7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like a lot of people, your rain gutters aren’t something you often think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but otherwise, their purpose is very simple.
It’s not until gutters aren’t doing their job that you realize just how important they are!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most homes in Kansas City. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner decided on copper or wood … materials that are meant to stand out! Most are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The purpose of gutters is to create a route 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 concrete and pavement 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 home and surrounding property.
ARE YOUR GUTTERS DAMAGED?
Gutter damage is too simple to fix to be the reason for major home repairs! Inspecting your gutters is simple and safe. If you notice any of the following issues, it’s a good indication that your gutters have some type of damage.
Once you find a gutter issue, 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 specialist for.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water near your home is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not directing the water runoff away from your home the way they should be. Standing water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will leave the areas surrounding your home constantly soggy 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 home. Mold and mildew indicate that there is too much moisture around that area – a potential 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 these substances are growing, it might be because that area doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight on it. This is a time where the advice and expertise of a professional in Kansas City would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You’ll have to wait until it’s raining to find this gutter problem. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that your gutters are damaged. It might just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you need to have it checked right away.
Basement Leaks
Depending on the design of your basement, your leak might be caused by any number of things. The standing water problem we discussed before could definitely result in 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 good condition!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters empty directly onto the ground in most cases, 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 shouldn’t. This standing rain water can destroy plants either by force or by overwatering. It will also displace flower bed materials like rock or mulch.
Water Marks
Water marks are a visible sign that there is too much moisture on a surface. Water marks are sometimes left behind even if standing water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually find water marks right under the rain gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a typically 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 by far the simplest to spot. If your gutters are bent, sagging or cracked, they obviously have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to identify any possible damage to the roof, exterior, and rain gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of simple ways AllClean KC Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters out at least one time a year. You can extend the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. Like with anything else, the better you care for your rain gutters, the less problems you’ll experience with them.
The best time to clean gutters is in the spring, but to be cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners clean their gutters on their own, but there are many local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to handle the mess or the risk.
Check your gutters often. Signs of gutter damage can be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – will reveal any of the issues we wrote about above.
We’d recommend that you do an exterior home inspection following each season to be sure that your gutters are functioning properly.
When you see signs of gutter damage, act fast. Taking care of an issue 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.
However, if you let the issue go on for too long, you might end up making repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.