7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most homeowners, your gutters are not something you really think about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their functionality is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most roofs in Springfield. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a route of least resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof. When they are in good shape, your gutters will direct runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaks, and the gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home and property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to fix to be the cause of major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good clue that your gutters have some type of damage.
Once you notice a gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather trust a gutter company for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the rain runoff away from your house the way they should be. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas surrounding your house constantly wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the rain gutters or the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew indicate that there is too much moisture in that area – a potential problem with the rain gutters could be to blame. Remember that mildew and mold are more likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where they’re growing, it might just be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario when the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Springfield would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll have to wait until it’s raining to look for this type of gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned out. Either way, you need to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your basement, your leak could be caused by any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned before could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in good shape!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters pour directly onto the ground in most cases, and landscaping should be designed to work with this water flow to help it submerge into the ground. However, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This standing water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed building materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You will usually see water marks right under the rain gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically an indication that rain water is running down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is the simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to assess any possible damage to the roof shingles, exterior, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of easy tips Good Gutters Inc. recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once a year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you maintain your rain gutters, the fewer issues you’ll have with them.
The recommended time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners clean their gutters on their own, but there are many local gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to deal with the mess or the risk.
Inspect your gutters often. Signs of damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the issues we wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to ensure that your gutters are functioning properly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing an issue before it becomes too bad can save you time and money. A small crack, for example, can be sealed, or the section of gutter with the crack can be replaced very affordably.
But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.