaves!

Fall is a beautiful time of year. Comfortable temperatures, clean, crisp air, and a brilliant palette of colors all make for what is the author's favorite season of the year (this may or may not correlate with when the authors birthday is). Those fall leaves, however, can cause home owner's headaches if they're not properly dealt with.

Aside from ruining yards in which they aren't raked up, the accumulation of leaves in gutters and around downspouts can prevent these systems from carrying water away from your house when it rains. Worse, when the temperature drops and we start to see snow, the leaves along with ice can form an ice dam which can wreak havoc on your roof and interior when the weather thaws again in the spring.

So, after the beautiful leaves fall this fall, clean them up! Install a gutter guard, or clean your gutter and downspout systems out several times during the fall. As with most home maintenance issues, a little bit of work now can save you a whole lot of headache later!