7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are 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 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 virtually unnoticed on most homes in All Clean Auburn Gutters. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner has opted for copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of gutters is to create a path of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof. When they are in good condition, your rain gutters will lead runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the foundation and basement from leaks, 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 major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you notice any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good clue that your gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you notice a possible gutter problem, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you should call a gutter company to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the rain runoff away from your home the way they should be. Standing water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas around your house constantly 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 on the sides of your house. Mold and mildew mean that there is too much moisture around 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 house anyway, so if that’s where they’re appearing, it might 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 All Clean Auburn Gutters would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to look for this type of gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned. In either case, you need to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the construction of your home’s basement, the leaking could be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we mentioned before 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 so important to keep your gutters in good condition!
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 leaking gutter or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This pooling rain water can kill plants either by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed building 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 pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually find water marks under the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that 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 simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they have damage. Following a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your house to assess any damage to the roof, outer walls, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few easy ways All Clean Auburn Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once a year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. As 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 good cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are many local 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 gutter damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the issues we discussed above.
We’d suggest that you complete an exterior home inspection following each season to confirm 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 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 and quickly.
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 section of landscaping.