The importance of getting your gutters checked regularly
I think this photo is fairly self explanatory. This is part of a downpipe at the ground level, taken today at a job in Richmond. Somehow a blockage has occurred in this elbow with the presence of the seed of a tree! In it's quest to survive the tree sapling has grown out of whatever gap it could find until it started thriving with the reliable source of water the gutters were providing.
This was causing quite a lot of water damage and could have easily been avoided by having a regular annual gutter clean and inspection. We always point out any little areas at ground level that can easily be checked and cleared by the customer to avoid things like this happening.