7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most people, your gutters aren’t something you really think about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but besides that, their functionality is very simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most roofs in Roswell. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of gutters is to create a route of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof as fast as possible. When they are in good shape, your rain gutters will lead runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaks, and the gutters themselves from wear and rust.
When gutters are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home 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 signs, it’s a pretty strong clue that your gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you find a gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable repairing or remedying on your own or if it’s a project you should trust a gutter repairman 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 water runoff away from your house the way they should be. Pooling water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas surrounding your home consistently wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the sides of your home. Mold and mildew mean that there is a lot of moisture around that area – a possible problem with the gutters could be to blame. Keep in mind that mold and mildew are 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. This is a scenario where the advice and expertise of a professional in Roswell would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s actually raining to find this 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. In either case, you need to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, the leaking could be caused by any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned before could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, 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 allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This water can kill plants by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is excessive 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 an indication 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 the simplest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to identify any damage to the roof shingles, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some easy tips PRO Roswell Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once each year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out. Like with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the less problems you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean gutters is during 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 work or the risk.
Inspect 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 problems we wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection following each season to be sure that your gutters are functioning correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of an issue 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 be replaced very affordably and quickly.
But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.