7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like a lot of people, your rain gutters are not something you often think about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but besides that, their functionality is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you understand how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most roofs in Huntington. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … materials that are designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to provide a path of least resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof as fast as possible. When they’re in good shape, your rain gutters will direct 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 leaking water, and the gutters themselves from rust.
When gutters 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 fix to be the cause of any major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you notice any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good indication that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you identify a possible gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable fixing or remedying on your own or if it’s a project you should hire a gutter service to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your house the way they should be. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas around your home constantly soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the rain gutters or on the sides of your home. Mold and mildew mean there is too much moisture in that area – a possible issue with the gutters could be the cause. Remember that mold and mildew are likely to grow on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it might just be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a time when the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Huntington would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will have to wait until it’s actually raining to discover this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. In either case, you want to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the construction of your home’s basement, the leaking could be due to any number of things. The standing water problem we mentioned earlier could definitely cause a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can 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 disperse into the ground. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it shouldn’t. This standing rain water can kill plants either by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed materials like mulch or rock.
Water Marks
Water marks are the first sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You will usually see water marks right beneath the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically an indication that water is streaming down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they have damage. Following a storm, it’s a good 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 a couple of simple ways Hometown Huntington Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once each year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less issues you’ll have with them.
The optimal time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are many professional gutter cleaning companies that provide 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 quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the signs we mentioned above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection following each season to ensure that your gutters are working the right way.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing 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.
But, if you let the problem go on too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.