Plan on twice a year for most homes here, once after the spring seed and blossom drop and once late in the fall after the last leaves are down. Under heavy oak or maple you will want a third visit, because oak holds its leaves long past the point most people have put the ladder away. The fall clearing is the one that matters most, since a packed trough going into a Michigan winter is how ice damming starts.

There is no single answer that covers every address in this area. What is consistent is that roof water has to be carried away from the foundation, and how that gets achieved depends on grade, soil and the age of the house. We would rather look at where your water is actually going than argue about whether a code section applies.

It depends on the scope and on who covers your address. Routine cleaning and a straightforward repair are one thing. Replacing fascia, altering the roof edge, or reworking where water discharges can be another. Kentwood is a city with its own building office, while Cutlerville, Cascade, Caledonia and the Forest Hills area route through township offices, so we confirm with the right one before we schedule work that needs it.

Look at how the failure is distributed. One sagging run, a couple of loose brackets, or a single leaking seam is a repair, and a good one will hold for years. Separated seams in several places, trough that has pulled away along an entire elevation, or rust and pinholing across multiple runs means you are paying to patch a system that is finished. We tell you which one you have before we quote.

Eavestrough is the older regional word for the same trough that runs along your roof edge, and plenty of people here still use it. The cleaning is identical work under either name: clear the trough, flush the downspouts, and check that water actually leaves the far end. Same schedule too, twice a year for most homes and three times under heavy tree cover.