7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like a lot of homeowners, your rain gutters aren’t something you often worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their functionality is very 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 unnoticed on most houses in Taunton. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a path of least resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they are in good condition, your rain gutters will lead runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from rust.
When gutters are damaged, it can cause thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to fix 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.
As soon as you notice a gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather hire a gutter specialist to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your home the way they are designed to. Pooling water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas around your house perpetually wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the exterior of your house. Mold and mildew mean that there is a lot of moisture around that area – a potential issue with the rain gutters could be the cause. Remember that mildew and mold 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. This is a situation when the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Taunton would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll have to wait until it’s raining to find this type of gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you need to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, the leaking could be caused by any number of things. The standing water problem we discussed earlier 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 so necessary to keep your gutters in good shape!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
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 gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This pooling rain water can kill plants either by force or by overwatering. It will 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 left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated. You usually find water marks right beneath the rain gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that rain water is pouring down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is by far the simplest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your house to identify any damage to the roof shingles, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few simple ways True Clean Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time a year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. Like with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less 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 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.
Check your gutters often. Signs of damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the signs we mentioned above.
We’d recommend that you complete an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to confirm that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing 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 issue go on too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.