7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like many homeowners, your rain gutters aren’t something you really think about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most homes in Somerville. They blend into the exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … building materials that are meant to stand out! Most are crafted from durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of gutters is to create a path of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof quickly. When they are in good condition, your gutters will lead runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, protecting 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 cause thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your home and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too easy to fix to be the reason for any major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a good clue that your gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you identify a gutter problem, you can decide if it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather hire a gutter repairman to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the water runoff away from your house the way they should be. Pooling water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas around your house perpetually wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew indicate that there is a lot of moisture in that area – a potential problem with the gutters could be the cause. Keep in mind that mold and mildew are more likely to grow on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where they’re appearing, it might just be because that area gets very little direct sunlight. This is a time where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Somerville 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 that you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and needs to be cleaned out. In either case, you want to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your home’s basement, your leak might be due to any number of things. The standing water problem we mentioned 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 so important to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
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. However, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This rain 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 the first sign that there is excessive moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You usually find water marks beneath the 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 by far the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they 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 rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some simple tips Somerville Gutter Solutions recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once each year. You can extend the amount of 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 best time to clean out gutters is during the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners choose to clean their gutters on their own, but there are many local gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to deal with the mess or the risk.
Inspect 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 problems 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. 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 easily be replaced very affordably.
But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.