7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like most homeowners, your rain gutters are not something you really think about. They need regular gutter cleaning, but besides that, their functionality is incredibly simple.
It’s not until rain gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you realize how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Gresham. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner preferred copper or wood … materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are crafted from durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of rain gutters is to create a path of least resistance for rain to get off your roof. When they’re in good shape, your gutters will lead runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaks, and the gutters themselves from 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 easy to fix to be the cause of major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is easy and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a good clue that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you notice a possible gutter problem, you can decide if it’s something you feel comfortable repairing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you’d rather trust a gutter company for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Standing water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the rain runoff away from your home the way they are designed to. Pooling water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and creates the perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas around your house perpetually soggy and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Mold or mildew is a sign of gutter damage, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew indicate that there is too much moisture around that area – a possible problem with the gutters could be the cause. Remember that mold and mildew are likely to grow on the north side of a home anyway, so if that’s where they’re appearing, it might just be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a situation where the advice and expertise of a gutter specialist in Gresham would be a great help.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll need to wait until it’s actually raining to find this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is clogged with debris and should be cleaned out. In either case, you need to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the construction of your basement, the leaking might be caused by any number of things. The pooling issue we discussed before could definitely result in a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls will 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 designed to work with this flow of water 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 shouldn’t. This 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 excessive moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You will usually find water marks beneath the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that rain water is running down the outside of the gutters rather than staying inside of them.
Visible Gutter Damage
The final sign of gutter damage is the easiest 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 possible damage to the roof, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to any routine home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple ways Gresham Gutter Service recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least one time a year. You can extend the time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you maintain your rain gutters, the fewer problems you’ll experience with them.
The best time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners clean their gutters on their own, but there are many local gutter cleaning companies that offer this service so you don’t have to handle the work or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the issues we wrote about above.
We’d recommend that you complete an exterior home inspection after each season to be sure that your gutters are working properly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of 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.
But, if you let the problem go on for too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.