7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like a lot of people, your gutters aren’t something you really worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your rain 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 houses in Lawrence. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner has opted for copper or wood … building materials that are meant to stand out! Most are crafted from durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of rain gutters is to provide 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 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 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 simple to repair to be the cause of major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a pretty strong clue that your rain gutters have some type of damage.
Once you identify a possible gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying on your own or if it’s something you’d rather trust a gutter repairman to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the water runoff away from your home the way they should be. Pooling water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas around your home perpetually 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 home. Mold and mildew mean that there is excessive moisture in that area – a potential issue with the rain gutters could be to blame. Keep in mind that mildew and mold are more likely to appear on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where they’re growing, it might just be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. This is a scenario when the advice and expertise of a professional in Lawrence would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to notice this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and needs to be cleaned. In either case, you want to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, your leak could be caused by any number of things. The standing water issue we discussed before could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only block out so much water. That’s why it is so important to keep your gutters in good shape!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
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 disperse 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 standing rain water can destroy 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. You will usually see 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 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, they have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to identify any possible damage to the roof, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few easy tips A+ Lawrence Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least one time each year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the less problems you’ll experience with them.
The recommended time to clean gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Most 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 mess or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of 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 mentioned above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection after each season to confirm that your gutters are functioning correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of 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 be replaced very affordably.
But, if you let the issue go on too long, you could end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.