7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like many people, your gutters are not something you often worry about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their functionality is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you understand just how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most homes in Rockford. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner decided on copper or wood … materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a route of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof as fast as possible. When they’re in good shape, your rain gutters will route runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from wear and rust.
When gutters 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 easy to fix to be the cause of any major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you notice any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you identify a gutter problem, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you should call a gutter company for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the water 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 make the areas around your home perpetually soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the rain gutters or the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew mean there is excessive moisture around that area – a possible issue with the rain gutters could be the cause. Keep in mind that mold and mildew are likely to appear 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 on it. This is a scenario when the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Rockford would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will have to wait until it’s actually raining to notice this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned out. Either way, you want to have it looked at ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, the leaking could be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we discussed before could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls will only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
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 disperse into the ground. However, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This pooling rain water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It might also displace flower bed building materials like rock or mulch.
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 see water marks under the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically an indication that rain water is running 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 simplest 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 assess any possible damage to the roof shingles, exterior, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a few easy tips Rockford Gutter Service recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once each year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you maintain your rain gutters, the fewer problems you’ll have 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 professional gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to handle the mess or the risk.
Inspect your gutters often. Signs of gutter damage can 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 wrote about above.
We’d recommend that you do an exterior home inspection following 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 time and money. A small crack, for example, can be sealed, or the section of gutter with the crack can be replaced very affordably.
However, 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.