7 Signs of Gutter Damage on Your Home

If you are like most people, your rain gutters are not something you often think about. They need biannual gutter cleaning, but otherwise, 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 unnoticed on most roofs in Hickory. They fade into the home’s exterior unless the homeowner chose copper or wood … building materials that are definitely meant to stand out! Most home exteriors are made of durable but lightweight aluminum or vinyl siding.

The point of gutters is to create a route of minimal resistance for rain 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, will protect your home’s exterior from mold and mildew, the foundation and basement from leaks, and the rain gutters themselves from 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 easy to repair to be the cause of major home repairs! Keeping an eye on your gutters is simple and safe. If you identify any of the following issues, it’s a pretty good indication that your rain gutters have some kind of damage.

Once you identify a gutter problem, you can decide whether it’s something you are comfortable fixing or remedying by yourself or if it’s a project you should trust a gutter service for.

Sitting Water Near Your Home

Sitting water near your home is a sure sign that your gutters or downspouts are not routing the water runoff away from your house the way they are designed to. Pooling water can lead to mold, weakening of your foundation, and provides the perfect habitat for pesky mosquitoes. And, it will make the areas surrounding your house consistently wet 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 sides of your house. Mold and mildew mean there is excessive moisture around that area – a potential issue with the rain 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 just be because that area gets very little direct sunlight on it. This is a scenario when the advice and knowledge of a professional in Hickory would be helpful.

Rain Pouring Over the Gutter

You’ll have to wait until it’s raining to find this gutter issue. Hopefully this doesn’t mean you have gutter damage. It could just be that the gutter is full of debris and should be cleaned. Either way, you need to have it checked ASAP.

Basement Leaks

Depending on the construction of your home’s basement, the leaking might be due to any number of things. The standing water problem we discussed earlier could definitely lead to a basement leak. Egress windows and even cinder block walls can only keep out so much water. That’s why it is so 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 submerge into the ground. But, a gutter leak or clogged gutter will allow rainfall to overflow or pool in areas where it shouldn’t. This water can destroy plants by force or by overwatering. It can also displace flower bed building materials like mulch or rock.

Water Marks

Water marks are a visible sign that there is a lot of moisture on a surface. Water marks are left behind even if pooling water has evaporated or dissipated. You will usually see water marks right under the gutters or directly behind the downspouts. This is a typically an indication that rain water is pouring 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 in the middle, they obviously have damage. After a storm, it’s a good idea to walk around your house to assess any possible damage to the roof, exterior, and gutters. These inspections are in addition to any standard home inspections.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR GUTTERS?

Here are a couple of simple tips Clean Home Gutters recommends to help prevent gutter damage:

Clean your gutters at least once each year. You can lengthen the amount of time between gutter repairs by keeping them cleaned out. As with anything else, the better you care for your gutters, the fewer issues you’ll have with them.

The best time to clean gutters is during the spring, but to be cautious, give them a good cleaning in the fall, too. Most homeowners clean their gutters themselves, but there are local gutter cleaning companies that provide this service so you don’t have to deal with 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 wrote about above.

We’d recommend that you do an exterior home inspection following each season to confirm that your gutters are functioning properly.

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 be replaced very affordably.

But, if you let the issue go on for too long, you might end up needing repairs in your basement, replacing vinyl siding or redoing an entire section of landscaping.