Gutter Guard Protects Your Home From Bushfires

What are the NSW RFS’ top 3 tips for preparing your house for a bushfire?

Well, you may not be surprised to hear that they all relate to the roof of your home.

1. Clean your gutters of leaves and twigs
2. Install metal gutter guards
3. Repair damaged or missing tiles on your roof

But why are these points so important?

Here’s the thing. Even if you are still ‘far away’ from the active line of a bushfire, ember attacks still pose a high risk to your property.

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What’s an ember attack?

During a bushfire, burning parts of trees such as twigs, branches or leaves become temporarily airborne and can be carried away upwind of the bushfire. An ’ember attack’ occurs when many embers are carried by winds in a cluster.

The Stringybark species, which is prolific in the Shoalhaven, is particularly notorious for contributing large flaming sections of bark that due to their size, weight and shape, can be carried up to several kilometres away.

If an ember lands on a particularly combustible object such as leaves in a gutter or several such embers hit the house within a period of time (or even enter through a timber-framed window or under the edge of the roof), they may ignite parts of the house and eventually cause the entire house to be lost.

In fact, many property owners often underestimate the danger of an ember attack even after the bushfire has passed.

So what can you do?

As advised by the RFS, the very first thing you should do is make sure your gutters are clear from debris such as leaves or plants.

If you can’t do this yourself, professional roofing companies like Parrish can certainly do this for you. They can make an inspection of your gutters at the same time.

The next step the RFS recommend is to install metal gutter guards. There are plastic products on the market but, plastic melts (obviously) and some of our amazing local wildlife like to eat plastic gutter guard too.

As a professional emergency plumbing and roofing company in the Shoalhaven, Parrish only recommends and installs All-Flow Aluminium mesh gutter guard. In fact, this is an Australian, CSIRO-tested fire-rated product that is available in a range of Colourbond options and comes with a 15-year material and workmanship guarantee.

The more common All-Flow metal gutter guard has 3.5mm apertures (holes) but the professionals at Parrish can install a 2mm aperture mesh to make the gutters truly EMBER PROOF if it is a specific bushfire requirement.

You can contact the team at Parrish today for a no-obligation quote to clear and protect your gutters.

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Why else would you install metal gutter guard?

So we already know that the NSW RFS advise it’s use to help prevent fire.

But, there are 3 other great reasons to protect your property too.

1. Almost 50% of Parrish’s gutter guard installations are to prevent birds from entering and nesting in the roof void. Actually, it helps keep out possums and snakes too. Who doesn’t want a cleaner and more hygienic roof above their heads? Not to mention quieter!
2. It extends the life of your gutters because it prevents leaf matter in your gutters turning to mulch which retains moisture and in turn promotes deterioration
3. It improves the quality of your tank water which is, of course, highly relevant for more rural property owners

Contact the team at Parrish today for a no-obligation quote to clear and protect your home.

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