7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like a lot of homeowners, your rain gutters are not something you really think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is incredibly 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 roofs in Louisville. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are designed to stand out! Most are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to provide a route of minimal resistance for rain to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good condition, your rain gutters will direct runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the rain gutters themselves from rust.
When gutters are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to repair to be the cause of any major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is easy and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good clue that your gutters have some type of damage.
Once you notice 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’d rather trust a gutter repairman for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the rain runoff away from your home the way they are supposed to. Standing water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas surrounding your home constantly soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew 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 there is excessive moisture around that area – a potential problem with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mildew and mold are likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it might just be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a time where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Louisville would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s raining to discover this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you need to have it looked at ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your basement, the leaking might be caused by any number of things. The standing water problem we discussed earlier could definitely result in a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls will only block out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in good shape!
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 water flow to help it submerge into the ground. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This standing water can kill plants 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 a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually see water marks beneath the rain gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically a sign that water is running down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is the simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to assess any possible damage to the roof, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few easy tips Louisville Gutters Plus recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time a year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less issues you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are local 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 be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the problems we discussed above.
We’d suggest that you complete an exterior home inspection following each season to confirm that your gutters are working properly.
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 too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.