7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like many homeowners, your rain gutters aren’t something you often think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but besides that, 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 for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most roofs in Mount Pleasant. They blend into the exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … building materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a route of least resistance for rain to get off your roof. When they’re in good condition, your rain gutters will lead runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, protecting your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaking water, and the rain gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and 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 see any of the following signs, it’s a strong clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you notice a possible gutter issue, you can decide if it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather trust a gutter specialist to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Pooling water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas around your home consistently 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 indicate there is a lot of 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 may just be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight. This is a scenario where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Mount Pleasant would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s actually raining to find this type of gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and needs to be cleaned. Either way, you need to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the construction of your home’s basement, the leaking might be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we discussed earlier could definitely lead to 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 good condition!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain 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 leaking gutter or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This 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 a visible sign that there is a lot of 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 under the rain gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a usually an indication that rain 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 simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your house to assess any possible damage to the roof, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple tips Mount Pleasant Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once a year. You can extend the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the less problems you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean out gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to deal with the work or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of gutter damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the issues we discussed above.
We’d recommend that you do an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to confirm that your gutters are working the right way.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of a problem before it becomes too bad can save you a lot of 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 and quickly.
However, if you let the issue go on for too long, you could end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.