Stormy spring weather can be more than just a slow start to warm sunny days. It can create lots of headaches when too much water gathers around the house.

Cooler temperatures are not the best times to deal with roof top issues or eves troughs that don’t drain properly. For that matter, the heat of summer isn’t the best time to be up on the roof either. This is one of those things that we all wish we had looked after before it presented its self as a problem.

If the eavestroughs are plugged up or partly plugged with debris then this can cause the rain and snow melt to back up and drain in places we don’t want it. Some time when the snow dams up the gutters it can damage them and this also can cause them to drain improperly.

The downspouts can also get plugged up and create water issues just when we need them the least. The whole gutter system is designed to drain the rain and snow-melt in a direction that works best for each house. Having the water drip for hours beside the house will sooner or later cause some sort of problem.

On one side of my house I noticed the gutter had pulled away from the fascia and I could see daylight between the roof line and the gutter. When it rains the water misses the gutter and falls directly beside the house into the garden. Over the past few weeks of wet weather this has caused the garden soil to be exposed and the plants to be dug up.

I have the flower beds designed to let the water drain away from the house so it is less likely to drain into my basement. After all the water that has fallen lately this is not working as planned, and I fear I could get into a problem soon if I don’t look after it. I have had water in the basement before from a similar issue so I know what to expect.

Some houses need the downspouts to drain the water far away from the house to avoid this vary thing. In addition to that I know that many homeowners require sump pumps to drain excess water from the basement because of issues with ground water. This is only compounded by stormy weather and snow-melt.

There are things that you can do in addition to keeping your gutters clear. You can install drainage underground around the foundation of your house to re-direct the excess run off away into the lawn. Some call the drain tile other drain pipe. It is all a type of pipe. A pipe with holes throughout that allows water in to drain away elsewhere.

It requires digging up a large trench beside the foundation of the house and running the trench away somewhere safe to drain. The cost is minimal but the shoveling is the real task. The work is worth it in the end if we can keep the water away from the foundation where it finds cracks and flows into our basements.

If your eavestroughs or gutters are in poor shape then they should be attended to as soon as possible. This is another project that is great for the do-it-yourselfer because the costs are low and the work is pretty straightforward. You can buy the parts at any home building supply and you will find they go together rather easy. There are lots of options to choose from as well as colours.

You will need someone to steady the ladder, and by all means avoid hanging gutters by laying out over the roof edge.

I talk about gutters and water in the basements all the time because this is a big issue for any homeowner and if we can avoid problems by simple repair and maintenance once again we save the wallet for something real important like a new fishing boat.