A reminder to clean your gutters!

Spring is upon us and the rain has begun. The rain, brings flowers and green grass, and flooding in our basement. Our basement is not any different from others, equipped with moldy walls (tell tale signs of leaking), and a dehumidifier. Okay, that kinda blows, but it's not terribly surprising considering how old the house is and how common this problem is in this part of the country.

What makes this so much more interesting is that our landlord removed our rear gutters this winter when ice dams formed because they never thought to clean the gutters.

Okay, just to recap so no one gets lost, let's take stock:
1. The current owner of the house never thought to clean the gutters.
2. The gutters were, as a result, completely blocked and did not allow for water to escape.
3. The weather turned cold and all that water held by leaves and twigs in said gutters, froze. That ice built up over the top of the gutters, and under the first several rows of shingles.
4. The heat of the house caused some of that ice to melt, inbetween the siding and the frame of the house, and leaked in through the windows.
5. Our landlords solution for this ice/water problem was not to melt the ice and clean the gutters, but to REMOVE the gutters in the middle of winter, and with a hatchett no less.
6. Now, the first several rows of shingles needs to be replaced.
7. Much of the water that would have been carried elsewhere by the gutters, is collecting at the base of the house.
8. This water is leaking into the basement.

Is it likely that there would still be water leaking even if we had gutters on the back of the house, yes. Is it also highly probable that there wouldn't be WAY FUCKING LESS if those gutters were there? Yes.

More interesting still, when I told our landlord about the latest development in the basement, her response was "I don't know what to do about that," and "I don't think there is anything I can do about that right now." Wow...