7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like many homeowners, your gutters aren’t something you often think about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose 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 Cherry Hill. They blend into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … materials that are designed to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of gutters is to create a route of least resistance for rain and snow to get off your roof as fast as possible. When they are in good condition, your gutters will route runoff away from the home’s foundation and landscaping, will protect 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 cause thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to your house and surrounding 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 see any of the following signs, it’s a pretty good indication that your gutters have some type of damage.
As soon as you identify a gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s something you’d rather hire a gutter repairman for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your home the way they should be. Standing water can cause mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas around your house consistently soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the exterior of your house. Mold and mildew indicate there is excessive moisture in that area – a potential problem with the rain gutters could be to blame. 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 growing, it might be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario where the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Cherry Hill would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s raining to notice this gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It might just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned out. In either case, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the construction of your basement, the leaking could be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we mentioned before could definitely result in a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only block 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 in most cases, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this water flow to help it disperse into the ground. However, a leaking gutter or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This pooling water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It will 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 sometimes left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually see water marks right beneath the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that rain water is pouring down the outside of the gutters and not staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The last sign of gutter damage is the simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to assess any damage to the roof shingles, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of easy tips Cherry Hill 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 having them cleaned out regularly. Like with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less problems you’ll have with them.
The best time to clean gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are many local 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 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 problems we discussed above.
We’d recommend that you complete an exterior home inspection at the end of each season to confirm that your gutters are working correctly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Fixing 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 be replaced very affordably and quickly.
However, if you let the issue 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.