7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most homeowners, your rain gutters are not something you really think about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is very simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand just how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most homes in Mansfield. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of gutters is to create a route of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good shape, your gutters will direct runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to repair to be the cause of major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you notice a gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you should hire a gutter company for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the rain runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas around your home constantly wet 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 there is a lot of moisture in that area – a possible problem with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mildew and mold are likely to appear on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it might be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. This is a situation when the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Mansfield would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s actually raining to look for this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean your gutters are damaged. It might just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned out. In either case, you want to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the construction of your basement, the leaking might be due to any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned earlier could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters empty directly onto the ground in most cases, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it shouldn’t. This standing water can kill plants either by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed materials like mulch or rock.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is excessive moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually find water marks right beneath the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually an indication that rain water is pouring down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, 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 rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some easy ways Quick Clean Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once each year. You can extend 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 gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners choose to clean their gutters on their own, but there are many professional 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 gutter damage can often 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 wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection following 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 be replaced very affordably and quickly.
But, 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 section of landscaping.