Now is the time to invest in a gutter guard for your Geelong home
With summer well and truly underway and expectations of extreme temperatures, the fire risk has never been more worrying than right now. The problem is the weather just keeps getting hotter every year.
If your gutters are filled with dry leaves that have drifted from nearby trees, your home will be at the highest risk of catching fire if a passing bushfire blows embers onto your roof. The leaves are exceptionally combustible, and once a decent blaze gets started, it’s only a matter of time before the whole roof could ignite. From there, the very smallest problem you’ll have will be several thousands of dollars’ worth of damage, but the stakes could be a lot higher than that.
Considering the low cost of installing a gutter guard, it’s just not worth the gamble of leaving fire protection up to fate. You should take control of the safety of your home by actively taking the measures necessary to protect it.
Dry leaves aren’t the only problem to guard against, either. Wet leaves can be just as much of a problem. For one thing, as clumps of wet leaves begin to dry out, microbial action inside the leaf clump can generate enough heat to cause the clump to spontaneously combust. This can be just as dangerous as the afore-mentioned dry leaves plus embers scenario.
Another problem with clumps of wet leaves is that over time they tend to become larger and larger. The leaf clumps can become so heavy they actually cause the guttering to separate from the roof. Once again, you’ll have costly repairs to contend with.