Oak Tassels in Gutters, Redwood Needles, Plane Leaves: What Clogs Roseville Gutters and Causes Overflow?

The short answer

Why do Roseville gutters clog so fast?

Roseville gutters clog fast because the city is full of big, messy trees that drop most of their debris just as the rain starts. In the city's inventory, London planetree (11.5%), coast redwood (10.8%) and ornamental pear (7.4%) lead the list (Roseville Urban Forest Master Plan). The fix depends on the tree: a hand cleaning, a downspout flush, a finer guard or an extra spring visit.

Four things stack up on Roseville, CA homes in Placer County:

• Tree mix. Street trees, yard trees and native oaks along the creeks drop leaves, needles, seed balls, acorns and tassels, each in its own season.
• Timing. Most leaves fall from late October to January. Rain season starts at the same time, so debris gets wet before anyone has cleaned it out.
• Long dry summers. Almost no rain falls from June to August (WeatherSpark), so debris dries out and sits for months, then turns to sludge in the first storm.
• Roofs. Many 1990s and 2000s homes have concrete tile roofs that shed fine grit, and solar panels that trap leaves and nests.

Homes that back onto the city's open-space preserves, such as the oak woodland along Dry Creek and Miners Ravine, get the heaviest loads of all. The rest of this guide goes tree by tree, and our guide to spotting a clog from the ground shows what that debris does in a storm.

Tree by tree

Which Roseville trees clog gutters the most?

London planes, coast redwoods and native oaks cause the most gutter calls in Roseville. The city's 2010 inventory of 38,812 street and park trees, published in its 2014 Urban Forest Master Plan, shows the top ten species make up 61% of public trees. Most of them drop something your gutter has to deal with.

Two cautions on these numbers. They count city street and park trees, not the trees in your yard, where species like sweetgum (liquidambar) add their own spiky seed balls. And the inventory is from 2010, so newer neighborhoods like Fiddyment Farm and Sierra Vista aren't fully reflected. Citywide tree canopy, public and private, covered 15.7% of Roseville in 2012, according to the same plan.

Planes and pears

Why are London plane leaves so hard on gutters?

London plane leaves are big, stiff and flat. NC State Extension measures them at 6 to 7 inches long and 8 to 10 inches wide. One leaf can cover a downspout outlet, and a few wet ones seal it. The seed balls ripen in fall and “tend to persist through the winter.”

That means plane trees fill gutters twice: with leaves from November into January, then with seed balls that break apart into fluffy seed in late winter. NC State also warns of “excess litter produced by the twigs, leaves, bark, and fruiting balls.” Homes on older, tree-lined streets, such as around Old Roseville in ZIP 95678, tend to see the heaviest plane leaf loads.

Ornamental pear adds its own double cycle: small leaves in late fall, then a spring shower of white petals that clumps in the gutter like wet paper. Neither is heavy on its own, but both arrive during rain.

Needles

Are pine needles in gutters worse than leaves?

Yes. Needles are the hardest debris to keep out. They're fine enough to slip through gutter screens, and they pack into a dense, wet mat that holds water. Coast redwoods “naturally shed their older leaves each fall” (Sempervirens Fund), and they shed more in dry years.

Coast redwood is the city's second most common street tree, and many yard redwoods have grown well above the roofline. Unlike a deciduous tree, a redwood drops needles and small branchlets all year, so gutters under them never stay clean for long.

Pine needles in gutters behave the same way. Long ones lie across a gutter and catch everything else that falls, building a dam that leaves pile behind. Gray pine and ponderosa pine grow in many Roseville yards, even though they don't make the city's top-ten street tree list.

What works under needles:

• More frequent cleaning. Three to four times a year under big redwoods or pines. Angi suggests about quarterly cleaning under pines.
• Fine mesh guards, not screens. Stainless steel micro-mesh keeps out needles that slip through perforated screens. It still needs a yearly brush-off.
• Clear valleys too. Needles slide down roof valleys and collect where the valley meets the gutter.

Debris calendar

When does each type of debris land in Roseville gutters?

Debris lands in Roseville gutters all year, but most of it falls from October to January, when rain is building from 1.2 inches in October to 4.2 inches in December (WeatherSpark). A second, smaller wave of tassels, petals and seeds comes in spring.

For the cleaning dates that match this calendar, see when to clean gutters in Roseville, or browse the rest of our gutter guides.

What to do

What should I do about the trees over my gutters?

Match the fix to the tree. Big-leaf trees like London plane and oak are handled well by twice-yearly cleaning or by screen-type guards. Needle trees like coast redwood and pine need fine micro-mesh guards or three to four cleanings a year. Don't top or cut a street tree yourself: Roseville's urban forestry team cares for city trees.

In the Sacramento area, installed gutter guards run about $7 to $11 per linear foot (Homeyou). On many homes, two cleanings a year cost less than guards for a long time. We'll tell you honestly which makes sense for your trees, including whether oak tassels in gutters call for an April visit or a finer guard. Prices and service areas are on the Roseville Gutter Cleaning Pros home page. Compare options on our gutter guards in Roseville page, or call (916) 555-0123 for a price on the call and book a cleaning. We'll photograph what's in your gutters so you can see which trees are the problem.