7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like many people, your gutters are not something you really think about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is very simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most homes in Attleboro. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of gutters is to provide a route of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good condition, your gutters will lead runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaks, and the gutters themselves from wear and rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to repair to be the reason for any major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you see any of the following signs, it’s a strong indication that your gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you notice a possible gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you should call a gutter specialist for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the rain runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Standing water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas surrounding 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 rain gutters or the sides of your house. Mold and mildew mean there is a lot of moisture in that area – a potential problem with the rain gutters could be to blame. Remember that mold and mildew are more likely to appear on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where they’re growing, it might be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario when the advice and expertise of a professional in Attleboro would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to look for this gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you want to have it looked at ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your home’s basement, your leak could be caused by any number of things. The standing water issue we discussed earlier could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only block out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Gutters empty 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. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This standing water can destroy plants by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are the first sign that there is excessive 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 gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically a sign that water is pouring 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 have damage. After a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to identify any damage to the roof, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple tips Attleboro Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once a year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you care for your rain gutters, the fewer problems you’ll experience 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 choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to deal with the work 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 problems we wrote about above.
We’d recommend that you complete 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. Taking care of a problem before it becomes too bad can save you a lot of time and money. A small crack, for example, can be sealed, or the section of gutter with the crack can easily be replaced very affordably.
However, if you let the problem go on too long, you could end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.