7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most people, your rain gutters are not something you often worry about. They need routine 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 Mishawaka. They blend into the exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a path of least resistance for rain 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 rain gutters themselves from wear and rust.
When they are damaged, it can cause 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 reason for major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you see any of the following signs, it’s a pretty strong indication that your rain gutters have some type of damage.
Once you find a possible gutter problem, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you’d rather call a gutter specialist for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the rain runoff away from your home the way they are designed to. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas surrounding your house consistently soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew mean there is a lot of moisture around that area – a potential problem with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mold and mildew are more likely to grow on the north side of a home 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 professional in Mishawaka would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s raining to find this gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your basement, the leaking could be caused by any number of things. The standing water issue we discussed before could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters empty directly onto the ground in most cases, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this water flow to help it disperse into the ground. But, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This standing 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 a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually find water marks right beneath the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a typically a sign that rain water is running 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 spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to identify any possible damage to the roof shingles, exterior, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to any routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some simple ways Mishawaka Gutters & More! recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least one time each year. You can lengthen the time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out. Like with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less problems you’ll experience with them.
The optimal time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to handle the mess or the risk.
Inspect your gutters often. Signs of 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 wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to be sure that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of an issue 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 problem go on for too long, you might end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.