Cleaning and maintaining your half-round gutters can prevent moisture damage and basement flooding. Moisture and flooding can weaken the foundations walls and floors of your home. To prevent serious damage to your home, here is how to clean and maintain your half-round gutters.
Remove Leaves and Debris

To keep the water flowing freely, you need to remove leaves and debris from your gutter especially during the spring and fall. To do this, use a plastic spatula or a soft tip putty knife to scrap off dirt, debris and rotten leaves. When scrapping off rotten leaves, dirt and debris do not drive the spatula or the putty knife too hard into the surface of the gutter especially if your gutter is made of wood. After scrapping the gutter, sweep the area and remove all particles left on the gutter with the use of a scoop device.

After cleaning the surface of your half-round gutters, check the elbow joints and downspout entries for signs of clogging. If your elbow joints and downspout entries have screens, simply remove the screens and clean off the dirt and debris. If the elbows joints and downspout entries are not screened, you need to flush the dirt out or use long handled tongs to take the leaves and debris out from the joints and the downspout.
Repair Damage on Your Gutter

Check your half-round gutters for leaks and breaks especially around the seams. Leaks and breaks can be repaired by applying waterproof sealant. Before you apply sealant on broken or leaking seams on your gutters, remove the old sealant first. To remove the old sealant from your half-round gutters, you need to apply sealant remover on the area then let it stand for about an hour. Gently scrap off the old sealant from the seams then let the seams dry completely. Once the seams are dry, apply the ample amount of new sealant.

If your half-round gutters are damaged beyond repair, you need to replace the damaged gutters with new ones. To do this, remove the old gutter then clean the area underneath. Replace rotten wood with new ones before you install the new gutter. When installing the new gutters, make sure that the seams fit snugly before you put the screws in. Tighten the screws on the gutter then apply sealant on the seams to close it off.

If your half-round gutters sag in some areas, you need to reinforce the sagging areas with the use of metal brackets. To install the metal brackets, put the metal bracket snugly under the half-round gutters then use screws to attach the metal brackets to your roof. After repairing the sagging areas of your gutter, check the position of the downspouts. Your downspouts should be securely attached to the connectors and it should be attached firmly to the walls of your home. If your downspouts are not in their correct positions, adjust the downspouts. Make sure that the water from the downspout hits the ground at least two feet away from the walls of your home to avoid flooding your basement.