Pro tip: don't skip the fall gutter clean in the East Mountains, here's the $400 mistake I made
I put off cleaning my gutters last October because I figured the pine needles would just blow away over winter. Big mistake. We got that heavy snow in November, the gutters were packed solid, and the meltwater backed up under my shingles. I didn't find out until March when a brown stain showed up on my ceiling in the hallway. The roofer in Cedar Crest quoted me $400 to fix the fascia and flashing where it rotted out. My neighbor Dave told me he does his gutters twice a year, once in late October and once in early spring, and he has never had a problem in 12 years up here. The pine needles around our place don't blow away, they just sit there and turn into a soggy mat. Now I get up there with a leaf blower and a bucket before the first real freeze. If you live anywhere above Tramway with trees around your house, do not wait on this one, it costs way more to fix than to prevent. Has anyone found a good local guy who does gutter cleaning on the west side of the mountain, or do you all just do it yourself?