7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like many homeowners, your rain gutters aren’t something you often worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize just how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most roofs in Woodbury. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of rain gutters is to create a path of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good condition, your rain gutters will lead runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from wear and rust.
When they are damaged, it can cause thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home and property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to repair to be the reason for any major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a strong clue that your gutters have some type of damage.
Once you notice a gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying on your own or if it’s a project you’d rather hire a gutter specialist to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the water runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Pooling water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas around your house consistently wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the sides of your house. Mold and mildew indicate there is a lot of moisture around that area – a possible issue with the gutters could be the cause. Remember that mold and mildew are more likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where they’re appearing, it may be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. This is a situation where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Woodbury would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s actually raining to discover this gutter issue. 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. In either case, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, the leaking could be due to any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned earlier could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls will only keep out so much water. That’s why it is important to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be designed to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This standing water can destroy plants by force or by overwatering. It will also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually see water marks under the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually an indication that rain water is pouring down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they definitely have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your house to assess any damage to the roof, exterior, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to any routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple tips Pristine Clean Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once each year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the fewer problems you’ll have with them.
The recommended time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are professional gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to deal with the mess or the risk.
Inspect your gutters often. Signs of damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the signs we mentioned above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection after each season to be sure 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 and quickly.
But, if you let the problem go on too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.