7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home
If you are like many people, your gutters aren’t something you often worry about. They need routine gutter cleaning, but besides that, their purpose is very simple.
It’s not until gutters aren’t doing what they’re supposed to that you realize just how important they are for your home!
WHAT DO GUTTERS DO?
Gutters and downspouts go virtually unnoticed on most houses in Ann Arbor. They fade into the exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are definitely designed to stand out! Most are made of durable yet lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.
The point of rain 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 direct runoff away from the foundation and landscaping, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaking water, and the gutters themselves from rust.
When they are damaged, it can lead to 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 simple and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a good clue that your gutters have some kind of damage.
Once you identify a possible gutter issue, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you’d rather hire a gutter service to handle.
Sitting Water Near Your Home
Pooling water is a good sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing 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 pesky mosquitoes. Plus, it will leave the areas surrounding your house consistently wet and muddy.
Mold or Mildew
Either one of these is a bad sign, whether you see mold or mildew on the gutters or on the exterior of your home. Mold and mildew mean there is excessive moisture in that area – a potential issue with the gutters could be to blame. Remember that mold and mildew are likely to appear on the north side of a house anyway, so if that’s where they’re growing, it might be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a time when the advice and knowledge of a professional in Ann Arbor would be helpful.
Rain Pouring Over the Gutter
You will have to wait until it’s raining to notice this type of gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean your gutters are damaged. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. In either case, you want to have it looked at right away.
Basement Leaks
Based on the design of your basement, your leak might be due to any number of things. The pooling problem we discussed before could definitely result in a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only block out so much water. That’s why it is so important to keep your gutters in working order!
Landscaping or Lawn Damage
Rain gutters pour directly onto the ground most of the time, and landscaping should be designed to work with this flow of water to help it disperse into the ground. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will cause rainfall to overflow or pool where it isn’t supposed to. This 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 the first sign that there is excessive moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated into the ground. You usually find water marks under the gutters or behind the downspouts. This is a usually a sign that rain water is running 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 definitely have damage. Following a storm, it’s a smart idea to walk around your home to assess any damage to the roof, outer walls, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to your standard home inspections.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?
Here are a couple of easy ways AllClean Ann Arbor Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:
Clean your gutters at least once a year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out regularly. Like with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the fewer problems you’ll experience with them.
The recommended time to clean out gutters is in the spring, but to be extra cautious, give them a cleaning in the fall, too. A lot of homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are professional 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 gutter damage can often be visible from the outside of the gutters. A fast inspection – with both feet firmly on the ground – should reveal any of the problems we discussed above.
We’d recommend that you do 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 time and money. A small crack, for example, can be sealed, or the section of gutter with the crack can easily be replaced very affordably and quickly.
But, if you let the issue go on too long, you could end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing expensive vinyl siding or redoing an entire area of landscaping.