7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like many homeowners, your gutters are not something you really worry about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their functionality is very simple.
It’s not until your gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you understand how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most houses in Utica. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most are crafted from durable yet 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’re in good shape, your gutters will route runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mildew and mold, 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 home and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to repair to be the reason for major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is easy and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good indication that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
As soon as you notice a possible 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 trust a gutter service for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not sending the rain runoff away from your home the way they should be. Standing water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas surrounding your home consistently soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the sides of your home. Mold and mildew indicate there is a lot of moisture around that area – a possible problem with the gutters could be the cause. Remember that mildew and mold are likely to appear on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where these substances are appearing, it may be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a situation where the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Utica would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will need to wait until it’s raining to discover this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you want to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the construction of your home’s basement, the leaking could be caused by any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned before could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only block out so much water. That’s why it is so necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Gutters pour 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. However, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it shouldn’t. This water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed building materials like mulch or rock.
Water Marks
Water marks are the first sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually find water marks under the rain gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that rain water is streaming down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is by far the easiest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they have damage. After a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your house to assess any 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 some easy tips Ultimate Utica Gutters recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time each year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. Like with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the less issues you’ll have with them.
The recommended time to clean gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners choose to clean their gutters themselves, but there are professional 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 gutter damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. Just a quick inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the issues we discussed above.
We’d recommend that you complete an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to ensure that your gutters are functioning correctly.
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 and quickly.
But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.