7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you’re like many homeowners, your rain gutters are not something you really worry about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is incredibly simple.
It’s not until your rain gutters aren’t doing their job that you understand just how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Savannah. They blend into the exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … materials that are designed 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 are in good shape, 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 leaks, 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 property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to fix to be the reason for major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you identify any of the following signs, it’s a pretty strong clue that your gutters have some type of damage.
As soon as you identify a gutter problem, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying on your own or if it’s a project you’d rather trust a gutter company to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the water runoff away from your home the way they should be. Standing water can result in mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will make the areas surrounding your home perpetually wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the rain gutters or on the sides of your house. Mold and mildew indicate that there is excessive moisture around that area – a potential problem with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mildew and mold are more likely to grow on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where these substances are growing, it might be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario when the advice and knowledge of a professional in Savannah 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 your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and needs to be cleaned out. Either way, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the construction of your basement, your leak could be due to any number of things. The standing water issue we mentioned before could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and cinder block walls can only block out so much water. That’s why it is necessary to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be laid out to work with this flow of water to help it disperse into the ground. However, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it isn’t supposed to. This rain water can destroy plants by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
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 see water marks right beneath the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually an indication that rain water is streaming 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 in the middle, they definitely have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your home to assess any damage to the roof, outer walls, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are some easy tips Savannah Gutter Service recommends to prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least one time each year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. As with anything else, the better you maintain your gutters, the less problems you’ll have with them.
The optimal 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 choose to clean their gutters on their own, but there are professional gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to deal with the mess or the risk.
Check 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 problems we wrote about above.
We’d suggest that you complete an exterior home inspection after each season to be sure that your gutters are functioning 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 be replaced very affordably.
However, if you let the problem go on too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.