Not sure this goes in this forum, but have to share that it's so important to keep those gutters and down spouts working.

As I speak, there are men here cleaning and reattaching those darn gutters...AND there are men in the basement cleaning out the mold from the water that came in since the gutters weren't working.

We had inches of rain a couple weeks ago and our basement got wet. This is NO FUN.

Here's where the problem began. We had a man and his crew clean our gutters on a regular basis. Once, after they left, we noticed many broken slates on our roof. The gutter man denied that his guy walked on our roof so they wouldn't pay to have all the slates replaced. We payed and never allowed them back.

But, life became full and so did the gutters. We hadn't had them cleaned in ages. The rain came. The rain came in our basement. And now we are paying for it big time!

Keep your gutters clean!

There are just some things that one must keep clean, gutters and teeth comes to mind. Sorry for your troubles Dot, with me its my plumbing needs to be completely replaced, can we say 'poor house' ladies??? Then of course the air went out in the middle of July during a hot spell, emergency repair, can we say 'destitute' boys and girls??? Well you get the picture!

My sympathies on gutters, downspouts, and air conditioning!! Oh yea and plumbing! We had the entire house re-plumbed several years ago.......expensive at the time, but worth it in the end.......the old pipes seemed to be constantly springing a leak somewhere. Then last year we had to replace the water heater.......nothing like waking up to a flooded floor because it sprang a leak. Our air conditioner has gone out once per month in the last 3 months, 3 different repair bills.......and it's not that old either. Sheesh. Seems like when you own a house, it's AlWAYS something. Sometimes I think I want to move back to an apartment just so somebody else is responsible for all this stuff........

Dotsie, I highly recommend having the screening put over the gutters. It keeps the leaves from getting in the gutters. It costs a bit up front but you can stop paying someone to clean out the gutters so you actually will save $$ in the long run.

I had them on my last house and I was surrounded by big oak trees. The leaves were never a problem in the gutters. Now mowing and raking all those leaves....that is another story....

Dotsie I was talking to my neighbor and resident handyman this morning and he highly recommends screening the gutters. He says get someone who is limber enough to work on the roof and buy a roll of regular door/window screenig and just do a wrap around the gutters. This is permanent protection that allows water etc. to go through but no leaves. I seem to remember my dad wrapping something around the gutters when I was a kid....

Ah geez, starting over and chatty, we said no to the screens because the guy told us we would still have to lift the screens to clean the gutters a couple times a year anyway. We have lots of trees too.

Crossstitch, I think tons of people are having air conditioning problems because they never get a break this time of year. Remember to clean the filters! That makes a huge difference.