7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like most people, your gutters aren’t something you often worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you understand how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Revere. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of gutters is to provide a path of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good condition, your gutters will direct runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaking water, and the rain gutters themselves from 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 easy to repair to be the cause of any major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you see any of the following issues, it’s a good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you notice a gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you’d rather hire a gutter service to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the water runoff away from your house the way they should be. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas surrounding your house perpetually soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew 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 indicate that there is a lot of moisture in that area – a potential issue with the rain gutters could be the cause. Remember that mold and mildew are likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are appearing, it may be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Revere would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s actually raining to find this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned out. In either case, you want to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the construction of your home’s basement, your leak might be caused by any number of things. The pooling issue we discussed earlier could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls will only block out so much water. That’s why it is important to keep your gutters in working order!
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. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed materials like mulch or rock.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually see water marks under 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 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, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few easy ways Revere Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time each year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you care for your rain gutters, the less issues you’ll have with them.
The best time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners choose to clean their gutters on their own, but there are professional 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 damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the signs we mentioned above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection following each season to be sure that your gutters are working the right way.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing 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 easily be replaced very affordably.
However, if you let the problem go on for too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.