7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most homeowners, your rain gutters are not something you really worry 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 understand just how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Strongsville. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner has opted for copper or wood … building materials that are meant to stand out! Most are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of rain gutters is to provide a route of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof. When they are in good shape, your gutters will direct runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the foundation and basement from leaks, and the rain gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to repair to be the reason for major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good indication that your gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you find a gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying on your own or if it’s something you’d rather call a gutter company to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the water runoff away from your house the way they should be. Pooling water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas around your home perpetually wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the sides of your home. Mold and mildew mean that there is too much moisture around that area – a potential issue with the rain gutters could be the cause. Remember that mildew and mold are likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are appearing, it might be because that area gets very little direct sunlight. This is a scenario where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Strongsville would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s raining to find this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and needs to be cleaned. In either case, you need to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, your leak could be due to any number of things. The pooling issue we discussed earlier could definitely result in a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls will only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so important to keep your gutters in good condition!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Gutters empty directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This water can destroy plants 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 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 will usually see water marks right beneath the rain gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a typically a sign that rain water is streaming down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to identify any possible damage to the roof, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some easy tips ASAP Gutter Service recommends to help 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 rain gutters, the fewer issues you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to handle the work or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of gutter damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. A quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the signs we discussed above.
We’d recommend that you complete an exterior home inspection following each season to confirm that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of a problem 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 might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.