7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like most people, your gutters are not something you really think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but besides that, their functionality is very simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go unnoticed on most roofs in Salem. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner decided on copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain gutters is to create a path of minimal resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof quickly. When they’re in good condition, your gutters will route runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the concrete and pavement and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from wear and 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 simple to repair to be the reason for major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you see any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good clue that your rain gutters have some type of damage.
Once you notice a possible gutter problem, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you should trust a gutter specialist to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Sitting water is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the rain runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Standing water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas around your house perpetually soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the exterior of your house. Mold and mildew mean that there is too much moisture around 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 house anyway, so if that’s where these substances are appearing, it might just be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a situation when the advice and knowledge of a gutter specialist in Salem would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll have to wait until it’s actually raining to find this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and needs to be cleaned out. Either way, you need to have it checked ASAP.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your home’s basement, your leak could be due to any number of things. The pooling issue we mentioned earlier could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is important to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters empty directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be designed to work with this flow of water to help it submerge into the ground. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it shouldn’t. This standing 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 sometimes left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You will usually find water marks under the rain gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign 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 the easiest to find. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked in the middle, they have damage. Following 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 routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple tips Salem Gutter Service recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least once a year. You can extend the amount of time between gutter repairs by having them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the fewer issues you’ll have with them.
The best time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Many homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to handle the work 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 signs we discussed above.
We’d suggest that you do an exterior home inspection after each season to ensure that your gutters are working properly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing 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 be replaced very affordably.
However, if you let the problem go on for too long, you might end up making repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.