Weed Control

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Weed Control

Take a seed… Give it nutrients, water and sunlight… And you’ll get a garden weed that will grow. inspect sacramento

I had a house inspection the other day and started my inspection by walking the roof first. My notes on the roof are mostly the same observations… damaged shingles, missing a spark arrestor/rain cap assembly above the chimney flue, and debris in the gutters.

The purpose of gutters and downspouts is to collect the rain water from a roof and carry it away from the house. This can be problematic, if gutter debris is blocking the downspouts.

How much water is shed from a roof, when it rains one inch? The formula is 1 Sq. Ft. = .623 gallons for each inch of rain. In other words a 1000 square foot roof coverage would provide 623 gallons with one inch of rain… A 2000 square foot roof coverage is double that amount… Hard to believe.

Excessive debris in gutters always suggests that the downspouts may be clogged too. It’s not every day that you see a weed actively growing out of a metal downspout. This downspout must have been clogged for considerable time before the sheet-metal downspout corroded through… And the accumulated debris decayed into a nutrient rich ‘soil’.

So how did the seed get into the downspout? Seed dispersal can occur in a number of ways: Seeds can be eaten by birds and passed in their droppings… Seeds can stick to the bottom of birds’ feet… Ants carry and store seeds… Some seeds are blown in the wind.

Bottom line: If your house is surrounded by trees, clean and maintain your gutters and downspouts annually. If you don’t like the thought of climbing up on a ladder or hiring someone to clean them out; you might consider installing gutter screen guards to keep out most of the organic debris.

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