7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like a lot of people, your rain gutters aren’t something you often think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Rochester Hills. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner has opted for copper or wood … materials that are meant to stand out! Most are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of gutters is to create a path of least resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof quickly. When they are in good condition, your rain gutters will route runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaks, 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 simple to fix to be the reason for any major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is easy and safe. If you see any of the following issues, it’s a good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you identify a possible gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you should hire a gutter repairman 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 should be. Standing water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas surrounding your home consistently soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the rain gutters or on the sides of your house. Mold and mildew indicate that there is too much moisture in that area – a potential problem with the rain gutters could be to blame. Keep in mind that mold and mildew are more likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where they’re growing, it might be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a time where the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Rochester Hills would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to discover this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned. In either case, you need to have it looked at ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your basement, your leak might be caused by any number of things. The pooling problem we mentioned before could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls will only block out so much water. That’s why it is so important 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 disperse into the ground. However, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This pooling rain water can kill plants 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 a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually see water marks right beneath the rain gutters or 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 final sign of gutter damage is the simplest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they definitely 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 any routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few simple tips Rochester Hills Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least one time each year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out regularly. Like with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the fewer issues you’ll experience with them.
The recommended time to clean gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Many 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.
Inspect 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 issues we discussed above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection after each season to ensure 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 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 might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.